Dr Martin Parsons

About Martin
Martin is a former teacher and aid worker who is an academic expert on freedom of religion and radical Islam. He has recently completed his second major book as well as having over 100 articles published particularly on historic British values and the challenge of radical Islam. He is a recognised expert on the human right to freedom of religion or belief and has been repeatedly quoted in the national and international press including the Sunday Times, Daily Mail and the Sunday Express. He currently works as an independent consultant and expert witness for court cases.

Photo: Martin conducting child health survey in remote Afghan village

Martin and a Norwegian colleague were the first westerners to visit this unexplored region of Afghanistan, then just a 'blank' on the map

Photo: Martin and the overseas aid team he led were the first outsiders to visit this remote area of Afghanistan

Overseas aid worker
Martin was an aid worker in Afghanistan during the time the country was ruled by mujahaddin warlords, the Taliban and the western backed post 9/11 government. Martin and a Norwegian colleague were the first westerners to visit a remote mountainous area of Afghanistan then just a blank area on the map. He subsequently set up a community development and literacy project, including undertaking an initial analysis of the unwritten tribal language and recruiting both local staff and an expatriate team. While working in Afghanistan he had to negotiate in local language with senior members of the Taliban and other radical Islamist groups now regarded as terrorists by western military forces. He also previously worked in Pakistan for several years and learnt to speak both Urdu and Persian whilst working overseas.

Author and writer
Martin is a published author who has recently completed his second major book Good for Society: Christian Values and Conservative Politics, which examines the Judaeo-Christian foundations of the values of the English speaking peoples. He has written over 100 published articles focusing particularly on our national identity and values, international relations and the threat of radical Islam.

Teacher
Martin began his career as a Geography teacher in a challenging secondary modern school in Southend on Sea. He subsequently became principal of an English Language Institute in Pakistan, a member of the Education Committee of the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR) that functioned as the Afghan National Education Committee during the time of Taliban rule. He was also part of the senior leadership team which helped establish a new sixth form college in a deprived UK coastal town which took students from underachieving local schools and enabled them to get places at leading universities including Oxbridge, an area which was one of Martin’s specific responsibilities. He has also been an examiner for A level Geography.

Human rights advocate for persecuted Christians
Martin has spent many years campaigning on behalf of persecuted Christians. While working in Afghanistan he had the privilege of helping a number of Afghan Christians, who were severely persecuted for their faith. Since returning to the UK he has frequently spoken and written about persecution of Christians. He currently works as an expert witness for court cases involving persecution, discrimination or violence against Christians around the world. He has been repeatedly quoted on the persecution of Christians in both national and international media including the Sunday Times, Daily Mail, Sunday Express (front page) and has done live broadcast interviews in both the UK and USA. In June 2018 he gave a keynote speech at a conference on freedom of religion in the European Parliament.

Academic expert on Islam
Martin did his PhD on Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. He has written extensively on radical Islam and international relations and been published in the UK, USA and Australia. He previously worked at Anglia Ruskin University where he set up a course in Research Ethics which is now being used by an estimated 8,000 students a year at various universities around the world. He has been a research supervisor at the Oxford Centre for Religion and Public Life and the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. He is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers (FRGS) and a member of Tyndale Fellowship. He has also been an expert witness in the UK court system.

Meeting with Foreign Office Minister Rt Hon Baroness Anelay to discuss Middle East genocide

Campaigns

Rail improvements
Martin also spearheaded a successful three and half year campaign to persuade Network Rail to install level crossing barriers at a dangerous unmanned rural level crossing – eventually taking the issue right up to the chief executive of Network Rail. (Photo: Martin with Rt Hon Dr Thérèse Coffey MP)

Coastguard stations
Two months before the 2010 general election Martin exposed the then government’s plan to close main coastguard stations and was prominent in the campaign which later led the incoming coalition government to substantially scale back the original closure plan.

Post Brexit Britain
Martin co-led the successful ‘Vote Leave’ campaign in Waveney which achieved a majority of 16,934 in one of the most marginal constituencies in the UK. He had sole responsibility for the development of local campaign issues, press and media relations as well as being involved in the campaigns on the street.
Since the referendum Martin has continued to work to help the government achieve the most successful Brexit for the UK. He has written for Brexit Central on some of the key constitutional issues and when negotiations with the EU were being blocked by the Irish government, had a letter published in the Dublin based Irish Times, within 24 hours of which the Irish government withdrew their objections.
Read Martin's articles for Brexit Central (Photo: Martin with Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP, Rt Hon Penny Mordaunt MP and Rt Hon George Eustace MP).

River flooding and sea defence
Martin has campaigned at a national level on both river and coastal flooding and erosion, including urging proper respect for the rights of landowners not to have their land arbitrarily subject to ‘managed retreat’ or be ‘required’ to allow their land to erode without compensation. He was previously district councillor for a rural area of the Suffolk coast that had one of the highest erosion rates in the country.
At the end of 2013 while making a presentation at the Conservative Rural Affairs Group meeting with the Environment minister he showed pictures of the Suffolk coast and silted up River Parrett in Somerset, which only a few weeks later were both inundated with devastating floods. (Photo: Martin leading fieldwork teaching students about coastal erosion).