Harris Bokhari

Harris Bokhari is the founder and a trustee at the Patchwork Foundation, for which he won the Diversity Champion of the Year Award in early 2018. The Patchwork Foundation is a charity that aims to "promote and encourage the positive integration of disadvantaged and minority communities into British democracy and civil society's Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy. He is also an independent member of the "Community and Voluntary Service" of the Honours Committee and is credited to help increase diverse representation for the awards. Bokhari is a member of the National Assessment Committee of the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service which plays a key role in the awards process.

Conservative Party campaign strategist Sir Lynton Crosby, who is a patron of Patchwork, described Bokhari as "Captain Networker".

Bokhari was appointed by the Prime Minister on 11 May 2020 as a trustee of the Natural History Museum, making him one of only three Muslim trustees in major British museums, and currently the only British-born Muslim.

Early life

Bokhari grew up in Epsom, Surrey and was active in community events and helping people from a young age. His Punjabi-born father was the first British Muslim to run a secondary school in the UK; he was headteacher of Ernest Bevin College and was awarded an OBE for services to education in the 2001 Birthday Honours. Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member Hina Bokhari is his older sister.

Career

Bokhari graduated from Imperial College, London in 1999 with a BSc in Mathematics and was awarded their Distinguished Alumni Award 2020. Bokhari is a chartered accountant and is a tax and financial advisor. He has worked for PwC, KPMG and Baker Tilly, and is currently an Independent Financial Advisor.

He regularly writes for the ''Evening Standard'', ''The Independent'' and ''Times Educational Supplement''.

Public service

Mosaic Network

Harris Bokhari was appointed as first honorary patron of The Prince's Trust Mosaic Network, where he is a National Advisory Board member. In 2013, he was among thirty-three philanthropists honoured by the Beacon Awards for collectively giving more than £100m to charitable causes. He was awarded the Beacon Award for Philanthropy Advocate for raising £1 million within 12 months for various charities working in deprived communities in the UK.

Naz Legacy Foundation

Bokhari is also founder of the Naz Legacy Foundation, which was established in honour of the legacy of his father, Naz Bokhari, the first Muslim secondary school head-teacher in Britain. The Naz Legacy Foundation received Prime Minister David Cameron's Big Society Award in 2014.

Bokhari's interfaith work has included organising the first ever engagement event between national community, women and youth leaders from the Jewish and Muslim communities meeting with the new Chief Rabbi in Finchley Kinloss Synagogue. He was one of the first Muslims to be invited to the Chief Rabbi's installation ceremony. He also organised the first youth interfaith iftar at Lambeth Palace, which brought together the Archbishop of Canterbury, Chief Rabbi, Mayor of London and over 100 youth leaders from each of London's boroughs.

Other recognition

Bokhari was awarded an OBE in the 2015 Birthday Honours, and was listed as an 'Equality Champion' in the ''Evening Standard'''s Progress 1000 list of most influential Londoners. He also won the Alija Izetbegovic Award for Good Citizenship from the ''The Muslim News'' Awards in 2016.

Simon Woolley of Operation Black Vote praised Bokhari's work "for his services to young people and interfaith... With his easy charm and steely determination Bokhari can call upon the top political figures to talk to the young men and women on his schemes. He's even become an ambassador for the HRH Prince Charles. Well done Harris, your father, who also received an OBE, would be deeply proud of his son."

Muslim community activism

Bokhari was a spokesperson for the Muslim Association of Britain from 2006 to 2008.

In 2007, Bokhari was appointed press officer for the launch of Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board (MINAB), which was attended by the Communities Secretary Hazel Blears. Soon after the Government stopped working with many of these organisations, Bokhari had already moved on to other projects and initiatives outside of the Muslim communities.

Position on Israel and anti-Semitism

In 2002, Bokhari organised protests in London, attended by thousands of people "to express their solidarity with the Palestinians and against Israel's ongoing military operations in the West Bank."

In 2019, Bokhari organized the first inter-faith Iftar with the Chief Rabbi at St John's Wood synagogue. It resulted in a number of synagogues across London organising their own Iftars. Bokhari reportedly said: "We need to call out all forms of prejudice and racism in society and it is important we speak out against anti- semitism in the same way we have to speak out against Islamophobia."

Position on UK foreign policy

Bokhari told the ''Socialist Worker'': "We have been saying that British foreign policy is a problem since day one, even before the war in Afghanistan...and it is not just Muslims saying this. The two million who marched against war in Iraq were not majority Muslim. The 100,000 that marched against the war in Lebanon and Gaza are not majority Muslim. The Chatham House foreign policy research institute has been saying it. A lot of people up and down the country are very upset about Britain's foreign policy. We would be ignoring our moral duty if we did not speak out. And it's very naive for ministers to say that this not a problem."

Bokhari was asked by the BBC
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