Dr Abdul Haqq Baker
Email: aahb5
st-andrews.ac.uk Abdul Haqq converted to Islam in 1990 and, after working in the legal profession for ten years, transferred his focus to community leadership and educational management following his appointment, in January 1994, as Chairman of the Brixton Mosque.
During his fifteen year tenure as chairman up until January 2009 his community work included the establishment of the Brixton Muslim community’s first registered independent Muslim primary school, Iqra. Abdul Haqq was also amongst those who participated alongside Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens), in petitioning for Islamia Primary school to become the first Muslim school to receive Grant Maintained Status in the UK. Iqra has since become state funded also.
Abdul Haqq’s work in this field led him to embark upon a Masters of Business Administration Degree in Education (MBA [Ed.]) in 1995 to examine the apparent variance in government policy between Muslim and other, more mainstream religious denominations’, education. His final thesis, entitled: ‘The Significance of State Funding for Muslim Education in Britain’ highlighted the results of his research around what was considered to be a very topical issue where research was established to be minimal.
Brixton Mosque was the focus of much media attention due to the attendance of individuals lured away into extremism and attempted terrorist actions; Richard Reid (aka the ‘shoe bomber’) and Zacarius Moussaoui (the 20th 9/11 hijacker). Abdul Haqq Baker knew both individuals and, through a series of interviews over the years has highlighted how susceptible young British Muslims have been to extremist propaganda.
He remains at the forefront of the many challenges that face British Muslims today and is involved in developing and driving pioneering projects for young Muslims which address the vacuum created by the apparent ignorance / malaise surrounding the urgent requirements to counter extremist propaganda.
His strategic focus is now upon helping the local and wider Muslim communities understand how best to contextualise and practice their religion as British Muslims within society today. In March 2007 he began a Muslim youth initiative called the Strategy To Reach Empower & Educate Teenagers (STREET) which targets Muslim youth considered susceptible to violent extremist propaganda. This programme has been cited by the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and British think tank DEMOS as a model case study. It won the Preventing Violent Extremism Innovation award (17th February 2009) for the most innovative youth programme in 2008.
Abdul Haqq’s work has been coupled with delivering lectures and seminars to educational institutions throughout the U.K. over the past twenty years. He is currently a Lecturer in Terrorism studies at the University of St. Andrews’ Centre for Studies in Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV) and a Research Associate at Exeter University’s European Muslim Research Centre (EMRC). The focus of his PhD research in Exeter University was the phenomenon of violent extremism in the UK amongst Muslim converts, the subject of his paper being; ‘Countering Extremism in the UK: a convert community perspective.’
Bibliography
2011 ‘Extremists in Our Midst: Confronting Terror,’ Palgrave MacMillan, July: http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=500993 & http://www.amazon.com/Extremists-Our-Midst-Confronting-Challenges/dp/0230296548/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315052039&sr=1-1
Co-authored book with Doctors Basia Spalek, Salwa El-Awa and Laura McDonald: Counter-Terrorism: ‘Community-based Approaches to Preventing Terror Crime,’ to be published by Palgrave MacMillan in 2011.
Co-authored report with Dr. Jonathan Githens-Mazer, Dr. Robert Lambert, Safiyah Cohen-Baker and Zacharias Pieri: ‘Muslim Communities Perspectives on Radicalisation in Leciester, UK’; Centre for Studies in Islamism and Radicalisation (CIR), Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Denmark, 2010.
Co-authored chapter with Doctors Basia Spalek and Robert Lambert: ‘Minority Muslim Communities and Criminal Justice: Stigmatised UK Faith Identities Post 9/11 and 7/7,’ in: H.Bui (ed) Race and the Criminal Justice System London: Sage, 2009.
‘A view from the inside’: Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Crime Matters, Issue 73, September, 2008