Leo Baeck College, the Progressive rabbinic academy in London, has appointed a young British imam as a research fellow in Islamic studies.

Sheikh Dr Muhammad Al-Husseini, who grew up in Hertfordshire, will run courses on the Qur’an, Muslim-Jewish relations and Arabic.

“I am very honoured by this enormous privilege,” he said.

He has already been teaching at the college over the past year and active in its programme to encourage the comparative study of Jewish, Muslim and Christian texts.