Professor Lubaina Himid CBE, Akeela Ahmed MBE, Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi CBE and Dr Syed Tanzeem Haider Raza OBE
Elham Asaad Buaras
Two police officers, a fire-fighter, a Turner Prize winner, an architect and a leading consultant physician are among 28 Muslims celebrating recognition in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.
University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) Professor Lubaina Himid has been recognised with a CBE.
Himid’s work is on display in four shows in Europe, including the Berlin Biennale in Germany and is being awarded for her services to art. Himid, who was also awarded an MBE in 2010 for services to black women’s art, told The Muslim News, “I sincerely hope it will enable me to continue to develop even more collaborative strategies for connecting artists to audiences in a meaningful way.”
The CBE rounds off a successful 12 months for Himid, who won the prestigious Turner Prize last December and was named the 2017 Artist of the Year by Apollo Magazine. Known as one of the pioneers of the British black arts movement back in the 1980s, Himid, who is also a PhD supervisor at UCLan, has spent her 35-year career shining a light on the trade in enslaved people and the contribution made by the people of the Black Diaspora.
Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi, Dean of the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering at the University of Southampton, has been awarded a CBE for his services to engineering and industry.
Al-Hashimi joined the University in 2000 as a Senior Lecturer and was appointed to a Personal Chair in 2004. He became ARM Professor of Computer Engineering in 2008.
Bashir told The Muslim News, “I am honoured to receive this prestigious recognition. It is a testament to the efforts of the great many colleagues I have worked with over the years here at the University and within the School of Electronics and Computer Science, who have always provided me with a stimulating and supportive working environment. The response to this honour from my family and friends has been one of sheer delight.”
Al-Hashimi is a world-renowned figure in the field science and engineering of energy-efficient computing, which remains a key enabling technology to underpin our digital world.
He has been instrumental in building the University’s reputation as a world-class centre for Electronics and Computer Science education and research and is recognised nationally and internationally in relation to his academic research and leadership, including his election as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2014. Al-Hashimi works extensively with the electronics design industry and many of the outputs he has developed personally or in conjunction with his research team are used by companies around the world.
Dr Syed Tanzeem Haider Raza, Consultant Physician at the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, is to be made an OBE for services to health and medical education.
Dr Raza pioneered the new speciality of Acute Medicine in 1997. He set up a large Acute Medicine Unit at Bournemouth, which has been at the forefront of developing innovative ways of looking after acutely ill patients. He was also the Regional Advisor for Acute Medicine in Wessex until 2014.
He is the Director of Medical Education for his hospital in addition to being an honorary senior clinical lecturer with the University of Southampton. He’s also been responsible for training over two dozen refugee doctors who now work within the NHS.
He is accredited Educator for the Royal College of Physicians and has completed a Masters degree in Medical Education from Cardiff University. Dr Raza told The Muslim News, “I am truly humbled and honoured by this, and I am very proud of my time working in the NHS.”
Architect Farshid Moussavi has also been handed an OBE. The Iranian-born architect, who was joint head of award-winning practice Foreign Office Architects (1993-2011) before setting up Farshid Moussavi Architecture, was given the honour in recognition of her services to architecture.
Last year Moussavi curated the architecture space at the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition.
Founder of She Speaks, We Hear, an online platform bringing together women’s voices, Akeela Ahmed will be made an MBE for her services to Muslim women.
Ahmed is an equalities campaigner specialising in youth and gender issues. She has over ten years experience of supporting vulnerable individuals with complex social and mental health difficulties, providing support services to young and homeless people from diverse backgrounds, including refugees, asylum seekers, ex-offenders and BAME groups.
She was CEO of the Muslim Youth Helpline for three years and has advised the NSPCC, the Faith Inquiry project run by the leading think-tank Demos, The Prince’s Trust Mosaic’s Ex-Offender Programme, the production team for the national primetime TV drama Eastenders, as well as various Government departments.
Since 2012, she has been a Ministerial-appointed Government advisor, sitting on the Cross-Government Working Group on Anti-Muslim Hatred based at the Department for Communities and Local Government. Last year, she was appointed to the Office for the Children’s Commissioner advisory panel on the Child Sex Abuse in the Family Environment Inquiry. She is also the Muslim family specialist at the Christian Muslim Forum.
Ahmed told The Muslim News the MBE “is an honour not just for me but for the Muslim women who I work with whose voices are often unheard, and their positive contributions ignored.”
Ahmed dedicated her award to all immigrants including her parents, “If it wasn’t for my father and my mother, I wouldn’t be who I am today. So this honour is for them, and a testament to the sacrifices they have made and the obstacles they have overcome to give us a better life than their parents could have ever dreamed of.”
Walli Ullah, 55, Founder and Director, EMU Films Ltd, is to receive an MBE for services to the economy and overseas investment. A successful entrepreneur with over 25 years experience in film, TV and digital media. Ullah has been at the forefront of digital media developments and was an early pioneer of Video on Demand and Internet Protocol TV.
Most recently he is responsible for the multi-million-pound growth and sale of a global entertainment content production and distribution company. As CEO he built the company in Manchester to a turnover exceeding $100 million pa with staff and offices around the world.
President of the Pakistan Association Liverpool (PAL) Sarfraz Ali, 75, was honoured with an MBE for his services to community cohesion and integration in the city.
He is a key member of two of the oldest ethnic minority organisations in Liverpool, the Ar Rahma mosque and the PAL. He is regarded as the most senior figureheads in the Pakistani community and is actively involved in providing community activities. PAL built a multi-cultural community centre in 1977 which is now firmly established as being at the heart of the community.
He was responsible for the £561,000 renovation of the PAL Multicultural Centre which is used by members of the community. The centre has also refocused to meet the needs of ethnic minority women and elders to reduce isolation and combat social exclusion.
Ali was one of the founding members of the Afro, Asian and Caribbean Standing Committee on Merseyside, an umbrella organisation of faith organisations. He is also on the Board of the Merseyside and Cheshire Commonwealth Association.
Director of the Punjab Kitchen, Mohammed Ishaq, has received an MBE for services to innovation and the economy in Tyne and Wear. The business has transformed the lives of patients with special dietary needs and those who have difficulty swallowing. The company uses innovative techniques to develop a wide range of pureed meals which look and taste exactly like fully-formed food.
Starting out as a firm which supplied halal meals who could not get this food in hospital, the insight into the need for a different type of food for people with dysphagia sparked off the idea behind the pureed meals. The firm is now the largest supplier of special diet meals to the public sector feeding over 120,000 patients a week.
Tahir Masood is one of three Muslims to be BEM. The 54-year-old is being recognised his for services to young people to the community in Peterborough. Masood arrived in the UK aged 14 but has spent the last 37 years working with teenagers in Peterborough.
He holds group talks on a range of topics, from democratic values to enabling young people to raise issues concerning their school, friends and family. For the last 27 years, he has worked tirelessly to improve awareness, knowledge and understanding of Pakistani heritage in the city.
He published a bestselling historic heritage book on the Peterborough British-Pakistani community, raising thousands of pounds through sales in 2014. He also held a six-week exhibition at Peterborough Museum to celebrate the 60th year of Pakistani arrival in Peterborough. He is currently writing his tenth book.
FULL LIST OF MUSLIMS HONOURED IN THE QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY HONOURS
CB: Lowri Alice Khan CBE, Director, Financial Stability, HM Treasury, for public service. London.
CBE: Lubaina Himid MBE, Artist, for services to Art. Lancashire.
CBE: Professor Bashir Mohammed Ali Al-Hashimi, Professor of Computer Engineering, University of Southampton, for services to Computer Engineering and Industry.
OBE: Mrs Shahana Khan, for voluntary service to Healthcare and Social Housing in the West Midlands.
OBE: Farshid Moussavi, Architect, for services to Architecture. London.
OBE: His Honour Riaz Hassan Naqvi, Resident Judge, Sovereign Base Area Cyprus, for services to Defence. East Sussex.
OBE: Dr Syed Tanzeem Haider Raza, Consultant Physician, The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, for services to Health and Medical Education.
MBE: Ajaz Khowaj Quoram Ahmed, Founder, AKQA, for services to Media. London.
MBE: Akeela Ahmed, Founder, She Speaks, We Hear, for services to Muslim Women. London.
MBE: Sarfraz Ali, President, Pakistan Association Liverpool, for services to Community Cohesion and Integration in Liverpool.
MBE: Mahomed Farouk Alimahomed, Chairman, Lesta Packaging plc, for services to Business, the community and Philanthropy. Leicestershire.
MBE: Faisal Atcha, Firefighter and Community Volunteer, Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service, for public service.
MBE: Ahmed Bedri, Founder, Sudan Supplementary School and Sudan Volunteer Programme, for services to Education. London.
MBE: Fakrul Alam Choudhury, for services to the community in Oldham.
MBE: Maboob Hussain, for services to West Yorkshire Police and to charity. West Yorkshire
MBE: Mohammad Iqbal, for services to charity and community relations in Manchester.
MBE: Mohammed Ishaq, Director, The Punjab Kitchen Ltd, for services to Innovation and the Economy in Tyne and Wear.
MBE: Nur-Ur-Rahman Khandaker, for services to catering and the community in Aylesford, Kent.
MBE: Rehana Mohammed, Learning Manager, Workers’ Educational Association, for services to the Education of Marginalised Women in Rochdale and Oldham.
MBE: Mohammed Mushtaq Raj, Senior Executive Officer, Home Office, for services to Race Equality, Diversity & Inclusion. West Yorkshire.
MBE: Nabila Sattar, for charitable and political services. London.
MBE: Dr Farnaaz Sharief, Governing Body Elected Clinical Member, NHS Medway Clinical Commissioning Group, for services to Mental Health.
MBE: Walli Ullah, Founder and Director, EMU FilLtd, for services to the Economy and Overseas Investment. Kent.
MBE: Meerwis Daoud, Cultural Advisor to Senior British Representative, Kabul, for services to Defence. Cambridgeshire.
BEM: Dr Nadine Hachach-Haram, Plastic Surgery Registrar, NHS Clinical Entrepreneur, Founder of Proximie, for services to Surgery and Innovation. London.
BEM: Tahir Masood, for services to Young People and the community in Peterborough.
BEM: Abdul Aziz Sardar, for services to the community in Tower Hamlets, London.
QPM: Sergeant Abed Hussain, Greater Manchester Police
