Nasim "Nash" Ali, (; born 7 February 1969) is a British Labour Party politician, councillor for Regent's Park, former Cabinet Member for Young People in Camden Council and former Mayor of Camden. In May 2003, at the age of 34, after being elected Mayor of Camden, he became the UK's youngest mayor, as well as the first Bangladeshi and first Muslim mayor. Early life Ali was born in Islampur, Shah Paran Thana, Sylhet District, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and came to the United Kingdom at the age of seven in 1976. He grew up on the Regent's Park Estate. He attended Netley Primary School and South Camden Community School, he left with one O-level in Art. In 2001, Ali graduated with a BA in Informal and Community Education by distance learning from the University of Kent. Ali's elder brother, Sitar, is treasurer of the Bengali Workers' Association. Early career In November 1984, Ali took his family to join the "occupation" of the Town Hall following the death of a Bangladeshi family in a bed-and-breakfast hotel in Westminster. Five years later, he worked with Camden Law Centre to establish Camden Monitoring Project to provide safe transport for Bangladeshi men being attacked by skinheads on their way home from work. At the time, his father was working as a chef and his younger brother owned a pizza shop. Since the 1980s, Ali has been active in the Regent's Park Estate local community. Since the age of 14, he has been involved in voluntary work. In 1989, he established the Camden Monitoring Group to combat racial harassment. In the same year, he was seconded from Camden Youth Service to become a part-time volunteer for the community and social welfare charity Bengali Workers' Association. Also that year, he enrolled onto Kingway College (now known as Westminster Kingsway College) and obtained B grades in both GCSE English language and mathematics. In August 1994, he established Camden United Project to unite conflicting young people from white and Asian communities together in the borough, through their common interest in football, diverting them away from racism, crime and conflict. While working as an assistant in a clothes shop in Kentish Town, Ali's manager advised him to better himself. Ali moved on to work for British Telecom, which is where he acquired his nickname "Nash". In 1995, he left British Telecom and joined King's Cross Brunswick Neighbourhood Association as