2014 public lectures
Listings and videos of our seminar series in 2014.
Professor Mona Siddiqui
Friendship and Hospitality – challenge or route to integration?
11 February 2014
Professor Mona Siddiqui, OBE, joined the University of Edinburgh’s Divinity School in December 2011 as the first Muslim Professor in Islamic and Interreligious Studies and Assistant Principal for Religion and Society. Prior to this she was at Glasgow University for 15 years. Her research areas are primarily in the field of Islamic jurisprudence and Christian-Muslim relations. She has written numerous books and articles, is a well-known public intellectual and a regular commentator in print and broadcasting media, not to mention chair of the BBC’s Religious Advisory Committee.
Professor John Eade
Plural Identities and the Islamisation of Public Space in Britain
18 February 2014
Video of Professor John Eade's lecture
John Eade is Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Roehampton and visiting Professor at University College London. After initial research with educated Bengali Muslim middle-class families in Kolkata during the early 1970s, he completed a doctoral thesis on Bangladeshi community representation in Tower Hamlets in 1986. Since then he has been researching identity politics, the Islamisation of space and global migration in London.
Ajmal Masroor
Muslim Family Life in Britain: Between Ideals and Reality
25 February 2014
Video of Ajmal Masroor's lecture
Ajmal Masroor is an Imam, broadcaster and Relationship Counsellor. He is the co-founder of the Barefoot Institute for Muslim relationships, and has worked as the Director of Communities in Action. He has combined traditional Islamic Studies in Bangladesh with further university study in Britain, including politics and Arabic language, and relationship counselling. He also regularly writes for the Guardian Online and the Evening Standard and has been a specialist consultant on programmes about Islam and Muslims for the Channel 4, BBC, ITV and CNN. He has been leading Friday prayers in various London mosques for the last twenty years.
Mike Kavanagh and Ahtsham Ali
Muslims in Prison: Breaking the Myths” Between Ideals and Reality”
4 March 2014
Video of Mike Kavanagh and Ahtsham Ali's lecture
Mike Kavanagh has been an Anglican Priest for 25 years. He presently works as Head of Chaplaincy for the National Offender Management Service with oversight of multifaith chaplaincy teams in prisons across England and Wales. Mike also ministers as part of a team looking after a parish in a multicultural area of Sheffield where he is married to the Vicar. He worked as part of the multifaith team at HMP Full Sutton before moving to work at HQ and has been involved in developing the faith-informed reintegration programme, Belief in Change.
Ahtsham Ali is currently Muslim Adviser for Her Majesty’s Prison Service. During the 1990s he was a Youth Worker/Teacher working with disaffected youths, and a member of Young Muslims UK and Islamic Society of Britain. He contributed to The Cantle Report as part of the Community Cohesion Review Team, analysing the 2001 Northern disturbances.
Navid Akhtar
Casting Islam – UK television and the Muslim narrative
11 March 2014
Navid Akhtar FRSA is the Executive Director of Gazelle Media, a production company that specializes in content about Muslim communities. Navid has worked in mainstream British television for over 22 years and is an award-winning journalist and documentary maker.
Mufti Bilal Syed and Maulana Dr Mansur Ali
A day in the life of an Imam in Cardiff: Mufti Bilal in conversation with Mansur Ali
18 March 2014
Bilal Syed, born and raised in the UK, initially studied the Islamic sciences in darul uloom Bolton, an institute of Islamic education. The seven-year syllabus included Arabic language and various other traditional Islamic sciences including Qur’anic exegesis (tafsir), Hadith and Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). On completion he travelled to Pakistan to further his studies and received authorisations in various sciences and in issuing fatawa (religious verdicts). In the past five years he has been serving the community in Cardiff as an imam.
Mufti Muhammad ibn Adam
The Role of a Mufti in Modern Society
25 March 2014
Mufti Muhammad ibn Adam al-Kawthari is a traditionally-trained Islamic scholar of the Arabic language and various other Islamic disciplines including Qur’anic exegesis, Hadith, Islamic law and the science of issuing religious verdicts (Fatwa), in different parts of the world including the UK, Pakistan and Syria. He is a lecturer on the various traditional Islamic sciences, and Director and researcher at the Institute of Islamic Jurisprudence (Darul Iftaa).
