Shakeel Begg

Shakeel Begg has been Imam at the influential Lewisham Islamic centre in London UK since 1998, and has played a prominent role in the UK Muslim community, and has been invited to speak at many Mosques and Islamic events, and been a spokesman for the Muslim community in many events and press releases: including high-profile attempts to secure the release by ISIS of British hostage Alan Henning.

Most recently he was in the news when he lost a court case 28 October 2016 in which he had sued the BBC for Libel for calling him an extremist.

The noteworthy nature of this court case:

He grew up in South London and was educated within the London Borough of Lewisham.

He studied at the Islamic University of Madinah, and it is said has an M.A in Islamic Studies from the Markfield Institute of Higher Education and a Diploma in Islamic Jurisprudence, a Diploma in Islamic Finance and a Certificate in Islamic Chaplaincy.

Begg has been Chief Imam and Khateeb of the Lewisham Islamic Centre since 1998.

The mosque:

He has played a prominent role in the UK Muslim community, and has been invited to speak at many Mosques and Islamic events, and been a spokesman for the Muslim community in many events and press releases: including attempts to secure the release by ISIS of British hostage Alan Henning.

He was previously Muslim Chaplin at the GoldSmiths University.

He is invited to speak at many events, such as:

He has been involved in many inter-faith activities, including high profile ones such as:

In 2014, Begg approached ISIS regarding the release of British hostage Alan Henning; alongside a number of UK Imams who called for his release.

See joint video (from 3mins 40)

In 2015 Shakeel Begg took the BBC to court in the UK for Libel, complaining that they had labelled him as an extremist; as in November 2013, BBC presenter Andrew Neil had alleged on the Sunday Politics programme that Begg had said that" jihad was the greatest of deeds".

In the summing up of case on 28 October 2016 Judge Mr Justice Charles Haddon-Cave's said:

...
Wikipedia