Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui

View this email in your browser ANNOUNCEMENT Dear Family and Friends Assalamu Aleikum The Janaza (funeral) prayers for our beloved father Ghayasuddin Siddiqui will be tomorrow Sunday 19 April at Chesham Mosque, Bellingdon Road, Chesham, HP5 2NN, following the Zuhr prayers at 2pm. Parking available. The burial service will follow at Chesham Cemetery opposite the Mosque via Bellingdon Road (HP5 3ET). After the burial, those wishing to meet the family are welcome to join us at the Mosque for food and remembrance. We pray that Allah (swt) accepts him in His infinite mercy and grants him a place in the Highest Garden. Ameen. Faiza, Asim, Uzma and Salman Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui (1939 – 2026) It is with great grief and sorrow that we announce the death of the highly regarded thinker and activist, Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui. He died peacefully at his home in the early hours of the 18th April 2026.    Born in 1939, Dr Siddqui was delivered into a world on the verge of major shifts as the second world war would define the century to come and postcolonial fervour would find his birth nation partitioned into India and the new nation of Pakistan. Since his first arrival in Great Britain in 1963, Dr Siddiqui has positioned himself as a force of activism and a voice for the growing British Muslim community. During his student days at Sheffield University, his study room was a hub of activism. As the Assistant Secretary of the newly formed Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) he would host thought leaders from across the post-colonial world, culminating in organising the visit of Malcolm X to Sheffield in 1964.    Dr Siddiqui was part of the first generation of Muslim migrants who established roots and community institutions in Britain.  Along with fellow pioneer Kalim Siddiqui (no relation, died 1996) he was a founder and trustee of the Muslim Institute, an independent learned society established in 1973. In 2008, he was responsible for kickstarting the reiteration of the Muslim Institute, bringing the organisation to a new vibrant life that shines bright to this day.    As someone who had the foresight to understand that a community needs to develop its own institutions in order to flourish, Dr Siddiqui was an institution builder. From 1992, he helped establish a string of bodies that would inspire and clear a path for a new generation of home grown organisations that would focus on the needs of the growing British Muslim community. These included the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, the Bait al Mal al Islami (a UK focused welfare fund), the Halal Food Authority, and British Muslims for a Secular Democracy. He was a true multiculturalist, bridging the Muslim communities with other faith-based and ethnic communities who made the UK their home. He was a passionate campaigner for human rights and liberty, and was actively involved in promoting equality, social justice and gender equality. He balanced the local needs of his neighbours with the concerns of an increasingly globalised world, championing justice in the UK as well as abroad. He actively campaigned against the genocide in Bosnia, the war in Chechnya, and the UK’s involvement in the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He was the first major Muslim leader who called for Muslims to work hand in hand with non-Muslims for common causes at a time when the Muslim community consensus was to march alone. He was a spearhead of the Stop the War Coalition in 2001.   Whilst grounded within the community, Dr Siddiqui demonstrated the confidence to hold a mirror up and challenge injustices within the community that others preferred to brush under the carpet. He led campaigns against forced marriages, honour killings and domestic violence, which led to Child Protection in Faith-Based Environment initiative and a radically new model of a Muslim Marriage Contract that would better protect women.    He worked tirelessly so that the community could grow unencumbered alongside and within the British way of life. He was one of the few voices of reason in a confused world left in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the 7/7 bombings. A regular presence in both newsrooms and at protests, he spoke with clarity and conviction on issues of human welfare and social justice. His voice was a clarion call for the Muslim community. Dr Siddiqui was one of the essential leaders who paved the way for the Muslim community as we know it in the UK today – a community that is not afraid to speak its mind, that is ethically grounded, politically active, and dedicated to justice for all regardless of our differences. He had a great love for young people and was committed to widening access to professions and mentoring students. He helped young scholars at every opportunity, most often finding grants for students to continue their further education.    He never failed to attend a Muslim Institute event, and was always ready to enter in dialogue and discussions at the Institute’s Winter Gatherings.    Dr Siddiqui will be dearly missed.    He is survived by his wife Talat and four children (Faiza, Asim, Uzma, Salman). His legacy will always be honoured and promoted, not just by his children and eleven grandchildren, but also by his numerous friends and Fellows of the Muslim Institute. https://musliminstitute.org/announcement/ info@musliminstitute.org  |  www.musliminstitute.org Muslim Institute, 82 Tanner Street, London, SE1 3GN Copyright © 2026 Muslim Institute, All rights reserved. You are on our list because you have volunteered your email to us.

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