2012 public lectures

Listings and videos of our seminar series in 2012.

Robert Lambert

Countering al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership

7 February 2012

Video of Robert Lambert's lecture

Robert Lambert is a Lecturer at the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSP7V) at the University of St Andrews and Co-Director of the European Muslim Research Centre (EMRC). Prior to embarking on a second career in academia, Robert completed over thirty years service with the Metropolitan Police in London, the bulk of which was in counter-terrorism. His last police role as head of the Muslim Contact Unit (MCU) provides material for Countering al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership a book Peter Oborne, the Daily Telegraph’s chief political commentator has described as ‘illuminating, wise and profound.

Imam Asim Hafiz

Chaplaincy in the Military: An Islamic Perspective

14 February 2012

Video of Imam Asim Hafiz's lecture

Imam Asim Hafiz qualified as an Alim in 1999. He completed an MA in Islamic Studies in 2008 at Birkbeck College, University of London. He has held positions in both religious and secular o rganisations as an Imam and Chaplain (mosques, hospitals and prisons). In 2005 he became the first and only Muslim Chaplain to HM Forces. In 2010/2011 Asim deployed to Afghanistan on numerous occasions in his capacity as Muslim Chaplain to HM Forces.

Abdul Hadi Hoffmann

Europe’s Christian Identity – Deconstruction of a Myth

21 February 2012

Video of Abdul Hadi Hoffmann's lecture

Christian H.Hoffmann is deputy chairman of the Muslim Academy in Germany. He was born in Berlin in 1948, and studied English and German language and literature and economics. He holds a Germany university degree (diploma) in Economics. He converted to Islam in 1989 and adopted the name Abdul Hadi. He works in the field of PR and Communication (eg. for UNICEF in New York and Zagreb), and for private and public customers in Bangladesh, Egypt, Eritrea, Indonesia, Lebanon, Pakistan, Romania, Senegal, Turkey, and the UK. Since 2004 he has been the Director of the Yousef Jameel Scholarship Programme. Christian Abdul Hadi Hoffmann is author and co-author of numerous books on Islam and politics. Other projects: Establishment of a virtual museum for Islamic Art at the Ashmolean Museum.

Amina Yaquin

Performing Beyond the Frame: Muslim Comedy and Stereotyping

28 February 2012

Video of Amina Yaquin's lecture

Amina Yaqin is senior lecturer in Urdu and Postcolonial Studies and Chair of the Centre for the Study of Pakistan at the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London). She has recently co-authored (with Peter Morey) Framing Muslims: stereotyping and representation after 9/11 (Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press, 2011) and co-edited a special issue of Interventions entitled, ‘Muslims in the Frame’, July 2010, 12: 2. A co-edited collection of essays is currently in press with Routledge on Culture, Diaspora and Modernity in Muslim Writing. She is currently working on her monograph entitled, Imagining Pakistan and a co-authored book on Trust, Muslims and Cultural Dialogue.

Dr Seán McLoughlin

Holy Places, Contested Spaces: British Muslim experiences of Hajj

6 March 2012

Video of Dr Seán McLoughlin

Dr Seán McLoughlin is currently Head of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Leeds and elected Chair of the Muslims in Britain Research Network. His published work includes co-edited volumes on European Muslims and the Secular State (Ashgate), Diasporas: Concepts, Intersections, Identities (Zed Books) and Writing the City in British Asian Diasporas (Routledge). Seán most recent research on British Muslims experiences of travelling to Makkah and Madinah is funded by an Arts and Humanities Research Council award to the British Museum ahead of its major 2012 exhibition on the Hajj.

Dr Sophie Gilliat-Ray and Mark Bryant

Islamic Gardens in the UK: Dynamics of Conservation Culture and Communities

13 March 2012

Video of Sophie Gilliat-Ray and Mark Bryant's lecture