Annual Community Leadership Awards

Annual Community Leadership Awards

And Gala Dinner

Dr. Mozammel Haque

An Annual Community Leadership Awards & Gala Dinner, organised by Community Leadership Foundation in Partnership with SOAS University of London, supported by Connecting Communities was held at The Royal Regency, Manor Park, on Tuesday 12^th December 2017. This Community Leadership Awards were given to those Muslims who have been doing good works in the community also acknowledging the services and contributions.

Dr. Ahmad al-Dubayan, Director General of the Islamic Cultural Centre & London Central Mosque, was given an Award for his excellent leadership role in the British Muslim community and the role of the Islamic Cultural Centre, London. The Award was presented by H.E. Saud Al-Hamdan, Head of the Islamic Affairs of the Saudi Embassy in London.

Barrister Abid Hussain finally announced: “Our final penultimate speaker is Lord Nazir Ahmed of Rotherham. He chooses to draw the lines what he feels what he thinks right; and he speaks for justice and against injustice. Unfortunately last year he had to fly out and I had to take this opportunity to ask what it is meant to give him the award that you should have last year for riding support for locally nationally and internationally.”

While giving the Award to Lord Ahmad, Barrister Abid said, “This is from SOAS University Professor Ornament Tea Award giving to Lord Ahmad for what he should have and now round of applause for our keynote speaker Lord Nazir Ahmad.”

Keynote Address at Leadership

Award Event Lord Nazir Ahmed

While delivering his keynote address, Lord Nazir Ahmed of Rotherham, Peer of the House of Lords of the British Parliament, mentioned, “I had the honour of hosting this event for many years in the House of Lords. Community Awards SOAS and the community had been training the Awards and I had been proud of hosting this because I think the community needs to be recognised. You know in the United Kingdom and here in Europe and the United Kingdom our community has made a huge contribution whether it is in the field of economic development political development social and communities we have done lots of works.”

Lord Ahmed said, “The point that I wanted to make that the contributions I remind people that after the Second World War when they destroyed this country and the Bangladeshi community in East London and Afghanis, Pakistanis, Turkish and all the diasporas who are here tonight we are proud that our forefathers, our elders, made a contribution in the society and made this country the richest country today.”

“I am reminding when some people were asking us we should issue some sort of Fatwa against those people who believe in Caliphate.  We also related to the verses in the Holy Bible and I said that no religion no religion actually promote violence; even I say; we used to believe the Buddhism; the Buddhist religion is the most peaceful religion on earth and get what you see in Burma you would be horrified to see nearly a million Muslims have been driven out of their homes. Ten thousands who have been killed; thousands and thousands of women who have been raped,” mentioned Lord Ahmed in his keynote speech.

Lord Ahmed also described his visit to Bangladesh, to Cox’s Bazaar just on the line of the border where the river is. He mentioned, “I see those one thousand children; that ten thousand children; have come across this river to save their lives. Children don’t leave their parents or their homes if they were not afraid of their lives. I saw an old woman probably the same age of my mother who had broken arms, not but actually broken into two pieces; bruises are not fake. I saw and I met with a eleven or twelve year old girl; it is not only flesh, she will be okay; but when I realise on the side of her leg, the bones were coming out of her and when I asked her, she said that the Burmese had thrown her on the fire; because the Burmese army had burnt their house and threw them on the fire and also killed her parents.”

Lord Ahmed also narrated the horrific events that were happened to the Rohingya refugees. He mentioned, “When I was distributing food, I asked some young women: how many they have seen people have been murdered. Three women, barrister shahab was there; three women, young women, 18, 20 years old they stood up and said my husband was killed. There were many; they said, their mothers and sisters have been raped. So what are the points I am making even if you have the most peaceful religion on earth; those who use and abuse nationalism with religion; they cause disaster for all of us; whether Christians - Donald Trump is a Christian but do you believe what he does and what he practices.”

Going back to the topic of Khalifat, Lord Ahmed again mentioned, “Both Lord Qurban said and I tried to give them proper kind of answer because so many had spoken about these young Muslims or these fanatic who wanted to live in a Khilafat and they wanted to have a khilafah like in Turkey, the Ottomans and I told them that there is no such thing like khilafah after the four Caliphs – Sayyidana Abu Bakr, Sayyidana Omar, Sayyidana Osman and Sayyidana Ali. There were the Ottoman Empire, Mughal Empire, there were North African Empire. I told them that the Prophet peace be upon him sent his companions to Abyssinia and then one hundred joined them in Abyssinia who lived under a Christian ruler and they were allowed to practice their religion very fairly like the European countries and the United States live peacefully amongst other communities. And we have no problem whatsoever.”

“Therefore those fanatics, those extremists from all sides, whether they are from my religion or from any other religion, create hatred. They wanted to create hatred; they wanted to create wall, they wanted to create distance, divisions; so we want to stand together and be proud of the contributions that our communities make on daily basis in East London, in Greater London, in Yorkshire, in Scotland; all of you who have come here,” said Lord Ahmed.

Then Lord Ahmed expressed his thanks to Barrister Abid, his team and SOAS. He said, “You have attended all the awards in the House of Lords. It is a very small place and there was a smaller sort of celebrations. This is a huge gathering of the community and I am very proud to be with you tonight. Thank you Barrister Saheb; thank you. But I want to say how proud I am all of you for the contributions that you make at every level whether in this country, whether in economy, or in political life; social life; there are many doctors in the National Health Service; NHS would not be as good as it is today without the works of Asians and Muslim doctors today. So all of you together we make contributions and thank you for recognising the great works there are and please continuing doing hard work and we wanted to come back next year even celebrate many more of you.”