A Special Evening with James Caan

On March 16th, an audience of over 470 distinguished guests filled out the Porchester Hall in Bayswater and were treated to a special evening with James Caan as hosted by mend.

The evening commenced with Industry professionals and business men/women being given an insight into the valuable work that mend does to promote the active citizenship of British Muslims in various areas such as media and politics and the very necessary work required to tackle Islamophobia throughout the UK.

As many are aware, there has been a rise in Islamophobia in recent years and the audience were reminded of how mend have worked tirelessly to tackle this. Examples were given where mend have successfully challenged inaccurate media headlines (for example the Sun article “1 in 5  Muslims..” ) and lobbied to bring about change (such as the requirement by police forces to now record Islamophobia as a separate category of hate crime). Attendees were also informed about the new initiative, run by volunteer caseworkers and lawyers, that will provide formal advice, guidance and legal assistance to victims of discrimination and hate incidents.

The main event of the night was of course the dialogue with serial entrepreneur and former BBC Dragon’s Den star; James Caan. He gave us a unique insight into his life and business experiences. He spoke about the path of rejecting mediocrity and how his key driver was the relentless pursuit of aiming higher and doing better. The audience also heard about how his outlook changed after performing Hajj and how this led to an increased pursuit of philanthropic endeavours. His personal support of mend and urging the audience to do so too was a key message of the night.

mend are delighted that amongst the various guests were individuals from the following organisations. Henley Homes, Penny Appeal, Single Muslim, QC Legal, Yiedlers, Liberty Law Solicitors, Woolfe law, Cube Network, Emerald Network, FCA, Association of Muslim Lawyers, Muslim Doctor’s Association, Simmons & Simmons, KPMG, JP Morgan, EY Muslim Network, Barclays, Accenture, PWC, Clifford Chance, Saracens Solicitors, Norton Rose Fulbright, RBC, EE, BNY Mellon, Muslim Women Connect, Islam Channel,

We would like to thank all the networks, organisations and individuals for their continuing support. Over £120,000 was raised on the night. The generous donations will be used to continue the much needed work required to tackle the tide of anti-Muslim prejudice.  

Some comments from attendees on the night:

“Amazing job mend is doing. I knew nothing about them before but now really rate their work ethic, progress and agenda”

“I have had colleagues come back to me to say it was an eye opening event and that many of them were not aware of the work that mend does and consequently signed up to mailing lists and to be long term donors. They praised the quality of the speakers and the positive impact that mend is having on our community.”

An attendees talked about mend being “intelligent and strategic… dynamic and efficient,” and how the vision is “becoming clearer to the average Muslim. As it becomes clearer by default it empowers.”