Editors

Abdul Qadir
At present, Abdul is the manager at Learn for Life Enterprises Ltd. This provides Education, Social Support and Training to the Local community, through private funding, partnership agreement, contracts and grants from Government.

Two of his major contractors are currently The Training Development Agency to whom they provide QTS Assessment Centre provision, and Sheffield College where the major provision is English Language and Basic Skills Learning.

As the Manager Abdul oversees the administration of the centre, he is engaged at all levels of bidding, and responsible for recruitment selection, procurement and operational functions.

Abdul is also the Managing Director of SMART Ed, a company dedicated to the promotion of Educational, Training and
Development needs across the academic and vocational sectors highlighting opportunity and quality improvement.
Recently SMART Ed has completed projects in Management, Leadership, 14-19 coaching and forged links at local,
national and international levels. Clients include educational promoters, partners in provision and students
requiring guidance with school, Further Education, Graduate and Higher Level support.

Abdul's background and career has encompassed Regional Development, Economic Strategy at Local Level and experience in Business Management and regeneration projects in the private sector. He holds Assessor and Verifier Qualifications along with an Higher National Dipoma in IT and substantial knowledge in Training and Development.

Azeem Mirza
Well, a bit hard to describe this Muslim in England.
Born on the other side of 'The North Sea'. 'The city behind the dunes: 'The Hague, the Netherlands.'
He's always proud to mention that he's born and bred in Holland. Although, one standard question is making him a bit bored: 'Is it true that in Amsterdam you can get drugs from the local grocery's...'?

He has been living in Holland for his entire life, why he moved to Manchester and why he's studying Information Technology while he actually wanted to study International Business Management?
We'll for some unknown reasons never know.

Azeem has a dictionary of adjectives to describe him.
He's funny, smart, serious, and even sometimes busy!
He loves to socialize with people and debate over various topics.
One golden rule of Azeem is that if you show him respect, he will show respect back without any hesitation. Without the support of his family and cousin, Saad, Azeem would have never reached where he is today.

Watching Godfather I, II, and III once in 6 months, is what he believes: Obligatory. So that we realize how we're not meant to be a role-model.
He's always up to discover new things in life and is your "best friend" when your mum made 'Nihari'.
He disagrees with some people saying: 1+1 makes 11. According to him it's still 2.

Azeem's life motto's are:
-Always expect the unexpected
-Strangers are friends we haven't met yet.

Whatever needs to be done, he will do it with gusto. One word that isn't in Azeem's vocabulary is "quitting."

Bilal Hassam
Born and raised in Leicester, Bilal Hassam is a final year Medical Student at the University of Nottingham. He has completed a degree in Bio-Medical Sciences and his dissertation on "Traditional Chinese Medicine in the UK" was presented both in China and Taiwan. For many years he has been engaged in a variety of Muslim Youth, Charity, Inter-faith and Dawa projects.

Much of his work has stemmed from his involvement with one of the most established Muslim organisations in the UK, The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) UK. Bilal has organised many national speakers tours with renowned scholars and speakers around the world. His work with FOSIS has seen him coordinate national Islamic Awareness training and academic excellence programs, as well as many workshops, conferences, courses and social and charity events. His passion for working with the community has seen him take his experience and insight and extend his support to several Muslim organisations from a local to an international level. He also works closely with many world famous Muslim nasheed artists and musicians and has some very exciting projects coming up soon in this field.

Bilal has been blessed to spend much time with many great illuminated scholars and he relishes any opportunity he has to sit and take from the people of knowledge. His work with Young Muslims across the country has afforded him a deep understanding of the complexities of what it means to be a Muslim in England and the hopes, fears and challenges that come with it. Bilal is a graduate of the Young Muslim Leadership Program run by the Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies and the Princes Charities and has also recently been appointed as a strategic advisor to a national Muslim youth work organisation.

Recently Bilal received confirmation that he has been accepted as one of thirty worldwide inter-faith youth ambassadors or 'Faiths Act Fellows' for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. Taking a year out of his medical school training, Bilal will receive two months specialist training in the UK, Africa and US, before spending eight months in England mobilising faith communities to help end deaths caused by malaria. He is looking forward to combine his humanitarian, medical and faith based interests in such an influential project and hopes his career after Medical School will follow similar lines of humanitarian and faith based work.

Bilal strongly believes that Muslims have an incredible amount to contribute to the challenges that our societies face and avidly supports initiatives like MuslimsInEngland.com where we can come together and work towards the spiritual, moral and intellectual development of a united British community

Furqan Naeem
Furqan Naeem, 22, originally did Politics and Business at Manchester but then decided for a career change and is currently pursuing Pharmacy at the Bradford school of Pharmacy. For a number of years he has been involved in a number of grassroot Muslim organistaions and charities. He was was elected onto the executive committee of the Young Muslims UK, and is currently the Head of Services for the Federation of Student Islamic Societies.Furqan recently attended the Young Muslim Leadership Programme in Oxford run by the Princes Trust. he has been heavily invovled in another one of the princes trust with Mosaic being a mentor at the Manchester academy helping young disenfranchised students equipping themselves for the business world.

Furqan has volunteered and helped deliver projects such as evening of inspiration and gala dinners for the world leading Muslim charity - Islamic Relief. Recently he embarked on a journey of a lifetime, halfway across the world to climb mount Everest. The money raised during the trek helped thousands of the poor and needy in Africa access the basic essential need of clean water.

Furqan is an avid Manchester United fan having been bought up and raised in the city and has a season ticket at Old Trafford.

Hadith o/t week

Lamees Hafeez
Lamees is an 80s child born in Manchester but was jetted off soon after birth to spend the next 6 years of her life in Islamabad, Pakistan. Family circumstances soon lead to a return to the rainy city which has been her home ever since, but the memories of sun, spice and warm people remain.

Having studied Astrophysics at UCL, Lamees discovered herself through the charitable activities of her university Islamic Society and soon realised that her BSc was not where her real passions lay. A quick turn about in careers led her to work for a range of non-profit organisations such as IslamExpo and the Utrujj Foundation and in January 2009 Lamees was finally able to fulfill her life-long ambition of having a GAP year experience by spending 10 weeks in a developing country with Platform2 (www.myplatform2.com). Her experience in a rural community in Ghana helped solidify the direction which she wanted to take in life and Lamees now works with Platform2 as a Volunteer Development Officer for BME communities and wishes to pursue a career in International Development and community work.

Lamees's main interests lie in development work, travelling, politics and the media. She is a news junkie and fears she may be in need of serious rehab but all the same wishes to find a way for Muslim Youth to be more active in the Public arena. Working in a Christian Aid Office and having worked on many multi-faith projects, Lamees also takes a keen interest in Interfaith activities and thinks that faiths working together is the way forward to achieve many humanitarian and social goals.

An avid Manchester United fan, Lamees considers herself to be friendly but with a mind of her own. Although she may be opinionated she is always open to correction and discussion and wonders what the world will make of her array of views?

LikeMedia

Mariam Khalid
A 23 year old Yorkshire lass, born in the small town of Halifax in West Yorkshire. She lived there all her life until Mariam
got married in 2007 and moved to Sheffield, South Yorkshire, so we can safely say: Mariam is a pure Yorkshire lass!

She graduated last year after having completed a BA (Hons) Education Studies degree and planned to
complete a PGCE course in order to get her Qualified Teaching Status.

Mariam always had great interrest and enthusiasm in the field of education and always has daydreams about
having her very own school. Apart from dreaming about classrooms and noisy kids, she enjoys reading and reflecting upon poetry,
particularly the spiritual work of the likes of: Maulana Rumi and Rabia Basri. Mariam is also a bit of a bookworm, she loves reading.
She likes reading everything, from romance novels and magazines, such as Islamica to educational reads like
the biographies of the companions etc.

Mariam enjoys taking part in voluntary work, which benefits the local community.

Mariam says:
'I enjoy spending quality time with family as I believe it's the foundation of a healthy and happy lifestyle.'

S. Kanno
Sukaynah Kanno is born and bred in Manchester; she is a happy medley of cultures with Arab/European blood running through her veins. She also has a hidden undercover Asian streak. She studied Psychology in Manchester, when asked why she chose this subject, she replied, ?to hone my mind-reading abilities?. She worked in the UAE for a couple of years and is now back to the beautiful grey skies of England, because she missed them so much.

She is a behaviour therapist, and works with Autistic children, she enjoys her work very much, she finds it very rewarding and is happy the lord has given her this beautiful opportunity. She is quite an eclectic person and passionate about the simple things in life. She loves Islam, and the unravelling of the journey of life so far has not seized to amaze her. She has ambitions to become ?a more useful person and defeat the disease of Arab Timing?:

She has an absolutely massive to-do list. But there?s always hope. Always.

Saad Naveed
Saad is just here to develop/manage the internal workings of this site, and make the experience for users better on Muslims in England.

Oh, and he looooves chicken rice! :-)

Sara Shaheen
Sara WORD-ART Shaheen is a London based writer of North African origin. She is a curious individual, often musing on the wonders of ambiguity. Her interests include but are not limited to: employing conversations with strangers, experimental cookery, fundraising, religion, literature, masquerade, knowledge, hand made and vintage items, travelling and humour.

In case you are wondering what the WORD-ART part in her name is all about. Be relieved, she is not a computer application but a real person who views writing as an art form ?with as much possibility as both a dark hole and flushed tapestry.

Sara has graduated from Brunel University with a BA Honours in English with Creative Writing and a Kingship in Communication. Her goal in writing for Muslims in England is to help spread a message of peace and understanding, knowledge and global unity.

Somia Zaman
21 years ago Somia opened her eyes in the beautiful city of Manchester, never expecting that she would be one of the ten writers. With a wonderful achievement of just being 20 and already having a Bachelor's Degree of Sciences in Psychology, we were more than proud to have Somia as one of our ten writers.

One of the many beautiful qualities of Somia is that instead of using her Degree for personal purposes, Somia tries to give more back to the society. She does this by working with the NHS as a "mental health worker". Somia has various hobbies, which include craving for more and more knowledge, participating in all kind of events and hitting the gym.

Our mental health worker enjoys volunteering in youth work, especially for the Muslim Youth League (MYL). MYL is a team of Muslim Youths who aims to challenge stigma in society and promote the three values of teachings in Islam. MYL organizes many activities that can achieve these aims.

One of the many reasons why Somia wants to be a writer is to promote the three values of teachings of Islam. She'd like to share her experiences of being a British Muslims, as well as being a Muslim Woman. She likes to share what she has learned from one of the leading scholars, such as: Dr. Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri.

Somia: 'I hope to convey the pure message of Islam, which is: Peace, Love, and Integration.'

As well as the other writers, Somia is also proud to be a Muslim in England!

Tahira Rafique
16th April 1977. A scientist was born in Harrow-North London who likes to write poems, knitting a variety things, reading, nature, meditation, and if this is not enough, she also likes baking cakes. Daughter of proud parents from Jhelum-Pakistan named this Muslim in England: 'Tahira Rafique Akram'.

At The Westminster University in Central London she studied biomedical sciences and in 2002 Tahira obtained a Bachelors of Science Honours degree.
Tahira always had an interest in sciences, especially the medical aspect. Therefore, she greatly enjoyed her studies. Tahira's favourite subjects during her studies were Immunology, anatomy and pathology.

Tahira had a keen eye for art and pottery during high school. Curiosities for medicine lead her to work in many chemists as a health assistant and in Pharmacy at Ealing Hospital-London. She also worked for 'Boots-The chemist' and trained in 'Photoshop', 'Cash office' and 'admin'. After her Degree, she specialised her career in Chemical Pathology and worked as a registered biomedical scientist at 'Guys' and 'St Thomas'- (opposite Parliament House London). In 2003 she was diagnosed with 'Ulcerative Colitis' and although she lead a normal life, it can be painful.
In 2004 she got married to Mohammed Akram from Yorkshire. And in 2007 she was mother of a sweet little baby boy named 'Yaseen', which is the best thing that happened to her. They recently bought a house in Derby and moved there, as Mohammad Akram works for 'Rolls Royce' as an Engineer.

If there was 1 Muslim in England out of the 10 whom we definitely couldn't exclude.
It would be this Muslim in England.

Zaigham Khan
Zaigham Khan, a domestic gas engineer based in Manchester was born in January the 14th 1988.

He has actively been involved in community work since a very young age. Activities as: interfaith work, community sports programmes, and assisting the elderly are just a mention of few of the activities he has undertaken. Zaigham is always very excited at the prospect of writing on many topical issues based on his personal experience as well as those who are based around him.

He's currently a leading figure in youth work at the famous Al Farghana Institute Manchester (An organisation which seeks to eradicate terrorism, racism, extremism, and discrimination and bridge the gap between communications)

Amongst many of the hobbies he undertakes, he is a promising poet writer about spirituality and many other moral issues.

If you want to meet this wonderful character, just wait until you see a 'football-star' with the shirt Khandinio somewhere at your local football pitch.

Zaigham:

'I am very thankful to the founder of the blog for giving me the unique opportunity to speak on many topical issues. I pray that the contribution I make to this blog will be useful. I feel that the majority of my views that will arise from my contribution will be shared and understood by many'

Zaufishan Iqbal
Daughter to secondary school teachers, Zaufishan from Yorkshire, England, is a natural student of all things ancient, present-day and futuristic. Currently completing an arts and science degree, she has spent two decades learning and experiencing the cultural psychologies of civilisations, 'to find the strengths in people so they may exploit them for the development of society'. Zaufishan is multilingual, owns a humble designing business, is a 'scientist in ASL and BSL, enjoys extreme sports, and can be found blogging on a beloved Macbook with the Quran, resting on a tree branch deep within the English hills.