Neil Jameson, CBE  (1946 –2023)

Neil Jameson reminisced about the early days of his community organising and the beginning of our long friendship in the Foreword of my memoir, A Long Jihad: My Quest for the Middle Way – “My vocation to revive the tradition of community organising in the UK started properly in 1989 when I helped set up Citizens UK to be the home of community organising. …In 1994, I was invited to take this model to East London and see if it was possible to organise across the four East London boroughs of Newham, Waltham Forest, Hackney, and Tower Hamlets.

In November 1996, leaders, and members of forty-seven civil society groups across the four boroughs gathered at York Hall in Bethnal Green for the Founding Assembly of East London Communities Organisation (TELCO). The largest and most disciplined turnout was the delegation from the East London Mosque (ELM) in Whitechapel.

“This was the beginning of what has been a mutually beneficial relationship between what is now the London Muslim Centre, its neighbours in TELCO/London Citizens, and Dr Bari and myself.”

Neil and I first met in 1994, and I penned our encounter this way: “One day, in the mid-1990s, a well-dressed white gentleman came to visit the mosque to discuss a project he was planning to start in East London. A few of us in the ELM gathered around him, wondering, ‘Does he have any agenda?’

“He introduced himself as Neil Jameson and spoke about community organising by citizens working together to improve life in our neighbourhood communities as a vehicle for social and political change for good, ideas that immediately chimed with me. It reminded me of the basic Islamic teachings of social justice, i.e., working for the common good of all in society, a crucial civic responsibility for any citizen.”

Neil spoke with conviction and inspired us all that day. We signed up for his project soon, and in doing so, the East London Mosque became a founding member of the East London Communities Organisation.

Since our very first meeting, I admired Neil for his innate human qualities – he was always positive, amiable, entrepreneurial, and productively busy. I continued to collaborate with him over the next few decades in the community organising that he championed until an untreatable and unexpected cancer led him to hospital in April 2023 for the last journey of his life. “It was so sudden and such a shock to everyone because he had shown no symptoms at all, until three weeks ago,” wrote his wife Jean shortly after his passing.

Under Neil’s leadership, TELCO rapidly expanded into London Citizens and then became Citizens UK (CUK) we know now as the UK’s largest grassroots alliance made up of schools, universities, churches, mosques, synagogues, parent groups, health trusts, charities, and unions. He was awarded the RSA’s prestigious 2018 Albert Medal for “services to community organising for the common good”.

While based in East London since the early 1990s, Neil took it upon himself to become an active member of the community. He contributed to the historic East London Mosque, providing expert advice in its struggle to acquire land in the late 1990s. We organised local people, including other faith and ethnic communities in the area, to support East London Mosque ’s community needs. It was Neil, who as TELCO leader, gave us strategic support, and together we convinced Tower Hamlets Council to support our needs. A multi-storey community building with a business wing, named the London Muslim Centre, came into being in 2004.

I worked even more closely with Neil following the fateful day of the 7/7 London bombings in 2005. As Muslims across the country suddenly found themselves under suspicion and media attacks, Neil and other civic leaders in East London came strongly in support of Muslims and institutions like the East London Mosque. In early 2006, when I joined the LOCOG Board for the Olympics and Paralympic Games in 2012, Neil enthusiastically produced many practical ideas on how we could bring communities together. The summer of 2012 proved to be one of the best and most joyous seasons for social and political harmony in Britain’s living memory.

Sadly, the brutal killing of a British Army soldier, Fusilier Lee Rigby, on May 22, 2013, by two young men created a new wave of anti-Muslim attacks. Two more events gripped the country in 2014 that further deteriorated the situation: a highly politicised scandal named ‘The Trojan Horse’ affair; and the sudden emergence of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS or Daesh). I was on CUK’s Executive Committee and discussed the issues with Neil. Neil took the issue to the Citizens UK board, which formed a Citizens Commission on Islam, Participation and Public Life.

From October 2015, the Commission, chaired by Rt Hon Dominic Grieve QC, MP, visited a dozen major UK cities to gather public and private evidence from Muslims and non-Muslims on the challenges of Muslim participation in public life. It published a landmark report, The Missing Muslims: Unlocking British Muslim Potential for the Benefit of All, in 2017 with several recommendations aimed primarily at civil society, including the Muslim and business community and the State.

Neil was fully committed to pursuing the recommendations of the report, but after his departure from Citizens UK in 2018, the momentum could not be sustained.

He then initiated a project with the goal of helping young Muslims work in mainstream civic and public life, named “The Middle Way Foundation” (he adored the term ‘Middle Way’). He and I met with some Muslim charities and philanthropists for financial support to start the project, but despite our best efforts, we disappointedly realised our inability to secure the funding needed. He started working for the alleviation of the refugee crisis in the UK.

In 2019, a young Citizens UK trustee who was very close to both of us was diagnosed with incurable spinal cancer. Nabeel Azami, an award-winning human resource specialist and ethical leadership proponent, hurriedly completed authoring a book from his hospital bed.

Muhammad (S): 11 Leadership Qualities that Changed the World was published before he died at 39. We helped form the Nabeel Foundation (NF) to continue his work on ethical leadership.

It is impossible to put into words the extent of Neil’s extraordinary legacy. He formed a charity, UK Welcomes Refugees (UKWR), a few years ago and continued to work tirelessly for refugee rights. Due to his long connection with me and probably my interest in and published book,

The Rohingya Crisis: A People Facing Extinction, he invited me to join the UKWR board. The board met online just a few weeks ago, and Neil was completely normal and as dynamic as ever. His death has left a void in my heart.

Neil was ever active in changing and improving the lives of countless people, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. He was a man of vision, energy, and action; but he was always thoughtful, cheerful, and empathetic. He was an inspiration for our shared human and religious values.

He symbolised many virtues that are greatly needed in our time. His work and legacy will continue, and he will forever be remembered by everyone whose lives he touched and inspired.

Neil leaves behind his wife, Jean, four children, and seven grandchildren, who should take solace in knowing what a great man he was. To God we belong, and to Him we shall return.

(Photo courtesy of family)

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari
Educationalist, Author, Parenting Consultant, @MAbdulBari