As the table on our page Muslim demographics by constituency shows, the 2011 Census found that Luton South is 25.3% Muslim and Luton North is 22.4% Muslim. In 2015 Labour held both seats, Luton South by 5,711 votes and Luton North by 9,504 votes.

Both are challenging seats for the Conservative Party to win, but could be dramatically turned around if their Muslim voters recognised that the Conservative Party is much more closely aligned with their values than is the Labour Party.

On 5 March 2016 Basit Mahmood, Chairman of Conservative Future Luton arranged for CMF Chairman Mohammed Amin to talk to Luton Conservatives at Beech Hill Conservative Club on Leagrave Road, Luton about how to extend their appeal to Muslim voters. Basit himself exemplifies the changing demographics of Luton; born in the UK, he is a Cambridge University graduate and has no doubts the Conservative Party is the right party for him and for his fellow citizens.

The audience of about a dozen comprised both Muslims and non-Muslims. The format allowed a high level of engagement, both during the question and answer session after Mohammed Amin’s short talk and during the delicious food that had been organised. In particular the format allowed Mohammed Amin to share some concrete suggestions on how to deal with objections.

Basit is seated chairing the meeting in the photograph below while Mohammed Amin is speaking.

On 29 February 2016, the Conservative Muslim Forum for the first time held an event jointly with Conservative Friends of Israel. The purpose was to showcase the work of an Israeli NGO, Merchavim, and the Parliamentary host and event chairman was Bob Blackman, MP for Harrow East.

Merchavim is an organisation that works to build shared citizenship in Israel. We co-organised this event to enable MPs and other citizens to learn more about the complexities of Israeli society. As Merchavim themselves say:

“Israel’s 8 million citizens face exceptional society-building challenges, among them; great diversity, deep disagreements, low social cohesion, a still short democratic history.”

Many people forget that about 20% of Israel’s citizens are Muslims whose full integration into Israeli society is important both for their own well-being and for Israel as a whole.

There were three speakers from Merchavim, introduced by British Friends of Merchavim Chair Errol Rudnick:

• Abeer Halabi was born and resides with her husband and two adult children in the Druze Arab village of Daliyat al Carmel, Mount Carmel, near the city of Haifa. She holds a Master’s degree in Social Work and has extensive experience leading diverse groups of women and conflict resolution groups. Additionally she is a member of the 2014 cohort of The Mastery Foundation community empowerment course for international leaders. Abeer is a Merchavim group facilitator.
• Roi Maor holds a Master’s degree in History from the Tel Aviv University. In the past he has held roles in senior management, resource development and financial management for a number of leading Israeli human rights organizations. Roi holds the dual role of Chief Financial Officer and Deputy Executive Director at Merchavim. Roi is married to Maya Maor, PhD, and the couple resides in Tel Aviv.
• Ruth Madar was born in Tel Aviv and makes her home with her husband and six children in the settlement of ‘Hemdat’ in the Jordan Valley. Ruth has a BA in Educational Counselling and Bible Studies and is a graduate of the Jeanie Schottenstien Center for Advanced Torah Study for Women – Nishmat. She holds a Master’s degree in Therapy and Movement and works as an educational counsellor, group facilitator and Education Coordinator at Merchavim.

After the speakers had presented the work that Merchavim is doing, there was an extended question and answer session, chaired by Bob Blackman MP.

Pictured below, from the left, are Abeer Halabi, Roi Maor, Ruth Madar and Bob Blackman MP.

On 22 February Conservative Party Chairman Lord Feldman of Elstree and CCHQ Director of Outreach Colin Bloom hosted a reception for the Party’s affiliated groups, colloquially referred to as “Friends of” groups from many of them having names such as “Conservative Friends of [country name]”. The category also includes such groups as the Conservative Christian Fellowship and the Conservative Muslim Forum.

They were emphatic about recognising the tremendous value which the affiliated groups bring to the Conservative Party.

It was also an opportunity to remind everyone about how they can support Zac Goldsmith’s campaign for election as Mayor of London. The easiest way to get involved is to register with https://backzac2016.com/

The CMF was represented by its Executive Secretary Shaheen Thantrey, photographed below with Zac Goldsmith.

The key to winning elections is getting your supporters to turn out and vote. If they don’t vote, it doesn’t matter how much they may want you to win. Only ballots in the box count!

On Saturday 9 January 2016 the Conservative Muslim Forum’s Chairman Mohammed Amin was doing his bit, by spending two cold hours knocking on doors near Gants Hill Underground Station. He was campaigning for Zac Goldsmith to be elected as Mayor of London and Cllr Keith Prince to be elected to the London Assembly.

You can join the Zac Goldsmith campaign at BackZac2016

In the picture below:

• Mohammed Amin is in grey on the far right keeping his head warm with the black cap.
• Cllr Keith Prince is the brave man in the front row in the blue shirt.
• The Chair of Zac’s Mayoral campaign, Nick de Bois, is standing in the back row in front of the door, not holding a placard.

On Thursday 10 December 2015 CMF President Lord Sheikh hosted an educational talk by distinguished arthritis specialist Professor Ian Bruce exploring the question “Precision Medicine : An Achievable Goal?”

The event in Committee Room 4 at the House of Lords was attended by over 50 guests. They all came to listen to Professor Ian N Bruce MD FRCP, Professor of Rheumatology at The University of Manchester, who is also Director of the NIHR Manchester Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Unit at Central Manchester University Foundation Trust.

Professor Bruce gave a fascinating presentation, with slides, discussing how precisely can diseases be treated in a way that is specific to the individual patient. He gave an in depth analysis of research in Rheumatology and the fact that there are 8 million people affected by the disease. Despite the complexity of the subject, Professor Bruce managed to make it accessible to the layman.

Professor Bruce alos talked about how research in the UK is fundedm and gave a breakdown of the various research being done by Medical Research Council  and the National Institute of Health Research. Whilst the NHS’s total budget is over £100 billion, the share devoted to research is under 3%.

For most people, the most fascinating part of the evening was listening to Professor Bruce on the general theme of medication. He he talked about medicine being “partly art, partly science.” Most drugs prescribing is on a trial and error / best guess basis, using the likely benefit to the average person. He talked about “personalised medicine” which would target the medicine to the individual patient, and “stratified medicine” which groups patients into categories to assess which medicine to use, being intermediate between using data for the average person and data for the specific individual.

The event was chaired by Dr Alam Ara Khan, Imam Ali Omar of the Greenwich Islamic Centre opened the event with a Quran recitation and CMF Chairman Mohammed Amin gave the vote of thanks.

On 17 November 2015 CMF President Lord Sheikh hosted an interfaith event in the House of Lords to mark National Interfaith Week 2015.

The theme was “Building Interfaith Trust to strengthen community relations, Promoting peace and harmony amongst faith communities.” The event was well attended by guests from different faiths and communities.

Lord Sheikh welcomed the guests and then requested the guest speakers to pray for the victims of the previous Friday’s tragedy in Paris. He then called upon everyone present to observe a minute silence.

Mrs. Ajantha Tennakoon , Executive member of CMF then acted as the Master of Ceremonies.

The speakers in the order they spoke were:

1. Revd. Dr. James Walters -Chaplain, Interfaith Adviser and a Senior Fellow of the LSE Institute of public Affairs
2. The Venerable G.B. Kassapa Maha Thero – a Buddhist Monk, born as Mr. Shelley Bruce Miles in Kensington, London
3. Rebbetzin Vicki Belovski – Rebbetzin of Golders Green United Synagogue, Freelance Editor, Journalist and a member of Nisa Nashim, the Jewish Muslim women’s Network
4. Dr. Tariq Abbasi MBE – Director of Greenwich Islamic Centre
5. Dr. Sunil Kariyakarawana – Buddhist Chaplain to Her Majesty’s Armed Forces at the Ministry of Defence

After the speeches there was a lively question and answer session chaired by Lord Sheikh, after which CMF Chairman Mohammed Amin proposed the Vote of Thanks.

Below is a photograph of the speakers and organisers together. From right to left they are:

1. The Venerable G.B. Kassapa Maha Thero
2. Tariq Abbasi MBE
3. Rebbetzin Vicki Belovski
4. Lord Sheikh
5. Mrs Ajantha Tennakoon
6. Revd. Dr. James Walters
7. Dr. Sunil Kariyakarawana
8. Mohammed Amin

Below is a picture of the audience, which filled the room.

Paris is a city that many of us know and love. Last night Parisians were out in restaurants, watching a football match, attending a rock concert; things that many of us and our children do. Suddenly over 120 of them were killed by gunmen using automatic weapons and detonating suicide vests. Many more were wounded, and the death toll is likely to rise.

The Conservative Muslim Forum is shocked and horrified by such callous killings. Our prayers are with the families of those killed, and for the recovery of those wounded.

The attackers were well armed, coordinated, and had clearly been trained. This morning, eye witness accounts are emerging. The killers are reported to have invoked the conflict in Syria and Iraq as justification, and pervertedly invoked God’s name while firing on their victims.

Those who planned this attack must have aimed to terrorise French society, and to foment hatred between French people of different religions.

Accordingly we all need to remember that the innocent victims of last night’s killings will include French Muslims, and that amongst the policemen and soldiers who came to protect the citizens of Paris will also be French Muslims. We call upon the people of France to reaffirm their refusal to be divided, as Londoners did after the terrorist attacks we experienced on 7 July 2005.

Ever since the Mumbai attacks seven years ago, our Government has prepared for the risk of such attacks, aimed at causing mass casualties amongst dispersed civilian targets. We need to give it every assistance, and to support the intelligence gathering that has foiled many attempted terrorist attacks. Also, as Prime Minister David Cameron and Home Secretary Theresa May have said, we need to assist the Government in rooting out the pernicious ideology that underlies such terrorism.

A star line-up of speakers gathered in Tooting on the evening of Thursday 12 November to talk to local residents about their experience of being a councillor and local campaigning. The event was organised by Dan Watkins, Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman for Tooting, and supported by local mosques and the CMF, to encourage greater involvement of the Muslim community in local politics.

The event was held at Mushkil Aasaan’s community hall and was open to all, with 50 people attending. A local welcome was given by Sir Iqbal Sacranie, Chair of the Balham Mosque and Tooting Islamic Centre.

The speakers are photographed above, from left to right:

1. Abdul Latif, Merton Councillor,
2. Rt Hon Justine Greening MP, Secretary of State for International Development,
3. Dan Watkins, Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman for Tooting,
4. Zac Goldsmith MP, Conservative Candidate for London Mayor,
5. Hasina Momtaz, broadcaster and campaigner, and
6. Former Councillor Rabia Bhatti, Chair of CMF Women.

Dan says:

‘I’ve worked closely with the Tooting Islamic community in recent years and know there is a deep pool of talent amongst the congregations of our local mosques. I’m delighted we had such a good turn-out at the event and have subsequently had several people come forward expressing a desire to get involved with local projects and campaigns.’

‘This meeting is just a start and I plan to run future events which bring together our diverse communities, through volunteering projects which improve our area and speaker events which focus on other important topics. The more time people of different backgrounds spend together, the more we realise how much we have in common, and the more we can achieve by working together in partnership.’

Ahmed Elmi, a Tooting resident, said:

‘It was informative and inspiring to hear views from so many high profile speakers, including two Muslim councillors, and the work they did and the local improvements they achieved for all of their constituents.’

In the group photo below from left to right are:

1. Ash Zaman, CMF Deputy Chairman
2. Mike Mogul, CMF Executive Member
3. Mohamed Zaman (no relation to Ash Zaman!) who has a voluntary involvement with the Muslim Council of Britain
4. Sir Iqbal Sacranie
5. Dan Watkins
6. Cllr Latif
7. Maksud Gangat, Director of Education at the local muslim schools, Gatton and Al Risalah

Below left to right are:

1. Mike Mogul
2. Justine Greening
3. Rabia Bhatti

The event received a nice write-up in the Wandsworth Guardian.

On Monday 2 November 2015 the Conservative Muslim Forum Executive held a meeting with two diplomats from the Embassy of Israel. The meeting was chaired by Lord Sheikh and our guests from the Embassy were:

• H.E. Eitan Na’eh, Deputy Head of Mission. He is currently Chargé d’Affaires as Israel’s new ambassador to London has not yet arrived.
• Shai Masot, Political Officer.

The purpose of the meeting was to enable the CMF Executive to gain a better understanding of the Israeli perspective on the Israel / Palestine dispute, and to enable CMF Executive members to convey their own views directly to a senior Israeli diplomat in the format of a relatively small private meeting.

We intend to hold a similar meeting with H.E. Manuel Hassassian, Ambassador from Palestine to London.

On Tuesday 20th October 2015, we hosted an Eid Ul Adha reception in 7 Millbank which is part of the Parliamentary Estate. The lead organiser was CMF Executive Member, Councillor Hashim Bhatti who was also the Master of Ceremonies for the evening.

The evening was well attended, with over 120 participants from Britain’s diverse communities. The we reflected this diversity by having speakers from a number of religions.

As with all CMF events, it began with a Quran recital which was given by Imam Ali Omar from the Ministry of Defence. The passage recited was from Surah Maryam, and told of the virgin birth of Jesus, a story which is shared by Islam and Christianity.

Speeches were given by:

1. Baron Sheikh of Cornhill in the City of London – President of the CMF
2. Alberto Costa MP – MP for South Leicestershire
3. Baroness Berridge of the Vale of Catmose who for many years was Director of the Conservative Christian Fellowship
4. Rabbi James Baaden of Sha’arei Tsedek, the North London Reform Synagogue
5. Dr. Rami Ranger MBE – Chairman the British Sikh Association and also Chairman of Sun Mark Limited

CMF Chairman Mohammed Amin concluded the formal proceeding by giving the vote of thanks.

This was followed by a buffet dinner which was catered by Pride of Asia whose owner Mr Shelim has supported the CMF’s events for several years.

Media coverage of the evening was provided by British Muslim TV.

One simple sign of how much people enjoyed the event is that many of them were reluctant to leave as they were so engrossed in conversation and networking. The group photo below was taken after most had left!