Trainers

Shafi Chowdhury

Shafi Chowdhury graduated in 2002 from the Institute of Islamic Education. Dewsbury, where he read classical disciplines including Shari’ah studies, Tafsir, and Hadith, with associated Usul. He has worked within a range of Muslim communities as an Imam and educator. He has served as a Muslim Chaplain within the Prison Service and currently serves as a consultant to the UK Home Office on the development and delivery of programmes for the ideological rehabilitation of individuals charged with terrorism related offences and countering extremist narratives.

Shafi is a founding director of the City Retreat, an outreach and engagement facility based in Leicester where he oversees religious affairs including interfaith initiatives, weekly halaqas and the delivery of the Friday service; he is also a lecturer at Ebrahim College, London. He regularly speaks on themes such as faith, identity, and modernity at national and international conferences in both the public and private sectors, radio and TV shows, and university speaker tours.

Shafi lives in Leicester with his wife and three daughters

Fazal Mohammed

Fazal Mohammed studied the Islamic Sciences under the tutelage of prominent scholars, beginning his studies under his father, then at Jamia Al-Karam, Retford and completing the Dars e Nizami syllabus at Dar al-Uloom Qadria Jilania, London. He simultaneously completed his LLB (Hons) degree in 2000. He continued postgraduate studies in the Science of Hadith at Dar alUloom Jamia Hanafia, Sialkot, Pakistan.

Fazal has extensive experience in developing and delivering courses in Islamic Sciences and Islamic Spirituality as well as counter-extremism
programmes, working within both the public sector as well as private
community institutions. Currently he is the Head of Faith and Pastoral
Care department at Her Majesty’s Prison Nottingham.

Fazal lives in Derby with his wife and four children.

Ibrahim Mehtar

Ibrahim Mehtar completed memorisation of the Qur’an at the age of 12 years, before enrolling in the Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Bury. He specialised in classical Islamic areas such as Qur’anic Exegesis, Hadith and Islamic Jurisprudence. He completed the Dars e Nizami and graduated with distinction in 2000. He has served as the chief Imam in mosques in Scotland and London. He has worked as a Muslim Chaplain for the West London Mental Health Trust providing pastoral support to patients and Islamic guidance to NHS practitioners. Since 2005 he has been working for Her Majesty’s Prison Service in a number of large prisons, before moving to Prison Service Headquarters as Acting Muslim Adviser. He is now the Regional HQ Adviser carrying out Audit and Compliance of faith and pastoral care provision
in prisons. Ibrahim has vast experience in challenging Islamist extremist views in the community and was part of a team that researched and developed theological rebuttals of extremist narratives.

Ibrahim lives in London with his wife and daughter, and the other love in his life is Manchester United Football Club.

Moosa Gora

Moosa Gora is among the longest-serving Muslim Chaplains in Her Majesty’s Prison Service with over 30 years of experience providing religious and pastoral care to prisoners. Moosa graduated as a theologian in 1990 from the Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Bury, completing the traditional Dars e Nizami syllabus. He received the Butler Trust Award in 2009 for his work in tackling extremism within the Prison High Security estate. In 2012 he was awarded an MBE for services to Faith and Diversity within the Prison Service. Moosa has been involved in numerous special projects including Imams’ training,  research into forced conversions within prisons, and developing manuals on
spirituality and counter-extremism and de-radicalisation. His recent work includes
providing Islamic theological support to Separation Centres for the most high-profile
prisoners convicted of terrorism-related offences

Moosa lives in Dewsbury with his wife and five children.

Join the Movement

Stand Against Extremism

Get started today