Shakil Patel is a British architect who has lived and worked in Oxford and Loma Linda, California.
A British Indian, Patel was born in Blackburn, Lancashire.
He moved to Oxford in 2015, choosing the town because, as a religious Muslim, he does not drink alcoholic beverages, and was attracted by the fact that Oxford, which was founded by Seventh-day Adventists, was legally dry.
[1] Patel served a 10-year term as City Planning Commissioner, consistently voting against lifting the ban on selling alcohol.
[3] Patel is known for designing mosques that fit into the California landscape by combining elements of California's Spanish colonial style with traditional Islamic features such as minarets and/or tower and pointed arches.