Paul Salahuddin Armstrong is an alumnus of the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) and an Associate of St George’s House. He has worked in a number of fields over the years, including in the media, diplomacy, Muslim marriage (nikah) services, interfaith, human rights, policy, countering extremism, outreach, third-sector and other community-related activities. He currently runs the Association of British Muslims with Mohammed Abbasi and a dedicated team from all walks of life, reflecting the diversity of British Muslims, and is a Muslim Chaplain at the University of Birmingham.

Paul is the eldest son of Richard and Isabel Armstrong, he grew up in the town of Redditch in the West Midlands region of England. In 1997, Paul moved to Wolverhampton to pursue a BSc Ecology course at the University of Wolverhampton. This was before his life took a dramatic change of direction in late 1998, when Paul started researching religions and spirituality, that eventually resulted in him embracing Islam on 1st March 2000. Before the year was out, Paul was introduced to Shaykh Sufi Muhammad Abdullah Khan who he was so impressed with he asked to take bayah (pledge of allegiance), Sufi Abdullah accepted and became his first murshid (spiritual guide).

During this time, Paul was connected with the Birmingham community of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim Adil Al-Haqqani‘s murids (students), he asked Sufi Abdullah about this and whether he should continue spending time with Shaykh Nazim’s murids. Sufi Abdullah gave express permission to Paul to continue to attend their gatherings and to learn from Mawlana Shaykh Nazim and any other teacher of beneficial knowledge and wisdom. Paul has continued his studies and research into religion and spirituality ever since. In the roles of imam and murshid he has been serving British Muslims for more than a decade.

Over the years, Paul has learned from scholars and murshids who include; Shaykh Sufi Muhammad Abdullah Khan, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf Hanson, Shaykh Daoud Rosser-Owen, Shaykh Mehmet Adil ar-Rabbani, Imam Zaid Shakir, Shaykh Muhammad Amin-Evans, Shaykh Manwar Ali, Shaykh Abdul-Hakim Murad, Imam Abdassamad Clarke, Shaykh Tahir-ul-Qadri and Shaykh Hisham Kabbani, along with studying the works of Imam Malik, Imam Ali, Imam Bukhari, Imam Muslim, Imam Zayn Al Abidin, Imam Ghazali and the writings of more contemporary scholars, such as the aforementioned and in addition, works by Shaykh Nazim Adil al-Haqqani, Sheikha Hajjah Amina Adil, Sheikha Aisha Bewley, and others…

In addition to current positions as the Managing Director of the Association of British Muslims, and Director of KhilafahOnline, Paul is a trustee of BME United Ltd / Step Up (WM) CIC, previously worked with Wolverhampton Inter-Faith & Regeneration Network for a number of years, and is the founder of Wulfruna Sufi Association.

email: paul.armstrong@aobm.org