Murad Qureshi

Murad Qureshi (Bengali: মুরাদ কোরেশী; born 27 May 1965) is a British Labour and Co-operative Party politician, and a Member of the London Assembly. He is the current chair of the Stop the War Coalition.[1]

Murad Qureshi

AM
মুরাদ কোরেশী
Qureshi in April 2012
Member of the London Assembly
as the 6th Additional Member
Assumed office
25 March 2020
Preceded byFiona Twycross
Member of the London Assembly
as the 7th Additional Member
In office
10 June 2004 – 6 May 2016
Preceded bySamantha Heath
Succeeded byDavid Kurten
Personal details
Born (1965-05-27) 27 May 1965
Greater Manchester, Lancashire, England
NationalityBritish
Political partyLabour Co-operative
ResidenceCentral London, England
EducationMSc Environmental Economics
Alma materUniversity of East Anglia (BA)
University College London (MSc)
ProfessionPolitician
Websitewww.muradqureshi.com

Background

Qureshi was born in Greater Manchester, but he was brought up in Westminster, London, where his parents moved in July 1965. He attended Quintin Kynaston School and graduated from the University of East Anglia with a degree in Development Studies, before undertaking an MSc in Environmental Economics at University College London.

Qureshi is of Bangladeshi descent,[2][3] and comes from a politically active family: his late father Mushtaq Qureshi was a Labour Party councillor in the City of Westminster[4] and was a freedom fighter in the Bangladesh War of Liberation. His youngest sister Papya Qureshi[5] is also a sitting councillor in Westminster.

Before becoming an Assembly Member, he worked in Housing and Regeneration for 15 years, helping establish housing associations and co-ops in the East End.[6]

He was an Executive Committee member of SERA from 1994 to 2000[6] and a former board member of BRAC U.K, an international NGO seeking to alleviate poverty and empower the poor.

Career

Qureshi was a councillor in the City of Westminster from 1998 to 2006, was elected on the Labour Party's party list to the London Assembly in the 2004 Assembly election, was re-elected in the 2008 election and re-elected in 2012 Assembly election. He failed to be re-elected at the 2016 election; because Labour gained constituency seats, it lost seats from its party list, which Qureshi was on.[7][8][9]

He has been described as "the only Muslim member" of the London Assembly,[10] although he supports Amartya Sen's theory of plural identities[11] and has criticised the practice of individuals "defining themselves simply by their religion, without taking into account other key aspects of their identity".[12][13]

Qureshi was Chair of the London Assembly's Environment Committee and a Member of the Transport Committee. He was also a member of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, which oversees the London Fire Brigade between 2004–2012 and Chair of the Mayor's London Waterways Commission, since its inception.

Under his chairmanship of the Environment Committee at the London Assembly, a body of work emerged against expansion of Heathrow airport work and its adverse environmental impact on Londoners' quality of life, particularly in West London suburbs, including reports Plane Speaking (2012) and Flights of Fancy (2010), plus consultation responses on the Government's Draft Aviation Policy Framework (2012), and more recently against night flights.

In "Flights of Fancy" produced before the last general election in May 2010, it argued against Labour government keenness to have a third runway at Heathrow. Since losing the last general election, the Labour Party has dropped its expansion of Heathrow airport position.

As an Assembly Member he has undertaken rapporteurships into pedicabs (cycle rickshaws)[14] and the loss of London's playing fields.[15] The latter report called for Sport England to be consulted on all applications for developments on playing fields measuring 0.2 hectares or more, a policy which has since been adopted by the Department for Communities and Local Government.[16]

He lost his seat in 2016, but returned to the assembly in 2020 following the resignation of Fiona Twycross.[17]

Campaigns and activities
Murad Qureshi

Among his campaigns, Qureshi has called for the inclusion of Twenty20 cricket in the 2012 Olympic Games,[18] a proposal which has received the backing of the London Assembly,[19] and he has advocated the use of blue lines to mark the courses of London's underground rivers.[20]

He has called for Edgware Road tube station (Bakerloo Line) to be renamed Church Street Market, as this would end the confusion between that station and the namesake station on the Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines.[21]

He has worked for many years to raise awareness of the crucial role of remittances in international development[22][23] with his last letter in the Financial Times generating much debate. In 2004, remittances was the key topic on which he presented evidence before the House of Commons International Development Committee as part of a submission by the British Bangladeshi International Development Group.[24]

In 2007, Qureshi hosted a meeting at City Hall which launched the Cambridge IGCSEs in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India Studies[25] with Amartya Sen's support.

Qureshi closely follows political developments in South Asia, and was in Bangladesh for the parliamentary elections in December 2008.[26]

He is Chairman of Capital SERA, the London branch of SERA.[27]

He contributes regular columns to the China Daily,[28] Tribune[29] and West End Extra.

Qureshi has a music record named after him and has financially backed a British film Shongram, which is a romantic drama, set during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation struggle.

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See also

References
  1. "Nick Ferrari Vs Stop The War Over Russia's Syrian Bombs". LBC. 12 October 2016. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  2. "Amiss unearths helmet that changed the game". The Telegraph. 28 April 2005. Retrieved 5 June 2009.
  3. "London legislator wants cricket in 2012 Olympics". MSN UK. 6 August 2008. Archived from the original on 10 September 2008. Retrieved 5 June 2009.
  4. Foot, Tom (30 October 2009). "Fighter for social justice". West End Extra. Retrieved 13 October 2009.
  5. "Councillors". Westminster City Council. Archived from the original on 21 August 2006. Retrieved 21 August 2006.
  6. "Biography". www.muradqureshi.com. Retrieved 24 June 2009.
  7. "London-wide Assembly Member candidates, 2016". 1 April 2016. Archived from the original on 12 August 2016. Retrieved 21 May 2016.
  8. "London-wide Assembly Member results 2016.pdf" (PDF). 6 May 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 21 May 2016.
  9. "Results 2016, London Elects". 6 May 2016.
  10. "Islamic leaders will issue 'fatwa' on terrorists". The Independent. 10 July 2005.
  11. See Amartya Sen, Identity and Violence (2006)
  12. "Sikh girl's victory points to multiple identities". Qureshi Report. 1 August 2008.
  13. See also London in multiple identities Qureshi Report, 8 April 2009
  14. "London's Rickshaws" (PDF). London Assembly Transport Committee. February 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 February 2007. Retrieved 1 April 2009.
  15. "Offside: The Loss of London's Playing Fields" (PDF). London Assembly Environment Committee. May 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 November 2008. Retrieved 1 April 2009.
  16. "Umpires rule on playing field sales are ruled offside". Evening Standard. 11 March 2009. Archived from the original on 5 May 2013. Retrieved 1 April 2009.
  17. "Labour's Alison Moore and Murad Qureshi join London Assembly | East London and West Essex Guardian Series". guardian-series.co.uk. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
  18. "AM launches petition to include cricket at London Olympics". Twenty20 for 2012 press release. Twenty20 For 2012. 5 August 2008. Archived from the original on 27 October 2008. Retrieved 1 April 2009.
  19. "London Assembly wants T20 cricket in 2012 Olympics". The Times of India. 21 November 2008. Retrieved 1 April 2009.
  20. "Time to draw a (blue) line over the capital's historic lost rivers". West End Extra. 9 January 2009. Retrieved 1 April 2009.
  21. "Call to rename twin Tube stations". BBC News. 14 September 2007. Retrieved 23 March 2008.
  22. "Migrant workers of the world unite". The Observer. 15 January 2006. Retrieved 11 June 2009.
  23. "Money transfers make the world go round". Qureshi Report. 26 February 2009.
  24. "Submission to the House of Commons International Development Committee (IDC) inquiry into Migration and Development" (PDF). Publications Parliament. 30 January 2004.
  25. "New Cambridge IGCSEs launched at event attended by Nobel Prize Winner Professor Amartya Sen". University of Cambridge International Examinations. 20 June 2007. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  26. "BNP-Jamaat smashed in Bangladesh polls, as electorate votes for secularism". Qureshi Report. 1 January 2009. Archived from the original on 1 April 2011. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  27. "Launch of Capital SERA". SERA News. 27 January 2009. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 24 June 2009.
  28. Qureshi, Murad (23 October 2008). "Time for congestion charging in Beijing?". China Daily. Retrieved 11 June 2009.
  29. Qureshi, Murad (1 May 2009). "Boris: progressive image is just spin". Tribune. Retrieved 11 June 2009.
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