Harris Bokhari

Bokhari graduated from Imperial College, London in 1999 with a BSc in Mathematics. Bokhari is a chartered accountant.[8] In 2006, Bokhari was a manager at the London branch of 1st Ethical, founded by Sufyan Ismail.[9] Bokhari was a former partner at Ascension Wealth Management, which ceased operations on Oct 2018.[10][11]

He has written for the Evening Standard, The Independent and Times Educational Supplement.[12][13][14]

Bokhari is described as a spokesperson for the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) by The Guardian and other sources.[25][26][27][28] In the same period, he was a national affiliate representative for the Muslim Council of Britain from 2007-2008.[29]

By 2007, Bokhari was appointed Press Officer of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board (MINAB).[30]

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." "Some protesters carried posters depicting Prime Minister Ariel Sharon behind bars and comparing him to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler," reported Ha'aretz, which said that MAB were the "organisers" of the event. At the event Bokhari called for a boycott of Israeli goods, and Jeremy Corbyn demanded that there should be "no arms, no money, no recognition and no support for Israel."[31]

In 2019, Bokhari organized the first inter-faith Iftari 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.”[32]

Bokhari who has been described as a “leading Muslim voice in the fight against antisemitism” was the only “Muslim leader” to join a private reception with former Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the 17th Annual Isaiah Berlin Lecture, held at Hampstead Synagogue. The reception was reported to be attended by “leading members of the Jewish community” including the Israeli ambassador and the president of the Board of Deputies.[33]

In 2006, three Muslim Labour MPs—Mohammed Sarwar, Sadiq Khan and Shahid Malik—together with 38 Muslim organisations signed a letter warning that “current British government policy risks putting civilians at increased risk both in Britain and abroad”.[34] The MAB was one of the organisations that signed this letter. In his capacity as spokesperson for MAB, Bokhari told Socialist Worker magazine: “We have been saying that British foreign policy is a problem since day one, even before the war in Afghanistan”, and warned that if British foreign policy did not change, terrorism on UK soil would be inevitable. He went on to say: “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.”[34]

In 2006, Bokhari was asked by the BBC about his reaction to a British government proposal to incorporate teaching of "core British values" into citizenship classes in schools to help "tackle extremism and discrimination." In response to the previous year's London bombings, ministers wanted citizenship classes in schools to promote values shared by all communities across society, "such as freedom, fairness, civil responsibilities and democracy."

In his capacity as a spokesperson for the Muslim Association of Britain, Bokhari rejected the proposal: "This is just another one of those knee-jerk reactions where we're not actually looking at the core problem. What was the reason why these people actually committed these disgusting acts? Unfortunately it was our foreign policy, it was the issue of the illegal war, the illegal occupation of Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the continuing abuses of the Palestinian people, the illegal occupation of Palestine by the Israeli state. So I think until the government actually addresses these issues unfortunately we'll keep on having these problems in the UK particularly."[35]

In February 2006, Bokhari was interviewed following the publication and distribution of the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed concerning calls by Muslim groups to boycott the West. Speaking on the incident, Bokhari said: 'We live in a democratic society and have the right to choose what we buy. International companies have an influence over governments and the media, and can also influence global politics. They have to understand that if they're going to cause offence, then we’re not going to buy their products." Bokhari believes the boycott will spread to products made in other countries and predicts Germany will be next after several newspapers defended their right to publish the cartoons.[36]

In 2010, according to The New Yorker, Harris Bokhari told a group of British Muslims to vote for Labour Party candidate Sadiq Khan instead of Liberal Democrat candidate Nasser Butt, a member of the Ahmadiyya sect. “The majority of Muslims in this area are voting Lib Dem, because they think Nasser Butt is a Muslim,” Bokhari reportedly told a room of Muslim voters as the reason why they should not vote for Butt. “You need to go into the community and take these posters down…. All you need to do is just look for Sadiq Khan, Labour Party, and just tick it… Whatever else you vote is up to you.” Bokhari later told the author of this report that he "does not remember the meeting".[37]

After the election, Nasser Butt claimed that Khan's Muslim supporters had rallied around the Tooting Islamic Centre to campaign against the Lib Dem candidate due to his religion. A secret recording of a meeting at the Tooting mosque two days before polling revealed that the main voice for this approach was Harris Bokhari. Your Local Guardian reported that recordings of the event caught Bokhari telling Muslim attendees not to vote for Butt because of his Ahmadiyya affiliation, as this meant that he was not a Muslim. In the recording, Bokhari is heard to tell the audience: “The majority of Muslims in this area are voting Lib Dem, because they think Nasser Butt is a Muslim. If you don’t go in and speak to them, they’re not going to do it. They’re fed up of hearing it from the imams. They want to hear it from you. They need you to go into the community and say ‘Why are you supporting the Qadiani community?’”[38]

In 2017, Bokhari talked about his work with young people from minority faith communities who face prejudices, including youth in the Ahmadiyya community.[39] In 2019, he wrote in the Independent[40] and the Evening Standard[41]calling out the precaution and hatred against towards the Ahmadiyya community.

In July 2019, Bokhari, a grassroots expert in Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) was invited to attend the Home Secretary's speech, Confronting Extremism Together.[42][43] Bokhari, who organised the Woolwich interfaith event following the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby in 2013 and the Christchurch vigil at Islamic Cultural Centre and memorial at New Zealand House in 2019, was invited by the US State Department on their International Visitor Leadership Programme on CVE in 2017.[44]