TAFI UK is extremely pleased to announce that Maqsood Ahmed OBE has recently agreed to become our fifth Patron. We are thrilled to have Maqsood as a patron, and look forward to working with him to better engage with the Muslim community in the UK. Maqsood becomes TAFI UK’s fifth patron, joining The Lord Alderdice FRCPsych (key negotiator of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement), Michael Howard QC (former leader of the Conservative Party), Sir Andrew Burns (former British Ambassador to Israel), and Morris Bentata (President of West London Synagogue).
Maqsood Ahmed was appointed as Adviser to the Home Office in the Faith Communities Unit in 2003 and now advises on faith and preventing extremism issues. He was awarded an OBE for his groundbreaking work as the first Muslim Adviser to the HM Prison Service. His work with the Prison Chaplaincy now reflects all religions providing pastoral care to prisoners.
Maqsood’s background includes anti-poverty and racial equality work which he did for 15 years. Maqsood is passionate about the drug and alcohol addiction and its impact on diverse communities. He is very interested in Muslim Jewish dialogue and set up an Imam – Rabbi dialogue group. He has been actively involved in the ECJC’s Passport Europe program on Muslim Jewish Youth Dialogue in Istanbul, Stockholm and Berlin.
Maqsood is a Fellow of the Faith and Civil Society of Anglia Ruskin University Cambridge and an executive Committee member of Central Mosque/Islamic Centre, Leicester.
In 2008 he was awarded the Muslim News Award of excellence for his services in improving community relations. In February of the same year, he was a speaker at the Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism conference, Tel Aviv.
