From Road to Path: The Symbolic Roles of Islam Amongst South London Gangs

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this recordTwo different understandings of the symbolic repertoire of Islam for young British gang members have been used in this article. Islam was used to justify participation in gang life, a function of rationalisation and protection. Islamic ideas were exploited to rationalise their criminal enterprises. The repertoire was also used to find a path out of criminality, perceived as a clear structure to finding constructive alternatives to reshape their lives. Based on 18 interviews, this paper examines these aspects of the symbolic repertoire, and shows how there is no monolithic interpretation for the role played by Islam

Building and Delivering a Successful Dementia Research Portfolio through Collaboration.

Conference poster presented at Clinical Trials Symposium, RD&E 5/11/15.Collaboration between Devon Partnership Trust and Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust

Doing ‘dangerous’ autoethnography on Islamophobic victimization

This article draws on our different experiences of employing autoethnography when researching Islamophobia, using two independent research projects. In particular, we reflect upon our experiences of Islamophobic victimization as a result of being ‘visibly’ Muslim in public spaces in the UK. We discuss our motivation for employing autoethnography and the role of our insider/outsider status in adopting the role of the Muslim ‘other’ in public spaces. Additionally, we consider the nature, extent and impact of Islamophobic victimization upon ourselves, and the coping mechanisms we employed to deal with it. The article concludes by reflecting upon the advantages, ethical challenges and limitations of using autoethnography when researching Islamophobic victimization

Identifying potential terrorists: visuality, security and the channel project

This article analyses how British counter-radicalization policy in general, and the Channel project in particular, constitute individuals who are vulnerable to radicalization as visible, producing them as subjects of intervention. It thus asks, how can potential terrorists be identified and made knowable? The article first argues that to understand Channel, it is crucial to develop a conceptual account of the security politics of (in)visibilization that draws attention to the ways in which security regimes can, at times, function primarily through the production of regimes of (in)visibility. Using this approach, the article focusses on the role of ‘indicators’ as a technology of (in)visibilization. This role is central to the functioning of Channel, visibilizing certain subjects as threatening. Yet such a production is political. In bringing together a politics of care and a politics of identity, it is a regime of (in)visibility that produces new sites of intervention, contains significant potential consequences for the expression of certain identities, and raises new and troubling possibilities for how contemporary life may be secured

Veiled Muslim women’s responses to experiences of gendered Islamophobia in the UK

In a post-9/11 climate, Islamophobia has increased significantly in the UK and elsewhere in the West. ISIS-inspired terrorist attacks in the UK as well as in France, Belgium, Germany and more recently in Sri Lanka have triggered an increase in verbal and physical attacks against Muslims. Drawing on intersectionality (as a nexus of identities that work together to render certain individuals as ‘ideal’ targets to attack), veiled Muslim women are likely to experience gendered Islamophobia in the cyber world but also in ‘real’ life due to the intersections between their ‘visible’ Muslim identity and gender performance. In the British context, although Islamophobia is recorded as a hate crime nationally, and misogyny is recorded as a hate crime locally in some police forces, veiled Muslim women are unlikely to report their experiences to the police. Drawing on qualitative interviews with Muslim women who wear the niqab (face veil), the purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which they respond to experiences of gendered Islamophobia as well as their reasons for not reporting their experiences to the police