I am currently Associate Professor of Sociology, Fatih University, Istanbul since 2010. Until June 2009, I was Reader in Sociology and founding Director of the Birmingham University Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Culture (2003-2009). Previously to that, I was Senior Research Officer at the Department for Constitutional Affairs and at the Home Office (2001-2003), Director of Race Equality West Midlands (1999-2001) and ESRC Research Fellow at the Birmingham City University Business School (1998-1999). I have held a number of visiting fellowships, including s Schonbrunn Visiting Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (2012), at the University of Exeter (2009-2011) and the University of Oxford (2007-2008).
I have a B.Sc.(Econ) in Economics with Mathematical Studies from Queen Mary, University of London (with Introduction to Individual and Social Psychology taken at the London School of Economics and Political Science), a M.Soc.Sc. in Economic Development and Policy from the University of Birmingham, and a Ph.D. in Ethnic Relations from the University of Warwick.
I am author of Islamic Radicalism and Multicultural Politics: The British Experience (Routledge, 2011) and The Education of British South Asians: Ethnicity, Capital and Class Structure (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2004); editor of Muslim Britain: Communities under Pressure (Zed, 2005), Islamic Political Radicalism: A European Perspective (Edinburgh and Columbia University Press, 2007) and Islam and Education (Routledge, 2010, 4-volumes); and co-editor of Immigration and Race Relations: Sociological Theory and John Rex (I B Tauris, 2007, with F Reeves) and Honour, Violence, Women and Islam (Routledge, 2011, with M M Idriss). I have also published numerous journal articles, book chapters, and essays, book reviews and opinion-editorials.
My recent writing has focused on ideas of economic integration and multiculturalism, and questions impacting on minorities. I also have a wider interest in theoretical, philosophical and historical questions on ethnic conflict and cultural cohesion, and the social relations between ethno-religious minorities and majorities in different Western nation-states, in particular in Western European societies, and in a historical and contemporary context. I use both qualitative and quantitative methods.
I am Associate Editor of Sociology of Islam (Brill) and on the Editorial Boards of Conflict and Peace Studies (Pak Institute for Peace Studies, Islamabad), Middle East Studies Online Journal (ISSN 2109-9618, Paris) and European Journal of Economic and Political Studies (Istanbul). I am also on the Advisory Board of the Muslim Youth Helpline, a Fellow of the Muslim Institute and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, all in London.
