Founder of Muslim Council of Hong Kong: ‘I would’ve voted for Donald Trump ... he is a blessing in disguise’

Adeel Malik is a Pakistani British Chinese teacher, born and bred in Hong Kong.

The 32-year-old father-of-one left the city aged 15 to study and later work in Scotland. In 2008, he returned to Hong Kong after he and his family became disillusioned by the rising levels of Islamophobia.

In 2015, after taking up a position at public Christian school in the city, he set up the Muslim Council of Hong Kong as an independent body, separate from the Incorporated Trustees of the Islamic Community Fund of Hong Kong, which is an umbrella group for the city’s six mosques.

Following the Paris attacks in 2015, he handed out “letters of peace” in Tsim Sha Tsui, calling on people of all faiths to stand strong against ISIS, but emphasising that Muslim groups should not be expected to condemn every terror attack carried out in the name of Islam.

He spoke to City Weekend about US President Donald Trump’s Muslim ban, the problem of Islamophobia in Hong Kong and the threat ISIS poses to the city and mainland China.

What were your experiences as a young Muslim growing up here?

At my kindergarten and primary school, it was mainly non-Chinese, so it was quite multicultural. I didn’t feel like I was out of place. Most of my network was the Pakistani, Indian, Nepali community; it was basically anyone who could speak English or Urdu. I didn’t feel any type of discrimination. For secondary school I went to a Chinese school, Diocesan Boys’ School, in that school I was the only Pakistani. There were 30 other Indians, but I didn’t feel like I was being marginalised. If I felt I was being unfavoured, I didn’t think it was because of my race or religion. Outside of school, I was too young to feel any type of animosity or racism. This topic of Islamophobia was not such a thing 15 or 20 years ago. It is more to do with globalisation, which has come to this part of the world as well.