Andrew Coates

Lord Henry Stanley became the first Muslim member of the House of Lords in 1869—ten years after reverting to Islam. Stanley was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1847, Stanley joined the Foreign Office in London and later worked in the Ottoman Empire. Stanley appreciated the social and spiritual benefits which Islam provided the Ottomans. Stanley opposed European interference in the Ottoman Empire. He had a passion for justice and was ahead of his time in wanting an end to further British imperialist encroachments. Although his parents had a Whig-Liberal outlook, he grew conservative politically and morally. In 1859, he travelled to Saudi Arabia and reverted to Islam. His parents were outraged. He told his brother Johnny Stanley, who was serving with the British army in India: 'I have always been a Muslim at heart.' Stanley respected Christianity as a sister-faith of Islam. He married a Catholic woman, became an active member of the Church Defence Institution, and contributed significant sums and materials for the restoration and building of new churches. He passed away in Cheshire on 11 December 1903 and was buried in the Alderley estate with an Islamic service led by the Imam from the Ottoman Embassy in London.

My interview this morning on my fear we are on an escalator drawing our country into a dangerous & disastrous war. We are a sovereign country not a Trump colony & must ally with others to de-escalate to secure a negotiated settlement to secure peace & stabilise the global economy