Academic Advisory Board

Dr Katherine Brown.
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Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies: University of Birmingham.

Dr Brown is a senior lecturer and the Head of Department at the University of Birmingham.   

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She holds a PhD in comparative politics of the Islamisation of Muslim women's rights in the UK.  An overview of her credentials are offered below:

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Education:

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  • 2000: BA (Hons) Politics and International Relations, First Class, Lancaster University

  • 2001: MSc International Relations (Research), University of Southampton. ESRC Funded

  • 2005: PhD, "Muslim Women’s Rights in Egypt, Malaysia and UK”, University of Southampton, Dr Tony Evans (Supervisor), Dr Jill Stean (External Examiner). ESRC Funded

  • 2011: Post-graduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCAP), King’s College London

  • 2015: MA Academic Practice, Distinction, King’s College London

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Publications:

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  • (2018) Gendered Violence in the making of the proto-state Islamic State. Book Chapter in Parashar, S. (ed) Gendered States. OUP. Chapter 11.

  • (2017) and Elizabeth Pearson “The Online-world, Social Media and Terrorism” in Andrew Silke (ed.), Handbook of Terrorism and Counter-terrorism (Routledge).

  • (2016) “Securitization of Human Rights” in Steans, J. and Tepe-Belfrage, D (eds.), Handbook on Gender and World Politics (Edward-Elgar). Chapter 30. Pp.255-262.

  • (2016) and Silke, A. ‘‘Radicalisation’: The Transformation of Modern Understanding of Terrorist Origins, Psychology and Motivation.’ In S. Jayakumar (ed.), State, Society, and National Security: Challenges and Opportunities in the 21st Century (World Scientific Publishing) Chapter 9.

  • (2015) “Marginality as a Feminist Research Method in Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism” In Critical Methods in Terrorism Studies. Dixit, P and Stump, J. L. (Eds.). (Routledge). pp.136-149

  • (2015) and Tania Saeed, “Radicalization and Counter-Radicalization at British Universities: Encounters and Alternatives” Journal of Ethnic and Racial Studies 38(11) pp.1952-1968

  • (2014) “Influencing Political Islam: Moderation, Resilience and De-Radicalization in UK domestic Counter-Terrorism policies (2005-2011)” in Tuck, C. and Kennedy G. (Eds.) British Propaganda and Wars of Empire: Influencing Friend and Foe 1900-2010 (Ashgate).

  • (2014) “Gender and Religion” Chapter 25, in Laura Shepherd (ed.) Gender and Global Politics Second Edition (Routledge).

  • (2013) and Mustafa, D. and Tillotson, M. “Antipode to Terror: Spaces of Performative Politics” Antipode. 45(5) pp 1110–1127

  • (2012) with Syme-Taylor, V. “Gender and Feminism in Professional Military Education” Equality, Diversity and Inclusion 31:5/6 pp. 452 – 466.

  • (2012) “Gender and Anti-Radicalisation: women and emerging counter-terrorism measures” in Satterthwaite, M. and Huckerby, J. (Eds.) Gender, National Security and Counter-terrorism: a human rights perspectives(Routledge), pp. 36-59.

  • (2011) “Muriel Degauque: Media Representations of Europe's First Female Suicide Bomber,” European Journal of Cultural Studies 14:6, pp. 705-726.

  • (2011) “Blinded by the Explosion? Security and Resistance in Muslim Women’s Suicide Terrorism,” in Sjoberg, L. and Gentry, C. (Eds.) Women in Global Terrorism (University of Georgia Press), pp.194-226.

  • (2011) “Terror in the Faculty Lounge: Addressing the Politics of Fear and the Politics of Difference in Government Security Policies,” in Geary, A. and Diamantides, M. (Eds.) Islam, Law and Identity (Routledge-Cavendish), pp. 236-262.(2010) and D. Mustafa “The Taliban, Public Space, and Terror in Pakistan” Eurasian Geography and Economics, 51: 4, pp. 496–512.

  • (2010) “Contesting the Securitization of British Muslims: Citizenship and Resistance,” Interventions: International Journal of Post-Colonial Studies 12:2, pp. 171-182.

  • (2010) and Daanish Mustafa“The Taliban, public space, and terror in Pakistan” Eurasian Geography and Economics. 51, 4, p. 496-512

  • (2008) “The Promise and Perils of Women's Participation in UK Mosques: The Impact of Securitisation Agendas on Identity, Gender and Community,” British Journal of Politics and IR 10:3, pp. 472-491.

  • (2006) “Realising Muslim Women's Rights: The Role of Islamic Identity among British Muslim Women,” Women's Studies International Forum 29:4, pp. 417-430. 

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Digital Scholarship:

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Dr Shahrul Hussain.
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Director: Ibn Rush Centre of Excellence for Islamic Research.

Dr Hussain is the Director and Head of Research at the Ibn Rushd Centre of Excellence for Islamic Research. 

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He holds a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Aberdeen and specialises in Islamic Law.  An overview of his credentials are offered below:

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Education:

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  • Ph.D. in Islamic Studies. Area of study: Islamic Jurisprudence, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK;

  • B.A. Islamic Jurisprudence, University of Al-Azhar, Cairo, Egypt;

  • B.A. Islamic and Cultural Studies with Arabic (Fadil), Darul Uloom Islamic College, Birmingham, UK.

  • B.A. Islamic Studies, Correspondence Course, Accrediting body: Rabitah Madaris al-Islamiyyah


 

Journal articles:

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  • 2016 Hussain, Shahrul, Ribā Based Mortgages in Dār al-Harb: An Issue of Modernist Application of Fiqh al-Aqalliyāt for Muslim Minorities. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 36:3, 364-382.

  • 2015 Hussain, Shahrul, The Ethico-legal Principals of Arms Trade and Arms Embargo in Early Sunni jurisprudence: Journal of Islamic State Practices in International Law, 11:1, 26-48.

  • 2014 Hussain, Shahrul, The Theories of Coercion and the Influence of Social Class on the Rules Regarding Coercion in Contracts in Early Sunni Jurisprudence The Islamic Law and Culture Journal, Routlegde, DePaul University, USA :http://media.law.uark.edu/jilc/ Issue: Volume 2014, Number 1

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Books:

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  • 2019 Forthcoming The Contractual Capacity of Women: Legal Discourse in the Formative Period of Islamic Jurisprudence, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).

  • 2012 Hussain, Shahrul, Islamic Commercial Contractual Law Between Muslims and Non-Muslims: A classical and contemporary comparative analysis: (Cambridge: Lambert Publishing, 2012).

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Public-facing publications:
 

  • 2016 A Treasury of Sacred Maxim, (Markfield: Kube Publishing, 2016)

  • 2016 What the Living can do to Help the Dead, (London: Whitethread Publishing, 2016).

  • 2012 Dār al-Islām and Dār al-Ĥarb: An Analytical Study of its Historical Inception, Its Classical Definition and its Applicability in the Contemporary, (Birmingham: Al-Hikma Publications, 2012).

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Current Research Projects:

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  • Tamlīk-proper to Quasi-tamlīk: Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT) of Zakat Money, Empowering the Poor and Contemporary Modes of Distributing Zakat Money with Special Reference to British Muslim Charities.

  • Khalifah, the Environment and Recycling Copies of the Holy Qur’an: A Symbiotic Sematic Consideration

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Published Book Reviews:

 

  1. The Creation of Saudi Arabia: Ibn Saud and British Imperial Policy, 1914-1927, Askar H. al-Enazy, Routledge; 2010, published by The Muslim World Book Review: vol. 32, Issue 1, Autumn 2011.  

  2. Islamic Law and the Law of Armed Conflict: The armed conflict in Pakistan, Niaz A. Shah, Routledge; 2011, published by The Muslim World Book Review: vol. 32, Issue 1, Autumn 2011.

  3. Shari’a in the West, edited by Rex Ahdar & Nicholas Aroney, Oxford University Press: 2010, by The Muslim World Book Review: vol. 32, Issue 3, Spring 2012.

  4. Youth Work and Islam: A Leap of Faith for Young People, Edited by Brian Belton and Sadek Hamid. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2011. by The Muslim World Book Review: vol. 32, Issue 3, Winter 2012.

  5. Theological Approaches to Qur’anic Exegesis: A practical comparative-contrastive analysis. By Hussein Abdul-Raof. Oxon: Routledge, 2012. The Muslim World Book Review: vol. 33, Issue 3, Spring 2013

  6. Non-Muslims in the early Islamic Empire: From Surrender to Coexistence, Milka Levy-Rubin, Cambridge University Press, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011. The Muslim World Book Review: vol. 33, Issue 3, Spring 2013.

  7. Economic Problems and the Teaching(s) of the Qur’an. Edited by Ausaf Ahmad and Abdul Azim Islahi. Aligarh. The Muslim World Book Review: vol. 34, Issue 3, Spring 2014.

  8. Mālik and Medina: Islamic Legal Reasoning in the Formative Period. Umar F. Abd-Allah Wymann-Landgraf: Leiden: Brill, 2013. The Muslim World Book Review: vol. 34, Issue 3, Spring 2014.

  9. The History of the Qur’ān. Theodor Noldeke, Friedrich Schwally, Gotthelf Bergstraser and Otto Pretzl. Edited and translated by Wolfgang H. Behn: Leiden: Brill, 2013. Pp. 666. ISBN: 978-90-04-21234-3, The Muslim World Book Review: vol. 35, Issue 3, Spring 2014.

  10. The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Qur’ān. By Shady Hekmat Nasser.: Leiden: Brill, 2013. Pp. 252. ISBN: 978-90-04-24081-0, The Muslim World Book Review: vol. 35, Issue 3, Spring 2014.

  11. Encyclopedia of Hadith Forgeries. By Mulla ‘Ali al-Qari Translated by Gibril Fouad Haddad: Rochdale: Beacon Books, 2013. Pp. 723. ISBN: 978-0-9926335-0-9, The Muslim World Book Review: vol. 35, Issue 1, Autumn 2014.

  12. Henry Stubbe and the Beginning of Islam: The Original & Progress of Mohometanism. Edited and Introduced by Nabil Matar: New York: Columbia University Press, 2014. Pp. 274. ISBN: 978-0-231-15664-6, The Muslim World Book Review: vol. 36, Issue 1, Autumn 2015.

13. Muslim Family Law in Western Courts, Edited by Elisa Giunchi: Oxon, Routledge, 2014. Pp. 196. ISBN: 978-0-415-81977-0, The Muslim World Book Review: vol. 36, Issue 1, Autumn 2015.

14. Performing Salah Using the Prophetic Example: Based on Authentic Hadiths From the Six Most Authentic Books. By M. Mushfiqur Rahman: USA: Fitrah Press, 2015. Pp. 274549. ISBN: 978-1-943108-00-8, The Muslim World Book Review: vol. 36, Issue 2, Winter 2016.

15. Politics of the Islamic Tradition: The Thought of Muhammad al-Ghazali. Mohammed Moussa, Oxon: Routledge, 2016. Pp. 186. ISBN: 978-1-138-84121-5
16. Women and Shari‘a Law. Elham Manea, Norwich: I.B. Tauris, 2016. Pp. 301. ISBN: 978-1-78453-735-7

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Seminar & Conference Presentations:

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  • The Ethico-legal Principals of Arms Trade and Arms Embargo in Early Sunni Jurisprudence: Forthcoming Friday 7th July 2017, Al-Mahdi Institute, Birmingham.

  • Fiqh al-Aqalliyat, al-Qardawi’s Reformation to Fiqh: A study of Riba Based Mortgages in Dar al-Harb. University of Exeter, 25 th November 2014.

  • Constitutionism and the Dār Issue: Understanding Non-Muslim Loyalty and Citizenship a Study of their Rights in Arms Trade: Thursday 7th January 2016, presented paper at University of Exeter.

Dr Ian Draper.
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Honorary Research Fellow in Islam and Contemporary Religion.

Dr Draper is a retired lecturer of Islamic Studies from the University of Birmingham, where he is also an Honorary Research Fellow.

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He holds a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Birmingham and specialises in the area of contemporary Sufi movements.  An overview of Dr Drapers research career and interests is provided below:

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Career Overview:

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Dr Ian Draper  has a BA in Humanities from the University of the West of England (Bristol) and an MA and PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Birmingham; my doctoral thesis was on ethnography and contemporary Sufism in Europe. He worked from 1995 until 2016 at the University of Birmingham, initially as a Research Assistant on the British Muslims Monthly Survey, and then subsequently as a Research Fellow on an ESRC project on Transnational Sufism and as a Teaching Fellow. He was appointed as Lecturer in Islam and Contemporary Religion from 2006, teaching on a range of modules at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, including: Sufism, Contemporary Sufi Movements, Cyber Religion, New Age & Alternative Spiritualities, and Buddhism. From January 2017 until December 2018, he worked as a part-time adviser/consultant on an educational project at the Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique in Morocco. He is currently engaged with an academic publishing project while completing an MA in Buddhist Studies at the University of South Wales.

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Education and Qualifications:

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  • BA (Hons) in Humanities: University of Bristol.

  • MA in Theology (Islam): University of Birmingham.

  • PGCE Secondary Religious Education: University of Birmingham.

  • PhD in Islamic Studies:  University of Birmingham.

 

Research:

 

My primary research and writing is in the area of contemporary Sufi movements and western esotericism, particularly from an ethnographic perspective and especially in the British context. I am currently working for a publishing house while studying part-time for an MA in Buddhist Studies.

Dr Steve Hewitt.  
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Senior Lecturer in American and Canadian Studies:  University of Birmingham. 

Dr Hewitt is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham.  He holds a PhD from the University of Saskatchewan and has a research interest security and counter terrorism.  

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An overview of Dr Hewitt's research career and interests is provided below:

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Career Overview:

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Dr Hewitt is a British/Canadian academic interested in security and intelligence in the past and present and in a US/UK/Canada context.  His work has covered a range of topics, such as state surveillance against Canadian universities, UK and US counter-terrorism, a history of informants, and the world's most famous police force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  He's written several books and articles related to security and intelligence, such as the history of Canadian policing and security, counter-terrorism in the UK since 9/11, and the use of informers by the police and intelligence services. Due to the nature of his work, Dr Hewitt has appeared extensively in the media, including on BBC Radio and Television, CBC Television and Radio.

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Research Interests:

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Counter-terrorism and terrorism: One of Dr Hewitt's current teaching and research interests relates to counterterrorism and terrorism. His book 'The British War on Terror: Terrorism and Counterterrorism on the Home Front since 9-11' was published in January 2008. Dr Hewitt has also done research related to American counterterrorism policy, specifically the State Department's Rewards for Justice program, the origins of which lie in 1984 and the Reagan administration. This interest emanates from research on state informers. Dr Hewitt is currently interested in working on a history of domestic British counter-terrorism. 

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Security and intelligence: In January 2010, Dr Hewitt's new history of informers was published. Even before September 11, books and popular culture have focused on technology as being the chief threat to civil liberties through state and private surveillance.  Lost in the shuffle has been the human factor, namely the reality that some individuals actively assist the state, be it in police forces or intelligence services, by supplying information on others. The book is entitled 'Snitch!: A History of the Modern Intelligence Informer'. Dr Hewitt's previous work looked at the history of state surveillance in a Canadian context, in particular the spying by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at Canadian universities for over eighty years.

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Publications:

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Books:

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  • With Christabelle Sethna, Just Watch Us: RCMP Surveillance of the Women's Liberation Movement in Cold War Canada (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2018).

    • Article by Jim Bronskill about the book on CTV Canada "RCMP spies saw women's movement through 'red-tinged prism,' new book says: English and French.

  • Snitch!: A History of the Modern Intelligence Informer (New York and London: Continuum, 2010).

  • The British War on Terror: Terrorism and Counterterrorism on the Home Front since 9/11   (New York and London: Continuum, 2008).

  • Riding to the Rescue: The Transformation of the Mounted Police in Alberta and Saskatchewan, 1914-1939(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006).

  • With Reg Whitaker, Canada and the Cold War (Toronto: James Lorimer and Company, 2003).

  • Spying 101: The RCMP’s Secret Activities at Canadian Universities, 1917-1997 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002).

 

Refereed Articles:

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  • “‘Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow’: Lone-Actor Terrorism, Masculinity, and the 1966 Bombing on Parliament Hill in Ottawa,” Canadian Historical Review, vol. 100, no. 1 (2019), forthcoming.

  • “Cold War Counter-Terrorism: The Evolution of International Counter-Terrorism in the RCMP Security Service, 1972–1984,” Intelligence and National Security, vol. 33, no. 1 (2018), 67-83.

  • “Three Lessons the United Kingdom Can Teach the United States about Counterterrorism,” Journal of the National Security Forum, vol. 37 (2011), 5294-5305.

  • Co-authored with Christabelle Sethna, “Clandestine Operations: The Vancouver Women’s Caucus, the Abortion Caravan, and the RCMP,” Canadian Historical Review, vol. 90, no. 3 (September 2009), 463-95. 

  • “Strangely Easy to Obtain’: Canadian Passport Security in the Twentieth Century,” Intelligence and National Security, vol. 23, no. 3 (June 2008), 381-405. 

  •  “‘While Unpleasant It Is a Service to Humanity’: The RCMP’s War on Drugs in the Interwar Period,” Journal of Canadian Studies, vol. 38, no. 2 (spring 2004), 80-104. 

  • “Reforming the Canadian Security State: The RCMP Security Service and the ‘Key Sectors’ Program,” Intelligence and National Security, vol. 17, no. 4 (winter 2002), 165-184. 

 

Chapters in Books:

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  • “Great Britain: Terrorism and Counterterrorism since 1968,” in Andrew Silke, ed., Routledge Handbook of Terrorism and Counterterrorism (London: Routledge, 2018), 540-51.

  • “Forgotten Surveillance: Covert Human Intelligence Sources in Canada in a Post 9/11 World,” in Michael Geist and Wesley Wark, eds., Law, Privacy and Surveillance in Canada in the Post-Snowden Era (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2015), 45-67.

  • “He who controls the present, controls the past: The Canadian Security State’s Imperfect Censorship under the Access to Information Act,” in Mike Larsen and Kevin Walby, eds., Brokering Access: Power, Politics and Freedom of Information Process in Canada (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2012), 194-208.

  • Co-authored with Christabelle Sethna, “Sex Spying: The RCMP Framing of English-Canadian Women’s Liberation Groups during the Cold War,” in Dominique Clement, Lara Campbell, and Gregory Kealey, eds., Debating Dissent: Canada and the 1960s (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012), 135-54.

  • “American Counter-Terrorism through the Rewards for Justice Program, 1984-2009,” in Asaf Siniver, ed., Terrorism and Counter-terrorism in the Post-9/11 Era (London: Routledge, 2010), 83-100.

  • Co-authored with Scott Lucas, “All the Secrets that Are Fit to Print? The Media and US Intelligence Agencies Before and After 9/11,” in Robert Dover and Michael S. Goodman, Spinning Intelligence: Why Intelligence Needs the Media, Why the Media Needs Intelligence (London: Hurst & Company, 2009), 105-16.

  • “Policing the Promised Land,’ in R. Douglas Francis and Chris Kitzan, eds.  The Prairie West as Promised Land(Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2007), 313-32.

  • “The Police and Professoriate,” in Paul Stortz and Lisa Panayotidis, eds., Historical Identities: The Professoriate in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006), 84-105. 

  • “Re-inventing the Mounties,” in Michèle Kaltemback and Marcienne Rocard, eds., Canada: Nouveaux Défis/Canada Revisited (Toulouse: Editions Universitaires du Sud, 2005), 247-56.

  • “Sunday Morning Subversion: The Canadian Security State and Organized Religion in the Cold War," in Richard Cavell, ed., Love, Hate, and Fear: Canada in the Cold War (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004), 57-76.

© 2019 by Khal Marina Ltd.