This year we moved our annual Eid reception to the prestigious Cinnamon Club which is in the Old Westminster Library, Great Smith St, Westminster.

We had a capacity attendance of over 70, who heard a glittering array of speakers who are listed below in alphabetical order:

• Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne,
• Bob Blackman, MP for Harrow East,
• Chris Philp, MP for Croydon South,
• Lord Sheikh of Cornhill, President of the CMF,
• Shaun Bailey, Conservative Candidate for London Mayor 2020,
• Sir Mick Davis, CEO of the Conservative Party.

CMF Executive members Suzy Webb acted as the Master of Ceremonies.

The speakers stressed the importance of political engagement by all parts of society, and the fact that the Conservative Party welcomes people from all backgrounds.

It is a sign of the great commitment of the CMF’s friends that Stephen Kerr, MP for Stirling, who had been scheduled to speak but was unavoidably delayed, made a point of attending, and speaking individually to a large number of the guests.

As with all CMF events, we commenced with a Quran recitation, given as on many previous occasions by Imam Shakeel Kunwar. He recited Quran 2:136 in Arabic, and then gave the English translation below:

So [you believers], say, ‘We believe in God and in what was sent down to us and what was sent down to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes, and what was given to Moses, Jesus, and all the prophets by their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and we devote ourselves to Him.’

From “The Qur’an – a new translation” by MAS Abdel Haleem

The CMF chose this verse for the Quran recitation because it reminds us how much Islam, Christianity and Judaism have in common.