Ideas Lab

Birmingham Buzz: “Faith in the City”

This week I’ve been lucky to have quite a bit of coverage afforded to me by Buzz magazine.

As part of a double page spread, Buzz covered the “Faith in the City” event that I facilitated in November at the Green Lane Masjid. You can download a free copy of Buzz to read the article by clicking here.

Alternatively, you can read the article below:

Faith in the City: Dr Chris Allen reflects on faith, community and the city

As part of the ESRC’s Festival of Social Science 2011, I organised the Faith in the City: communities, regeneration, interaction event here in Birmingham. Held in the city, at the local Green Lane mosque, the event sought to explore how faith inspires and influences people to live, work and act in today’s
urban space.

Attracting around 70 delegates across the day, representatives from most of the city’s different faith communities were joined by delegates from Birmingham City Council, West Midlands Police and West Midlands Fire Service, as well as academics and students fromlocal and national universities. Alongside presentationsfrom Birmingham-based organisations with a faith heritage – including Islamic Relief, St Peter’s Saltley Trust and Birmingham Citizens – researchers from the University spoke about how their research was helping to raise awareness of a number of critical issues relevant to modern faith communities. Of particular interest was Dr Ricky Joseph from the Centre for Household Assets and Savings Management (CHASM) who spoke about the disparity between different faith groups in terms of wealth and assets, something that delegates had not previously considered.

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‘Faith in the City’ event a success

Reproduced below is a short piece from the IASS website at the University of Birmingham about the recent ‘Faith in the City’ event. If you want to see the article in its original form, you can find it by clicking here.

‘Faith in the City’ event a success

Around 70 people attended last week’s ‘Faith in the City: communities, regeneration and integration’ event at the Green Lane Mosque in the Small Heath area of Birmingham. Organised as part of the ESRC’s Festival of Social Science 2011, event organiser, IASS’s Chris Allen, was overwhelmed by the response.

“In the diverse city that is today’s Birmingham, faith is an important part for many people. It inspires and influences the way people live, work and act and this event sought to explore some of this”.

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9/11 Ten Years On: collected reflections

As a way of drawing a line under the tenth anniversary of 9/11, posted below are links to the various activities I engaged in:

“Did 9/11 change everything?” (11 September 2011, Blog Post & Comment Piece for the ‘Birmingham Perspective’, University of Birmingham)

“Did 9/11 change everything?” (9 September 2011, Opinion Poll, University of Birmingham)

“9/11 Ten Years on – Where Are We Now?” (5 September 2011, Podcast, Ideas Lab)

“Sunday Morning Live” (11 September 2011 BBC1, i-Player)

“Ten Years On: The Welsh Journalist at 9/11″ (11 September 2011, Feature on BBC Radio Wales, i-Player)

“Paul Franks Show: 9/11 Reflections” (9 September 2011, BBC Radio WM, i-Player)

“Midlands Masala” (11 September 2011, BBC Radio WM, i-Player)

“9/11 Reflections” (11 September 2008, blog post)

“Islam-Hass ist kein Post-9/11-Phänomen” (10 September 2011, Neues Deutschland, newspaper article)

Ideas Lab Podcast: “9/11 Ten Years On – Where Are We Now?”

“…it’s just interesting that ten years on, a lot of the things that we were finding then continue to exist now; the way in which Islamophobia is becoming much more normal, people accept it a little bit more, they kind of justify that actually things have changed so they’re allowed to be discriminatory or prejudicial towards Muslims or to be more negative towards Islam than other religions”

As part of the build up to the tenth anniversary of 9/11, I have been interviewed by the wonderful people (Lucy Vernall and Andy Tootell) at Ideas Lab for inclusion in their weekly podcast. In addition to some thoughts on 9/11 and its legacy (see above quote), I also discuss the riots, the Muslim response in Birmingham and where my research into Islamophobia is currently taking me.

The podcast is available to listen to from today and can be accessed by clicking here.

Alternatively, you can read a transcript which is available to download here download here.

Ideas Lab Predictor Podcast: Chris Allen speaks about Islamophobia

As the Ideas Lab website puts it, each Predictor Podcast features a different academic expert scanning the horizon in their specialist field to give insider knowledge on new trends and key issues. It’s a quick heads-up on what to watch out for over the next 18-24 months, given by those in the know.

Use the link below to listen to the podcast I recorded in October 2010 where I discuss what I think will be the key issues about Islamophobia in the UK, Europe and US over the next few years:

PODCAST: Dr Chris Allen predicts the trends relevant to Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate crime