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| Awards for Excellence Syed Aziz Pasha
"On this auspicious occasion, I am honouring Syed Aziz Pasha, whose commitment to Britain's Muslim community spans an entire generation. Born in India in 1930, he arrived in this country in 1965, following a promising career as an international legal consultant to the UN Indian delegation in New York. As a student in the United States he helped found the Muslim Student Association.
In the UK, he quickly became involved in improving the services to our community, leading the Knightsbridge Mosque in 1967. Between 1973 and 1983 he served as President of the Indian Muslim Federation.
But his crowning achievement was his ability to see and bring together the burgeoning voices of British Muslim civil society.
He had the foresight and vision to understand that Britain's Muslim community was diverse. That diversity would be further strengthened if Muslims came together in common cause. And so, in 1970, Dr Pasha founded the Union of Muslim Organisations (UMO) - an umbrella body of thirty-eight associations.
As leader of the UMO, Dr Pasha enhanced the community's connection with government and public policy. Events organised by the UMO in Parliament and at Party Conferences were events in which politicians from all parties would make as a priority diary commitment. And he led the way in pushing through key reforms that would be later championed by the rest of the community. These included the provision of state funding for Muslim schools, and securing Muslim religious provision such as halal food and prayer rooms in schools, hospitals, prisons and places of work.
He was a community leader in the fullest sense and the Union of Muslim Organisations quickly achieved recognition and access in national and international circles such as the World Council of Religions for Peace, the Muslim World League and the Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE).
Dr Pasha was named an Officer of the British Empire by the Queen in 2005 for his services to the Muslim Community in Britain. This recognition was reflected in the community when the Muslim Council of Britain and the Islamic Cultural Centre convened a special ceremony to confer Dr Pasha a Lifetime Achievement Awards.
Since the The Muslim News was founded in 1989, it was a pleasure to report the groundbreaking work that Dr Pasha was undertaking.
It is therefore a fitting tribute to The Muslim News Awards for Excellence that we recognise and celebrate the work of Dr Syed Aziz Pasha. In this, our tenth year of the Awards, we delighted to pronounce that Dr Pasha personifies the very essence of excellence over the past forty years."
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