Mohamed Sheikh, Baron Sheikh

Mohamed Iltaf Sheikh, Baron Sheikh (born 13 June 1941) is a British politician. He was formerly an insurance broker and underwriter.

The Right Honourable

The Lord Sheikh
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Assumed office
6 June 2006
Life Peerage
Personal details
Born13 June 1941
Political partyConservative
Spouse(s)Guli[1]
Websitewww.lordsheikh.com

Early life and professional career

Sheikh was born in Kenya and raised in Uganda.[2] He was previously a company director of Camberford Law until 2008.

Barony

Sheikh was appointed a life peer in 2006 after he was nominated by Michael Howard MP, then Leader of the Conservative Party. The life barony conferred upon Mohamed Iltaf Sheikh was gazetted on 6 June 2006 by the name, style and title of Baron Sheikh, of Cornhill in the City of London.[3]

Conservative Party

Sheikh first joined the Conservative Party in 2004. Sheikh is the former chairman of the Conservative Muslim Forum and also the chairman of the Conservative Ethnic Diversity Council.[4] He is actively involved in promoting the Conservative Party to ethnic minorities and also the building of harmonious relationships between various racial and religious groups.[5]

Sheikh sits on the Conservative (currently government) benches in the House of Lords.

In 2018, as a member of the Conservative Muslim Forum, he joined calls from the Muslim Council of Britain and senior members of his party for an independent inquiry into alleged Tory Islamophobia[6] and called for former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to be removed from the Conservative Party over perceived Islamophobic comments Johnson made regarding the burqa and niqab.[7] Consequently, Sheikh was reported to have received several offensive emails over the controversy including "horrible things, obscene things about the Prophet Muhammad."[8][9]

Charity

Baron Sheikh founded and funds a registered personal and family charity, the Sheikh Abdullah Foundation, in his father's memory. The charity amongst other things recognises and rewards the attainment of young people who are the rising stars and hopefully will be the future leaders. The charity also supports a number of deserving causes in the United Kingdom and overseas.

Arms
Coat of arms of Mohamed Sheikh, Baron Sheikh
Adopted
2007
Coronet
Coronet of a Baron
Crest
A Peacock in its pride Azure beaked legged and crested Gules the tail eyed Or the wings displayed and each supporting a Quill Argent spined Or
Escutcheon
Argent four rows of Pallets couped the first and third alternately Gules and Azure the second and fourth Azure and Gules over all on a Pale Vert a Pale Or charged with three Crescents Vert
Supporters
On either side statant upon an Egg Or a Dove wings inverted and addorsed Argent beaked and legged Gules
Motto
IQRA
Symbolism
The rows of couped pallets represent rows of books; and writing is further reflected in the quills in both Crest and Badge. The peacock is a clear allusion to the origin of the grantee's family and the crescents to the Muslim faith. The dove Supporters with their eggs represent the two doves who nested in front of a cave where the prophet Mohammed was hiding from his enemies. The latter seeing the nesting doves assumed that the cave must be empty and so passed by allowing the prophet to remain undiscovered.

Bibliography
  • Sheikh, Mohamed (2017). Emperor of the five rivers: the life and times of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. London: I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84885-754-4. OCLC 894340672.
  • Sheikh, Mohamed (2019). An Indian In The House: The lives and times of the four trailblazers who first brought India to the British Parliament. [S.l.]: Mereo Books. ISBN 978-1-86151-490-5. OCLC 1080075581.

References
  1. Tashkent Times (ed.). "Lord Iltaf Sheikh marries 32-year old Uzbek woman"..
  2. Watts, Joe (14 August 2018). "Tory peer admits he was also at Palestinian conference at centre of Jeremy Corbyn's wreath-laying controversy". The Independent. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
  3. "No. 58006". The London Gazette. 9 June 2006. p. 7933.
  4. "Conservative Muslim Forum – News/Events – News & Past Events". www.conservativemuslimforum.com.
  5. "Conservative Muslim Forum – About us – Objectives". www.conservativemuslimforum.com.
  6. Johnston, Chris (2 June 2018). "Pressure grows on May to tackle Islamophobia in Conservative party". The Observer. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
  7. "Johnson 'let the genie out of the bottle'" (video). BBC Newsnight. 10 August 2018. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
  8. Cowburn, Ashley (10 August 2018). "Tory Muslim peer who called for Boris Johnson to be kicked out of party receives barrage of 'vile Islamophobic' emails". The Independent. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  9. Finnis, Alex (10 August 2018). "Boris Johnson critic Lord Sheikh receives abusive emails after complaining about burka 'letterbox' comments". inews.co.uk. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
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