Mohammed Ali

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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