The Muslim News - Awards for Excellence Shortlist

Issue 250, Friday 26 February 2010 - 12 Rabi' al-Awwal 1431

Awards for Excellence Shortlist

The readership of The Muslim News selected and nominated them, and our distinguished panel of judges reviewed, deliberated and mused over the list and here they are. The illustrious men, women, children and projects deemed to be worthy of short-listing for a Muslim News Award for Excellence. These exemplars of good practice, excellence – our future role models – will be treated to a Gala Evening in the presence of their peers and other renowned guests in March, when the finalists are announced for the 15 coveted Awards for Excellence.

Alhambra Award for Excellence in Arts

Kareem Dennis is a poet, political activist and award-winning Hip-Hop artist who has received airplay on major radio stations and toured internationally. Performing under the name Lowkey, he was born in London to a British father and an Arab mother. Making his name at the age of seventeen through open mike sessions, his first mix CD Key to the Game won a large fan base and awards for Best Newcomer 2005 at the Lyric Pad Hip Hop Awards and in Undercover Magazine. Dennis is also a member of rap group Poisonous Poets, which won the Sunrise Poetry Slam in 2008.

Mohammed Umar is the author of the novel Amina, a moving story of a northern Nigerian woman who challenges the restrictions of the life she is born into, and in so doing, helps to bring about change for more than just herself. The book has been credited for skilfully exploring issues around faith, identity and social norms through the book’s central character. A resident of London, Umar writes with conviction born from his experience and knowledge of Nigeria. Published by Africa World Press, the book has been translated into over sixteen world languages.

Shahida Ahmed is a ceramic artist and painter. Her past work is a fusion of calligraphy and pattern influenced by her local Lancashire roots together with the traditions of the Mughal period. Her new work focuses on whirling Dervish paintings inspired by Rumi. Her art works are made of clay which are decorated with traditional Islamic art. Based in Pendle, she was awarded with a licentiateship in 1996 from the Society of Designer Craftsmen in London. Ahmed has showcased her work internationally, most recently at the Mayor of London’s ‘Îd in the Square event at Trafalgar Square.

Annemarie Schimmel Award for Championing a
Muslim Cause

Tim Cooper is the headmaster of the Widdenham Primary School in Gloucestershire. He is leading by example by building a model of community and school in partnership. During his time as headmaster, Cooper has made the school available to the local Muslim community for extra-curricular educational activities, included the festivals of Îd as part of the annual holidays and made provisions for halal food and Islamic studies for its Muslim students.

Jennifer Leeming is the North West Manchester Coroner who has championed the rights of Muslim families to have their loved ones treated with respect and sensitivity after their die. Established invasive post-mortems runs contrary to Islamic and Jewish tradition that encourages the timely burial of the deceased without the body being disturbed. Understanding this concern, Leeming has worked with the Muslims of Bolton to successfully campaign for the provision of MRI scans to be included in the toolkit of coroners as they seek to ascertain the cause of death.

John O’Brien is the Managing Director of the Mosaic, the Muslim-led, London-based initiative which under the patronage of HRH The Prince of Wales was founded in 2007 as a set of initiatives championed by Muslims aimed at raising aspirations and providing opportunity for young Muslims in our most disadvantaged communities. Since taking on this role, O’Brien has quickly seized the initiative by assembling and inspiring an ever-growing network of individuals and organisations to rally round several ground breaking initiatives to inspire and provide hope to Muslims.

Dr Gill Hicks is founder of Making a Difference for Peace (M. A. D. for Peace), which exists to communicate the importance of our individual responsibility in creating a world in which extreme conflict is ended. Gill Hicks established the organisation after losing both her legs from the knee down after the horrific bombings that took place in London in 2005. Given her own subsequent disability and the horrific things that happened to her, Gill Hicks could probably be excused for feeling sorry for herself and looking negatively at the world.

Instead Hicks and her colleagues have set about making sure that a horrible negative be used as an overwhelming positive. She has dedicated her life to looking for ways to bring communities together, to talk, to work and to play together.

In 2008, Gill Hicks and her team of volunteers set about walking from Leeds to London via Luton, covering all areas that had significance to the suicide bombings of July 2005. Hundreds of people from all faiths joined them en route coming out to
show that what sets to divide us can only do that if we allow it to.

In 2006 Hicks was appointed Ambassador for Peace Direct (Best New Charity 2005) and in 2007 an Advocate for Leonard Cheshire. Her first book, One Unknown, was shortlisted for the MIND Book of the Year, 2007. Hicks was named a Member of the British Empire for services to charity in the 2008 Queen’s New Year’s Honours List, and is both Australian of the Year and Australian Woman of the Year in the UK.

Imams Hasan and Husayn Children's Award For Excellence

Abdul-Akbur Ali is an eight-year old taekwondo champion and a nominee for the British Asian Sports Awards. He achieved his first degree black belt at the age of 7 and overall champion for two consecutive years. In his success, he has inspired older members of his local taekwondo club in Luton, where he is a club mascot. He dreams of becoming an inspiration for British Muslims, one of his ambitions include holding the Olympic torch for Great Briton and he also would like to become a hafiz of the Qur’an.

Eemman Beardon has already demonstrated immense dedication to be a writer, showing courage and perseverance to enter competitions regardless of what the outcome maybe. Eemaan chooses to write on all sorts of genres, even though those she may be unfamiliar with. She is always full of enthusiasm and handles each project head on. So far, she has impressed the libraries of her native Leicester where she has been empowered to set up a young writer’s group because of her first place win in a children’s fantasy story.

Hanif Hussain is a young Bradford footballer who has already featured for Bradford City and Scunthorpe United at youth team level while on trial. In addition to being the top-scorer for his school, he also plays for The Manningham All Stars where he became the top scorer in their debut season. He has been a nominee for the British Asian Sports Awards on several occasions and was recognised with a Bradford Young Citizen’s Award. Hanif Hussain hopes to play for his team, Bradford City FC, taking it to the Premiership, and represent England in the World Cup.

Alija Izetbegovic Award for Good Citizenship

Abbas Mithani is a Circuit Judge assigned to the Midlands Circuit. A resident of Birmingham, he was made an honorary Queen’s Counsel in March 2009 in recognition of his acclaimed academic and legal work in the areas of insolvency law and Islamic succession. His first book was on Islamic Wills and he has served as a Research Fellow at the Al-Mahdi Institute. Before he was elevated to the Bench, Judge Mithani practised as a solicitor in private practice dealing in all aspects of company, commercial, commercial litigation and insolvency work. In 2003, Judge Mithani was awarded the first ever ‘Asian Jewel Award for Legal Excellence’ for Central Britain. In 2009, he was awarded the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ by the Society of Asian Lawyers.

The Islamic Society of Britain (ISB) is a national voluntary organisation that aims to bring relevance of the Islamic faith to contemporary society. Headquartered in London, the ISB has for over twenty years sought to encourage British Muslims to take part in initiatives and activities that benefit all Britons, of all faiths and none. Its flagship project, ‘Islamic Awareness Week’, has sought to introduce and share the faith with all Britons. One of the founding-affiliates of the Muslim Council of Britain, the organisation has always been committed to the development and progression of British Muslim thought. In its twentieth year anniversary, the Islamic Society has chosen to work with the mainstream charity Barnados emphasising that all people as worthy and in need of charity and help, whatever their background.

Wakkas Khan is a dental surgeon and a community leader with senior experience in both fields. As a student at the University of Manchester he was President of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, when his term coincided with the tragic London bombings of 7/7. He led the Muslim student response, was an advisor to Government and helped set up the Radical Middle Way Project. Based in Manchester, he has since served as trustee of the Muslim Youth Foundation and has recently been named as one of thirteen faith advisors to the Department of Communities and Local Government. At the age of 29, he was named by the Appointments Commission to sit on the General Dental Council: the youngest person ever and the only Muslim to be selected for such a post.

Uthman Dan Fodio Award for Excellence in Community Development

Jamila Aftab is one of the co-founders of Humdard, a Bristol-based charity dedicated to giving opportunities to Muslim and Asian families across the city of Bristol to improve their quality of life. She helped set-up Humdard after becoming a playworker in 1986 and realised that mothers were isolated at home. Since its inception, the organisation has become a hub for all young mothers in the St Paul’s area of Bristol. For her work, she was named Role Model of the year by St Paul’s Unlimited in 2007. And in 2009, Aftab was nominated for an honorary Bristol University centenary degree, and named a Member of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honour’s List.

Alyas Khan is Chairman and CEO of Emica Consulting, a community development and regeneration consultancy headquartered in Manchester. He has helped secure funding for dozens of charities and not-for-profits across all faith and cultural groups and has led a multidisciplinary practice to advise small and large organisations to grow their business. At the same time, Khan has established the Emica Foundation which aims to tackle poverty at home in Britain, especially amongst the white working class, while also working in developing countries with orphans, the disabled and widows.

Mohammed Mangera leads a team of dedicated volunteers to assist grieving families in Bolton as they prepare to bury their loved-ones. For over fifteen years, Mangera has developed a volunteer-run professional institution that provides a funeral service in accordance to Islamic customs and laws. This has been rolled-out throughout the North-West of England. Moreover, through the Bolton Council of Mosques, Mangera has sought common cause with others and lobbied practitioners and policymakers to ensure that coroners can respect the sanctity of the body by deploying MRI scans. To this end he has achieved the support of the North West Manchester Coroner who has taken this campaign to a nationwide level.

Al Biruni Award for Excellence in Community Relations

Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra is the founder and Principal of Khazinatul-`Ilm, Madaris of Arabic and Muslim Life Studies and Chairman of Religions for Peace, UK. He was elected as an Assistant Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain in 2008 and chairs its Inter-Faith Relations Committee. He was educated at Dar-`Ulum, Holcombe, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, and the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. As a local community activist in Leicester and a national leader in the MCB, Shaykh Mogra has been at the forefront in deepening interfaith relations. He is also a member of the Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace and the Christian Muslim Forum. Through his calm and thoughtful reasoning, he has made regular contributions to the print and broadcast media articulating Islam and building bridges.

Elahe Mojdehi has worked tirelessly for the last twenty years to build bridges between the Muslims of Suffolk and their neighbours. As a founder member of Suffolk Inter-Faith Resource (SIFRE), she has visited many schools around the county, and shared her faith in secular and religious settings. She has been welcomed as a speaker in churches where she has moved people by the depth of her faith, and was the first Muslim to be invited to read a passage from the Qur’an in a Suffolk Church. Over the last twelve months she has been involved in leading a new SIFRE Abrahamic study course – Shared Stories, jointly led by a Muslim, a Christian and a Jew. She has also helped train recruits to the county’s local police force, helping build bridges between the community and its police.

Sohaib Saeed is the director of the
dialogue working group in the Scottish Islamic Foundation. Based in Edinburgh, he has played a key role in setting up the Islam Festival Edinburgh (IFe) and is the current manager of the festival. IFe is a festival that aims to promote awareness and understanding of Islam during the annual Edinburgh festival. The centrepiece of the festival is the Discover Islam Exhibition, which is Scotland’s first and at time of writing – only permanent exhibition on Islam. IFe is part of the Festival of Spirituality and Peace (FoSP) – an inter-faith collaboration, in which Sohaib Saeed represented Muslims by speaking at various FoSP-related events. In 2007 Saeed also founded the 8th Blackford Salaam Scout pack, Scotland’s first, and thus far, only Muslim scout group. In recognition he was awarded the community service prize at the Young Scottish Minority Ethnic Awards in September 2009.

Sankore University Award for Excellence in Education

Maurice Irfan Coles has a thirty-year long career in education and was Chief Executive of the School Development Support Agency. A Muslim revert, he specialises in issues related to education and Islam. A resident of Birmingham, he is founder of the Local Authority network for schools with significant numbers of Muslim pupils, is the Muslim education specialist on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Christian Muslim Forum, and the author of numerous articles on education, race and faith equality. He is the author Every Muslim Child Matters, a seminal book offering comprehensive strategic and practical guidance for schools and administrators. He is currently the Director of a community led, Government funded Islam and Citizenship Education Project geared towards helping UK madaris and supplementary schools.

Dr Nadia Durrani is the founding Editor of the leading archaeological magazine, Current World Archaeology. First published in 2000, the publication quickly achieved its own international reputation and was marked for its contribution to the field.

Based in London, Dr Durrani read Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, and then obtained her PhD in the field of Pre-Islamic archaeology of Yemen from the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. In 2008 she was elected as one of the youngest Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries. She is also the Author/Co-Author of two widely acclaimed books in the field of archaeology. Dr Durrani has done a great deal in highlighting the archaeology and ancient history of several Islamic countries, including Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey.

Ummulbanin Merali has run innovative supplementary Islamic education classes at the Hujjat Stanmore Islamic Centre for the last eighteen years, educating a whole generation of Muslim children on Fiqh, Akhlaq and Arabic. Using online resources and internet radio, Merali has developed structured syllabi to stimulate young girls as they learn the traditional Islamic sciences. Most recently she set up QFatima, an independent charitable organisation aimed to provide a modern framework for teaching the Qur’an. The initiative promotes a modular study of the Qur’an aimed to promote an understanding of the structure of the Qur’an. She is also, actively involved in the interfaith network and speaks regularly at schools and colleges to educate people of other faiths.

Fazlur Rahman Khan for Excellence in Engineering, Science or Technology

Dr Allam Ahmed is a Senior Lecturer in Business and management at the Freeman Centre at the University of Sussex. He holds a PhD in Economics, Marketing and Strategic Management with particular focus on Technology Transfer and Development. He is a Fellow and Chartered Marketer of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK). Dr Ahmed has had a wide variety of teaching and professional experiences around the world, and has consulted, worked with and provided advisory services for several major public and private institutions and international organisations such as the United Nations and the European Union.

Ahmed is the recipient of several international awards and medals for contributions to international business/management research including the Royal Agricultural College (UK) Scholarship and Prestigious Book Prize for Best MBA/MSc Dissertation. He is the author, editor and reviewer for several publications in his field.

Professor Jim Al-Khalili, OBE is a theoretical nuclear physicist, academic, author and broadcaster. At the University of Surrey, he pursued a PhD in nuclear reaction theory, which he obtained in 1989. He has published widely in his field and currently holds an EPSRC Senior Media Fellowship. Professor Al-Khalili is now a Professor of Physics at the University of Surrey where he also holds a chair in the Public Engagement in Science. He is a Trustee and Vice President of the British Science Association. In 2007 he was awarded the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize for science communication and elected an Honorary Fellow of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He was named Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2008 Queen’s Birthday Honours. In 2009 he presented for the BBC a three-part series Science and Islam about the leap in scientific knowledge that took place in the Islamic world between the Eighth and Fourteenth centuries.

Dr Haifa Takruri-Rizk is a Senior Lecturer in Engineering, University of Salford. She teaches and supervises PhDs in her current research area, mobile and wireless networking. Dr Takruri-Rizk graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Electronics and Electrical Engineering from BirZeit University in Palestine, before coming to the UK to study for an MSc in Instrumentations and Measurement at UMIST. She was then granted commercial sponsorship to complete her PhD, with a brief to design a novel transducer for the measurement of fluid flow. She was named a Member of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2009 Queen’s Birthday Honours for her work to inspire women and Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) people to take careers in science, engineering and technology.

Ummul Mu'minin Khadijah for Excellence in Enterprise

Billal Raza runs Catalyst Regeneration, a multi-disciplinary practice providing Architectural Design, Project Management, Quantity Surveying, CDM co-ordination, Structural Engineering and Party Wall services. Based in his native Birmingham, the company he runs is fourteen strong and still growing. The business thrives on employing locally and investing in the development of its employees. Over the past few years, Catalyst Regeneration has worked with several mosques seeking to regenerate and expand. Mr Raza has acted as a spokesperson for the company and has articulated, to specialist and mainstream press the needs and requirements of Islamic buildings.

Halal Fun & Games has for the past fifteen months prepared to launch to the UK market its first quality board game to the UK market. In November 2007 the game was accepted as one of the ‘Most promising entrants’ and received a place at the London Knowledge Innovation Centre based in Elephant and Castle, South London. Thereafter in January 2008 the company was accepted on a programme run by the Enterprise Enfield Business Centre, funded by the RSA Trust with a grant of Ł70,000. The programme was specifically designed to holistically support the development of founder of the company, Muniza Jan. The company’s product is now being manufactured in China and will be available in the UK market this year.

Iqbal Wahhab is a restaurateur and entrepreneur who has used his long experience to advise Government and non-governmental organisations. In 2001 he launched the multi-award winning Cinnamon Club and Bar. In 2005 he opened Roast, a restaurant and bar in Borough Market celebrating the best of British cooking with the best of seasonal British produce.

In 1991 he set up his own PR firm that specialised in food, drink and restaurants and then in 1994 he launched Tandoori Magazine. He chairs the Government’s Ethnic Minority Advisory Group. He works closely with The Prince’s Trust working with children from under-privileged schools in south east London. He is also Chair of The Mayor’s Fund for London Business Club, is board member of The Prince’s Mosaic with Business in the Community and a trustee of the Bright Ideas Trust.

Ibn Sina Award for Health

Professor Rifat Atun is Professor of International Health Management at Imperial College London. In September 2008, he moved to Geneva to be seconded to the Executive Management Team of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as the Director of Strategy, Policy and Performance Cluster. He is the author of books on Health Systems and Communicable Disease Control, The European Medical Technology Sector, and Innovation in the Biopharmaceutical Sector. He has worked extensively with governments and international government organisations and agencies to design, implement and evaluate health systems and primary care strengthening programmes. Professor Atun studied medicine as a Commonwealth Scholar at University of London and undertook his postgraduate medical studies in London. He completed the Executive MBA programme at Imperial College and was awarded the Director’s Prize.

Professor Mustafa Bilgin Ali Djamgoz is Professor of Cancer Biology at Imperial College London. He came to the UK having secured a British Council scholarship. He entered Imperial College in 1971 to study Physics and in 1974 he graduated with first class honours and became an Associate of the Royal College of Science. He went on to an academic career and won the Huxley Memorial Medal for his work on the brain which had significant implications on understanding diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. His concern for the subject led him to establish the Prostate Cancer Research Fund and raise awareness of the disease amongst his native Turkish community. He is currently working with the Macmillan Cancer Relief Fund and the Department of Health to examine ways to improve detection and prevention amongst ethnic minority communities.

Sohail A Khan is a Consultant Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgeon at Hope University Teaching Hospital in Manchester. Currently he runs the Limb Reconstruction Unit at Hope Hospital, one of only ten in the UK. Following the Pakistan earthquakes in 2005, Mr Khan founded MiST (Mobile International Surgical Teams), which is an organisation that helps the injured after natural and manmade disasters. He took a team out to Pakistan and organised other teams to follow in rotation, so that there was continuity of care for the victims of the quake. With this idea, Khan set up a long term Surgical Limb Reconstruction Unit in Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad, NWFP, Pakistan. Since then, MiST has extended its reach to other emergency areas, most recently in Gaza. Khan has taken unpaid leave from March 2010 to go and work in Gaza as a visiting Professor and help set up an Orthopaedic and Trauma service for the Gaza strip.

Faezeh Hashemi Award for Excellence in Sport

Jawaid Khaliq is a boxer who until recently held the International Boxing Organisation’s (IBO) welterweight world champion title. He grew up in Reading and started boxing at the age of sixteen. He made a real impact in the amateur boxing world by winning the A.B.A championships and fighting for England in a very short space of time. He turned professional at the age of twenty-seven and won the IBO title after defeating the American Willy Wise. Khaliq went on to defend his title six times and received a 22 carat gold ring with his name as the world champion engraved on it – an honour previously bestowed to only the former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis and great Roy Jones Jr. Today, Khaliq runs his own boxing and fitness academy in Nottingham.

Azeem Rafiq is an 18 year old cricketer who has had an outstanding county form and recently made his debut Championship season with Yorkshire and captaincy of England Under-19s. Rafiq was born in Pakistan and moved to England in 2001, he attended Holgate School near his home of Barnsley, and played cricket for Barnsley Cricket Club. He was called up for the England Under-15s, which he captained, and currently plays for Yorkshire Cricket Club’s academy team, where he was named as Junior Performer of the Year. He has been earmarked as a future England bowler and was the recipient of a Sport England award in 2006, Yorkshire CCC Academy Player of the Year in 2008 and was voted BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year for Yorkshire in 2006.

Kolo Abib Touré captains English Premier League club Manchester City and plays for the Ivorian national team. He previously played for Arsenal, where Touré helped the team win the FA Cup, Premier League and Community Shield. He was also runner up with Arsenal in a number of other competitions in which they took part. For his country, the Ivory Coast, he was runner up in the African Cup of Nations in 2006. With humble beginnings from his native Ivory Coast, Touré has not allowed the glitz and glamour of the Premier League to get to him, crediting his faith and spirituality for his success. This was most notably displayed in Ramadan where he insisted on both fasting and playing superbly for his team.

Ibn Khaldun award for excellence in promoting understanding between global cultures and faiths

Professor Abdul Rashid Gatrad is a consultant paediatrician at the Manor Hospital in Walsall, West Midlands, is a nationally and internationally recognised expert in the field of trans-cultural medicine, and has engaged in international humanitarian health aid for over thirty years. His medical career has included 18 months in Malawi at a Catholic mission hospital, where he helped set up a nutritional fund for orphans of the AIDS epidemic. He has also assisted in international disaster-emergency areas. He has been instrumental in establishing a 250 bed orphanage in India. In recognition of such work local and international work Rotary International awarded him the Paul Harris Fellowship. In 2000 he was named an Officer of the British Empire for his contribution to paediatrics and minority ethnic groups in the West Midlands. He is also the author of numerous other awards divested by his peers. Professor Gatrad has also co-authored (with Professor Aziz Shaikh) Caring for Muslim Patients and advises the Muslim Council of Britain’s Research & Documentation Committee.

Roshni Hafeez is Development Manager of Inclusion Scotland, a national disability charity where her post involves empowering and developing user-led campaigning groups of disabled people. She brings her own experience as a blind person to head up a project supporting Asian disabled people based at the Glasgow Centre for Inclusive Living. Hafeez developed a determination to understand and build bridges when she was a BBC journalist, and pursued this when she went to Pakistan to work for a radio station and learn Urdu. She then became a Muslim twelve years ago. When not at work, Hafeez runs an international internet based resource for New Muslims, is Vice Chair of the Shia Council for Scotland, and is the Scottish Representative for Transatlantic Network 2020, an international think tank headed by the British Council designed to create improved cultural relations and links between both continents. She is also a committee member of Revert Muslims Association.

Salma Abbasi is the Chairperson and CEO of E-World Wide Group, a dynamic consortium of thirty-seven successful companies, universities and organisations focused in key strategic areas. Abbasi was also named Senior Research Associate Fellow at King’s College, University London, where she is engaged in an initiative for the establishment of a centre of excellence focused on leadership for women in the Gulf. Her international work encompasses initiatives to empower women around the world. Most recently, Abbasi partnered with UNESCO to drive their power of peace initiative using ICTs for preventing hate and discrimination and promoting ‘peace, understanding and harmony’ in the world. She sponsored and hosted the second global conference for the power of peace in Bangkok in partnership with UNESCO and the Thai Government. She is developing a network of global ‘youth ambassadors’ from schools and universities in England, Thailand, France, Pakistan, Canada and US to drive the Prevent agenda and support the appreciation of diversity and peace in the world.

Ibn Battuta award for excellence in media

Shelina Zahra Janmohamed is author of the highly acclaimed book Love in a Headscarf, an irreverent and humorous memoir of growing up as a Muslim woman. It has already been translated into six languages as well as rights being sold for a film, Shelina is the award-winning blogger at spirit21.co.uk which covers issues to do with Muslims in the contemporary world, and in particular around Muslim women and gender. She writes for The Guardian, The Times, The National and EMEL Magazine. She is a trustee for the Windsor Fellowship, one of the UK’s oldest charities tackling issues of race inequality. She was nominated by The Times newspaper as one of the UK’s 100 most influential Muslim women, and has been named as one of the 500 most influential Muslims in the world.

Iqbal Tamimi is a Palestinian journalist originally from Hebron with over seventeen years experience in the media. She is the creator of the vibrant activist network Palestinian Mothers which offers current information about events in Palestine to over 700 group members. This initiative provides accessible media directly to mothers wanting peace and safety for their families through their bond as mothers. She set up the first Arabic local radio programme in Birmingham. She is a member of the Exiled Journalists network based in the University of West of England where she is also undertaking an MA in International Journalism and Democracy, and a member of the Arab Women Media Centre based in Amman Jordan.

Faisal Al Yafai is an award-winning journalist who writes for The Guardian, EMEL Magazine and the National, covering politics, international relations as well as the Muslim community, writing from both London and the Middle East. He has consistently demonstrated excellence in representing Muslims, and engages with issues in an accessible and balanced manner. Al-Yafai has also been awarded the Churchill Travelling Fellowship, and is currently using this opportunity to travel internationally to explore the topic of Muslim women and Islam.

Malcolm X Young Person’s Award for Excellence

Bilal Hassam was born and raised in Leicester and is currently a final year Medical Student at the University of Nottingham. In spite of a very busy study schedule, he has managed to lead an active extra-curricular career, taking part in student affairs, and being involved in civic action. As President of the University’s Islamic Society, he presided over novel initiatives such as World Aids Day, Islamic Awareness Week and numerous educational programmes. He then took part in the national activities of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS), serving on its national executive.

In 2009 at Lambeth Palace, he became the youngest graduate of the ‘Faith in Leadership’ programme. He was also selected by the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and the Inter-Faith Youth Core (Chicago) to serve as one of thirty Inter-Faith Youth ambassadors for the UN Millennium Development Goals. Following two months training, which spanned three continents, Bilal is now working as a ‘Faiths Act Fellow’ with colleagues across the UK, US and Canada.

Muslim Youth Skills (MYS) is a grass roots project that caters for all professionals who are working with young people. Various courses are run by the project in conjunction with and accredited by the University of Chester. This has allowed professionals from community and voluntary as well as statutory organisations to gain the necessary skills required to work, empower and unlock the potential of young people especially those coming from a Muslim heritage. This project has allowed professionals in different fields to re-evaluate their own prejudices before becoming judgemental and reinforcing common misconceptions and stereotypes that are prevalent in today’s turbulent environment.

Through its website, newsletter and growing network, MYS has become a clearinghouse of good practice for those wishing to work with the next generation.

Zain Haider Awan is a Deputy Member of the Youth Parliament, representing the young people of Peterborough. He has been part of the Muslim youth forum set up by the greater Peterborough partnership, tackling violent extremism panel, and represented the views of British young Muslims. He also sits on the youth committee of his local mosque, helping to organise events and various discussions. In addition, Awan has been involved in interfaith events between mosques and churches. He currently is volunteering as head of media for the United Nations Day of Peterborough. Awan is also working on a YMCA project entitled ‘Not in our name’, which sets to explore the issue of extremism. He has worked as a volunteer for the Interfaith Council of Peterborough. He is also the campaign Director with the chair of the youth council of the award winning campaign Fair Fares for Peterborough