BOOK LAUNCH DISCUSSION: THE NEW GOVERNANCE OF RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY

Organised by the Manchester Muslim Forum[MMF] and hosted by Khizra Masjid in partnership:

BOOK LAUNCH DISCUSSION: THE NEW GOVERNANCE OF RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY -'MULTICULTURALISED SECULARISM'

with co-author *Professor Tariq Modood [Professor of Sociology, Politics and Public Policy, School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship University of Bristol]

Respondent and chair - *Yahya Birt [Research Director at the Ayaan Institute, London]

*Host: Dr Sadek Hamid [Head of Research at UKIM / University of Wales Trinity Saint David]

Date and time: Saturday 30th November 2024, 4pm - 6pm [Prompt start]

Venue: The Khizra Mosque and Community Centre, Main Lecture Theatre , 425 Cheetham Hill Rd, Cheetham Hill, Manchester M8 0PF

Religious diversity is a key feature of countries across the world today, but it also presents governments with very real challenges. Controversies around religious free speech, symbols, social values and morals, and the role of faith leaders as critical voices, are just a few of the issues that have given rise to fierce social, political and scholarly debate. So how do states include and accommodate religious diversity and should this change? What are the key difficulties facing states when it comes to governing religious diversity?

Understanding this complex phenomenon means thinking through secularism, liberalism, multiculturalism and nationalism in theory and practice. In this new book, Tariq Modood and Thomas Sealy draw on original research to present new ways of analysing the governance of religious diversity in different regions of the world. Identifying the key challenges at stake, they also argue for a new statement of multiculturalism in relation to the governance of religious diversity, that of ‘multiculturalised secularism’, which represents a constructive and productive response to the reality of religiously plural societies.

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Main speaker and author: *Professor Tariq Modood [Professor of Sociology, Politics and Public Policy, School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship University of Bristol] - Professor Tariq over the last 35 years has worked on: Theory and politics of racism, racial equality, multiculturalism and secularism, with especial reference to British Asian Muslims; ethnic identities, national identities and the 'second generation'; ethnic disadvantage and progress in employment and education; comparisons within and between Western Europe and North America; the politics of being Muslim in the West. He is most focused on are the political theory and sociology of multiculturalism, interculturalism and secularism; and on Islamophobia. He was the Bristol Director of the Leverhulme Programme on Migration and Citizenship, with UCL, which consisted of 8 projects running between 2003-09. With Anna Triandafyllidou led EMILIE: A European Approach to Multicultural Citizenship (with 8 EU partners), an EU 6th Framework project (2006-09) and followed this with a 15 countries project, Accept Pluralism: Tolerance, Pluralism and Social Cohesion (2010-2013). He worked on a project with Dr Therese O’Toole, Muslim Participation in Contemporary Governance, funded by the AHRC (2010-13). During 2010-11 he had a Fellowship from the AHRC to work on a book on Secularism and the Accommodation of Muslims in Western Europe, which he developed further on during his Robert Schuman Fellowship at the European University Institute, 2013-2015. He has held over 40 grants and consultancies, have over 35 (co-)authored and (co-)edited books and reports and over 350 articles and chapters. He was awarded a MBE for services to social sciences and ethnic relations in 2001, made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (UK) in 2004 and elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2017. In 2022 he was ranked in the top 20 UK cited scholars in Politics, Law, Sociology and Social Policy combined. A regular contributor to media and policy debates being frequently cited by policy-makers and practioners and on several occasions has influenced policy. He has been an Adviser to the Muslim Council of Britain and have served on the DfES Race, Education and Employment Forum; the Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain (1997-2000); the IPPR Commission on National Security (2007-09); the National Equality Panel (2007-10); and the Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life (2013-16). His impact case study, ‘Influencing law, policy and public discourse on the accommodation of Muslims in Britain’ was one of three which collectively were ranked as 3rd in the UK by the Sociology 2014 REF. His work is part of syllabi for AS and A Level Sociology (OCR and possibly other Boards) and for A Level Politics. Recent books include Essays on Secularism and Multiculturalism (2019), Multiculturalism: A Civic Idea (2nd ed; 2013); and as Special Issues co-editor, with T. Sealy, Beyond Euro-American centric Forms of Racism and Anti-racism (Political Quarterly, 2022) and Global comparative analysis of the governance of religious diversity (Religion, State and Society, 2022). For more information visit https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/persons/tariq-modood or www.tariqmodood.com

Respondent and chair: *Yahya Birt is a research director at the Ayaan Institute in London, where he works on Muslim minorities. In 2022, his report, Ummah at the Margins: The Past, Present and Future of Muslim Minorities was published. He is also a community historian who has taught at the University of Leeds. He has an M.Phil. in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Oxford. He has published over a dozen peer-reviewed articles on Islam in Britain and his co-authored books include British Secularism and Religion (2016), Islam in Victorian Liverpool (2021), The Collected Poems of Abdullah Quilliam (2021) and Our Fatima of Liverpool (2023). In 2022, he published his first poetry collection, Pandemic Pilgrimage. He is a founding co-editor of the Oxford British Muslim Studies series at the Oxford University Press. Currently, he is working with Dr. Fozia Bora on the history of Bradford's Somali Village, an ethnographic show of 100 Somali men, women, and children at the city's Lister Park in 1904. And, with a great set of dedicated colleagues, he is launching the Muslim Historical Society of Britain in 2024, God willing. He lives in West Yorkshire with his family and cat. He likes walking and being grumpy about the state of the world. He can be reached on Twitter @ybirt.

Host : *Dr Sadek Hamid is Head of Research at UKIM and is also a Research Fellow at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. He has previously held teaching and research positions at the universities of Chester, Liverpool Hope, Cambridge Muslim College and Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. He has been actively engaged in Muslim communities for more than 30 years and prior to transitioning to academia was a Youth & Community Development professional. He has written extensively on Muslim young people, Islamic activism, religion, politics, and public policy. He is author of Sufis, Salafis and Islamists: The Contested Ground of British Islamic Activism (I. B. Tauris, 2016), co-author of British Muslims: New Directions in Islamic Thought, Creativity and Activism, (Edinburgh University Press, 2018), editor of Young British Muslims: Between Rhetoric and Realities (Routledge, 2016), co-editor of Political Muslims: Understanding Youth Resistance in a Global Context (Syracuse University Press, 2018), Youth Work and Islam: A Leap of Faith for Young People (Sense, 2011) and most recently; Contemporary British Muslim Arts an Cultural Production: Identity, Belonging and Social Change (Routledge, 2023).

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Khizra Mosque, 425 Cheetham Hill Road, Cheetham Hill, United Kingdom