Who we are
The Working Group was established by government to consider and take forward proposals to tackle anti-Muslim hatred. The Working Group is the government’s main forum for discussing issues of concern with Muslim stakeholders and the communities whose interests they represent and convey. It also plays a valuable role in both disseminating and providing feedback on key policy messages and approaches.
Membership
The cross-government Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group is made up of members who are representative of diverse Muslim Communities, independent experts, and academics who are known as independent members, alongside ex-officio members.
It also consists of the following government departments:
- Attorney General’s Office
- Cabinet Office
- Crown Prosecution Service
- Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
- Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
- Department for Education
- Foreign and Commonwealth Office
- Home Office
- Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
- Ministry of Justice
- National Police Chiefs’ Council
The AMHWG is a government group and Independent Members are appointed by MHCLG Ministers following an open application process for candidates.
Independent members can be drawn from:
• Representatives from the Muslim community
• Independent experts/academics;
• Professionals
• Grass roots civil society organisations
For more information on the AMHWG please see here
Meet the Independent Members
Akeela Ahmed MBE
Akeela Ahmed MBE has been an equalities activist and campaigner for nearly nearly 20 years. On Muslim Women’s Day, she was listed in Nylon magazine as an activist that is ‘making a difference’. In 2014 she founded ‘She Speaks We Hear’ which gives unfiltered women’s voice a platform. Akeela advises and works with government in tackling anti-Muslim hatred, sitting on the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group as Chair of the Independent Members. She is also a social entrepreneur within the social housing sector. Akeela was a co-organiser of the Women’s March on London and in January 2017, she spoke to over one hundred thousand people at the Women’s March on London. For her work with WML she was listed as one of Stylist’s Women of the Year 2017. Her portrait was part of the National Trust’s We Are Bess exhibition at Hardwick Hall, which showcases modern and historic female leaders.
Riaz Ravat
Deputy Director of St Philip’s Centre, a leading national charity established by the Diocese of Leicester to create and enhance positive interfaith relations. He works with many organisations including community groups, local and
central government, schools and colleges,
universities and the Police.
Nick Lowles
Professor Imran Awan
Imran Awan is Professor of Criminology at Birmingham City University who specialises in understanding hate crimes and Islamophobia. He has written extensively on Islamophobia on social media and is currently project lead for a large ESRC research grant looking into the effects of Islamophobia and Covid-19. He is an independent member of the AMHWG and also a member of the SAGE sub-panel group advising the UK Government on behavioural aspects in relation to Covid-19 and its impacts on local communities.
Yousif Al-Khoei
Yousif is as director of public affairs at Al-Khoei Foundation and a founding member of the Mosque and Imams National Advisory Board (MINAB).
Karim Sacoor
Karim is passionately dedicated towards assisting people from all communities irrespective of faith, belief, race, sexual orientation or lifestyle and of every background. An avid social entrepreneur he devotes a considerable amount of time to providing assistance, guidance and direction to families who have members who have special needs and/or are disabled. He proactively mitigates the challenges that people may face as a consequence of direct or indirect discrimination. Whether it is against disabled people or the freedom of thought, conscience and/or religion expression. He emphasises the importance of maintaining dignity to the lives of all peoples. He vehemently believes that it is of the essence that we create an enabling environment that foster bridge building and better symbiotic understanding and coexistence towards creating a more equal, tolerant society for all, accepting and respecting each other as human beings. Karim’s ethical underpinnings are driven by his commitment to value pluralism and tolerance, promoting the benefits of a cosmopolitan society that values tolerance, justice, education and lifelong learning.
Jasvir Singh OBE
Farooq Mirza
Mufti Ahmed Peerbhai
Asma Ali
The Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group 