Critical Multiculturalism’s response to diverse Islamic thought and practice
My friend Dr Ali-Reza Bhojani invited me to talk to his students at the Al-Mahdi Institute in Birmingham last October, so I wrote this paper and then forgot to post it. It develops the position I’ve advanced elsewhere, that I call ‘critical multiculturalism’ as a way of thinking about, and responding to, the various types […]
2001: ‘Riots’, or violent urban protests, in four northern English cities
The so-called northern ‘riots’ in 2001 were, in my view, a turning point in British society. For the first time, British Muslims (the protagonists were mainly, but by no means exclusively, Muslims) engaged in violent protest against racists and discriminatory policing in forms that were reminiscent of the ‘riots’ led by British African and Caribbean […]
Shari’a councils in England – a response from ‘critical multiculturalism’
I was invited to contribute to the CIMEL group’s two-day workshop on ‘Theorising the reconciliation between the State and the Shari’a in a Western context, with special reference to the UK’ (20-21 May 2014, London). This turned out to be one of the best academic forums I’ve ever attended, where, for once, there really was […]
Interculturalism or Critical Multiculturalism?
My friends at the Dialogue Society persuaded me to help them convene a conference on multiculturalism at Mevlana University in Turkey in 2012. This involved editing the papers we selected for the conference. I did this in such a rush that even my own paper wasn’t properly checked – hence the book the Dialogue Society […]