Khurshid Drabu

Khurshid Drabu Varrier CBE (8 March 1946 – 20 April 2018) was an English judge, law lecturer and Muslim community leader. He was the first Muslim to be a judge in Britain, serving on immigration and asylum tribunals.[1]

Early life

Drabu was born in Srinagar in Kashmir as Khurshid Hassan Drabu to Ghulam Nabi Drabu, a tax commissioner, and his wife Zarifa. He studied at Tyndale Biscoe School, then Sri Pratap College to complete a BA in Political Science. In 1969, he completed a law degree at Aligarh University. He played first-class cricket for the Jammu and Kashmir cricket team from 1963 to 1970 as an opening batsman.[1]

Career

In November 1971, he moved to England with ₤3 in his pocket and became a law lecturer.[2][3] He was called to the bar in 1977. He served as an advocate in the high court in Kashmir between 1978 and 1980 before returning to England to specialise in immigration law.

In 1987, he became deputy director of the Immigration Advisory Service.[2] In 1990, he became the first deputy legal director of the Commission for Racial Equality, a position he held until 1997.[2][1] While at the Commission for Racial Equality, Drabu Varrier was in charge of reviewing the Race Relations Act 1976.[4]

His judicial career started with serving as a magistrate for 12 years. He served for twelve years as president of the Mental Health Review Tribunal. In 1996, he was appointed to the immigration and asylum tribunal. He became vice president of the tribunal in 2000 and served there until 2007. He still heard cases after retirement in the upper-tier immigration tribunal. He was also a visiting lecturer at the University of Middlesex in the law department.[2] He also served as an adviser to the Ministry of Defence starting in 2002, and encouraged Muslims to join the armed forces. Under his tenure, the number of Muslims serving in the armed forces increased from 25 to almost 800.[1][4][3]

In the 2010 Birthday Honours, he was awarded a CBE.

Non-profit activities

Khurshid helped found the Muslim Council of Britain and served as the organisation's legal adviser. In 2007, he helped found the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board to promote interfaith dialogue and improving standards in mosque leadership, as well as to reconcile Sunni and Shia communities .[2][1]

Personal life

Drabu married Reefat in 1972.[5] They had four children, daughters Aliya, Farrah and Zayba, and son Hamza.[1] At the time of his death, he was living in Winchester.[3]

Khurshid Drabu died on 20 April 2018.[3]

gollark: So we have ☭ good, ok, bad and awesome.
gollark: That's basically it. It falls back to sorting by ID, I believe, if they match lexicographically.
gollark: It's a "quick sort", because it executes in under a second on my test list.
gollark: Plus, optimized bubble bogosort is an excellent algorithm.
gollark: It's basically as safe as most other C programs.

References
  1. Versi, Miqdaad; Khan, Sadiq (16 May 2018). "Khurshid Varrier obituary". the Guardian. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  2. "Khurshid Drabu: Britain's first Muslim judge and a pioneer of social cohesion and interfaith dialogue". The Independent. 25 April 2018. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  3. "UK's first Muslim judge in Southampton hospital after heart attack". Daily Echo. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  4. "The Joseph Interfaith Foundation". www.josephinterfaithfoundation.org. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  5. Taylor, Craig (31 December 2005). "We love each other: Reefat & Khurshid Drabu". the Guardian. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
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