engage and contact with the younger generation as a handful of the youngsters are being misled by extremists. I am also pleased to note that in objective no. 5 you also mention women as the Muslim women have supported and stood by Muslim men throughout our glorious history. Bibi Khatigha was the first person to became Muslim and supported the holy prophet (peace be upon him) in every way.

I was also impressed by your objective no.1 in which you state that you will be informed and guided by the teaching of the Koran and the Sunnah. As we all know that our holy prophet (peace be on you) made his farewell speech on the mountain of Arafat. Amongst other things he said: 'O people, reflect on my words. I leave behind me two things, the Koran and my example, and if you follow these, you will not fail.'

I note in objective no. 2 it is stated that the Northampton Muslim Council will be an independent non political body. I very much appreciate this and feel that it is right for the council to take this stance.

I am however very keen that there are more Muslims from different parties in House of Lords and House of Commons. The Muslims represent 3% of the population and I would like to see at least 3% of the parliamentarian being Muslims. This means that there should be at least over 35 Muslims in the Upper and Lower House. On my part I am mentoring a number of Muslim parliamentary candidates with the idea of helping them to enter Parliament. I am taking this opportunity to urge my brothers and sisters to become politically active. I am not asking them to join the Conservative Party but please think of getting involved in the party of your choice and become a member. By doing so we can also change the attitude of the political parties towards the Muslims and ethnic minorities.

There a number of Muslims who have done well in business, professions and in the academic world. This country is our home and we are proud of the fact that we have contributed the advancement and the well being of this country. I am confident that you will be successful in objective no. 7 in which you state that you will be able to draw on the broad range of ideas, expertise knowledge and skills that exist within the Muslim communities.

I would now like to comment on objective no. 6 with regard to engagement with other faith communities. Islam is indeed a religion of peace and teaches us to be tolerant and live with other communities. During the various Muslim Empires people of other faiths were respected and allowed to practise their faiths. The holy prophet has said that there are two rails in me which Allah likes, toleration and deliberation in undertakings. Islam regards the Christians and Jews as people of the book and the four books of Allah are Tawrat, Zabur, Injeel and Koran.

The angel Gabriel who came before the holy prophet to reveal the Koran was the same Angel who appeared before Mary mother of Jesus.

The Muslim escaped from Mecca to Medina during the start of our religion it was a christan King Negus who gave protect to the Muslims. We Muslims who have come to United Kingdom which is a Christian country should respect this country and other people living here. I believe the British people with all their faults are general tolerant.

I believe that we need to build a dialogue with other faith groups and build harmonious relations with others and the interfaith work is very important.

Thank you.