Judges

Mufti Hamid Patel

(Mufti) Hamid is the Principal and Chief Executive of Tauheedul Islam Girls' High School & Sixth Form College. Under his leadership, the school's academic results and profile have increased considerably. In March 2010, Ofsted inspectors rated the school as 'outstanding', the first secondary school in the borough of Blackburn with Darwen to receive the accolade. In January 2010, Tauheedul took responsibility for an under-performing secular secondary school in Blackburn, Blakewater College, and (Mufti) Hamid chairs the Governing Body of Blakewater

(Mufti) Hamid is a member of several national and international strategic educational forums that advise Governments on educational and social cohesion policies.

Prior to his role at Tauheedul, (Mufti) Hamid was the Director of Strategy and External Relations at Bradford College, one of the United Kingdom's largest and oldest Further and Higher Colleges, serving 25,000 students from over 65 countries.

(Mufti) Hamid is a graduate of Islamic Theology, having studied in the UK and South Africa and has contributed to Islamic and educational conferences across the globe. He also has a Masters degree in Education.

Qari Mohammed Ismail

Qari Ismail is a prominent British Muslim scholar who has studied and gained Islamic and Secular qualifications in Pakistan, KSA and the U.K. After studying Shariah and Arabic Language he joined Sheffield Hallam and Sheffield University where he studied and conducted research in education. He is a Fellow of the National Institute of Learning and an NIACE approved consultant. He lives in South Yorkshire and served the community for more than 30 years as a lecturer and researcher. He has been actively involved in multi-faith work nationally and locally for more than 25 years. Through his position at Birmingham Central Mosque and through his work in education he is effectively promoting community cohesion. He worked as Consultant for the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) on the national faith leaders' training programme. Qari Ismail has a wealth of experience inspecting independent faith schools under the Section 162a Inspection Framework since 1998 and is also AMS UK's Lead Section 48 Inspector for Voluntary Aided Muslim schools, responsible for assessing the distinctiveness of religious education and a school's contribution to a child's spiritual development.  He is also an Education/Safeguarding Consultant with Sheffield CYPS and Khateeb (Lead Imam) for Birmingham Central Mosque.

Tahir Alam

Tahir Alam has previously worked as the Director of Training at Al-Hijrah Training Academy focusing on community development through coaching and training activities, which have included; advising and supporting parents, personal development of teachers through coaching and training, training schools governors and leadership development. He has substantial experience of school improvement through strategic governance and has been a school governor and chair of governors in a number of schools for over 10 years. He also currently works for Birmingham Local Authority as a trainer and specialises in School Governance consultancy and training. He has participated in many policy consultation forums and debates on educational issues relating to education of British Muslim children and wider educational issues. He is the lead author of the MCB school guidance document on 'Meeting the Needs of Muslim Pupils in State Schools'. He is an executive committee member of the Association of Muslim Schools (AMS) and regularly advises on Muslim education and facilitates training workshops on 'Islam and Muslim Cultural Awareness' and 'Meeting the Needs of Muslim Pupils in Schools'. He presents the 'Education Talk' programme on a community radio station (Unity FM) in Birmingham and has contributed to many radio and television programmes on the theme of Muslim Education. Tahir is also a trained independent schools inspector.