LONDON, Aug 31: Pakistan-born immigrant Amjad Hussain became the highest-ranking Muslim in the British armed forces on Thursday, obtaining the rank of rear admiral in the Royal Navy.

Amjad Hussain, 48, who moved to Britain with his family in 1962, is the country’s first non-white admiral.

“I have been really astonished at the number of people I have met who are not acquainted with the military who have expressed almost shock that we have a rear admiral in the Royal Navy from a background like mine,” he said.

“Some of my friends in other European countries have simply said it wouldn’t happen here. So I think that’s a mark of how far Britain has progressed.”

Hussain joined the Royal Navy in 1977 aged 18.

He showed Diana, princess of Wales around his frigate HMS Cornwall in 1989 and escorted Queen Elizabeth II on the Antarctic patrol vessel HMS Endurance as she reviewed the fleet in June last year.

His last posting as Commodore Hussain was at Portsmouth on the southern English coast, the home of the British fleet, where he was the naval base commander.

Hussain said the British armed forces were a “meritocracy”, adding that young people should not limit their ambitions because they thought some careers were closed to them.—AFP