A church leader and a leading politician are the first recipients of Fellowships to be awarded by the Al-Maktoum Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies.
The Bishop of Brechin, the Rt Rev Neville Chamberlain and Mr Ernie Ross MP for Dundee West received their awards at a ceremony held at the Institute in Blackness Road, Dundee today (Friday Nov26).
Both men have served on the Institute Council and both are due to retire from their positions in public life in the near future.
The Rt Rev Chamberlain was elected Bishop of Brechin in 1997. He had come to Scotland 15 years earlier having already spent time in the USA and in Lincolnshire working in both the civil rights movement and then as a probation officer and Head of the Social Work service.
An active campaigner for peace in the Middle East, he is a regular speaker on the Palestine-Israel situation and has visited the area many times.
A member of the Dundee Inter-Faith Group he is also chairman of St Margaret’s Residential Home in Dundee and a patron of The Rock Trust which provides accommodation for homeless young people.
Mr Ross was elected to the Westminster Parliament as the MP for Dundee West in the 1979 General Election.
Prior to becoming an MP he had been active in trade union affairs as a member of the engineering union. At Westminster he has served on many committees and is currently a member of the Standing Orders committee and the Court of Referees, is the chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party’s foreign affairs committee and also chairs the all-party poverty group. He has also taken a keen interest in Middle East affairs.
In 1981 he was one of the leading figures in Dundee to organise the twinning with Nablus.
Then in 1997 he helped to organise the Eid-al-Fitr party, to celebrate the contribution of the Muslim community to the UK. The eighth Eid party took place last week.
Professor Abd-al-Fattah El-Awaisi, Principal of the Al-Maktoum Institute said:”We decided to establish the Fellowships to recognise individuals who have made a significant contribution both to the development of the Institute and to furthering the aims and objectives of the Institute. Bishop Chamberlain and Mr Ross are both original Council members of the Institute and both in their different careers in the church and in politics have demonstrated their commitment to the multicultural vision that is at the heart of all that we do.”
The Fellowships were awarded by the Institute’s Chancellor, Lord Elder, during the recognition of achievement ceremony held at the Institute.
