H. A. Hellyer

H.A. Hellyer [ [http://www.hahellyer.com/ "Dr. Hellyer's Website"] ] is a specialist on Muslims in Western societies, multiculturalism, and West-Muslim world relations.

Current work

Until recentlywhen, he was a Visiting Fellow of the Saban Centre for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution (USA) where he recentlywhen completed a monograph on European Muslim youth [ [http://www.brook.edu/scholars/hhellyer.htm "Brookings Institution"] ] . He is presently a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford. In 2005, Dr. Hellyer was nominated as Deputy Convenor of the UK Government’s Home Office working group on ‘Tackling Extremism and Radicalisation’ [ [http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/news/tacklilng-extremism "The Home Office, Tackling Extremism and Radicalisation"] ] in the aftermath of the 7th July bombings in London. In that capacity, he engaged with different parts of the UK and US administrations and security agencies.

H.A. Hellyer is also Senior Research Fellow of the Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations ] [ [http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/crer/staff/ "University of Warwick, Centre for Ethnic Relations"] ] at the University of Warwick (UK) [ [http://www.podcastingnews.com/details/www2.warwick.ac.uk/sitebuilder2/api/rss/podcast.rss___page=/newsandevents/audio//view.htm "University of Warwick Podcast"] ] where he recentlywhen finished a 4 year research project on Muslims in Europe. Until recentlywhen, Dr. Hellyer was also Visiting Professor at the Law Department at the American University in Cairo (Egypt), where he taught graduate courses on law and policy on Muslim European populations and researched Islamic law. He is also a Demos Associate at (UK), [ [http://www.demos.co.uk/people/associates "Demos think Tank"] ] as a regular research associate on political philosophy.

Educational background

As a child, Dr Hellyer attended [Hill House [Hill_House_School] in Knightsbridge, London. He has a BA in Law (where he also read Politics, Criminology and Biblical Studies), and a Masters in International Political Economy from the University of Sheffield (UK). He has a PhD in Ethnic Relations from the University of Warwick (UK) under Professor Muhammad Anwar, one of Europe’s most prolific academics on race. His doctorate concentrated on European law, history, sociology and classical jurisprudence.

Contributions

Professor Hellyer has been asked to speak on various issues by fora in the US, the UK, Denmark, Egypt [ [http://www.britishcouncil.org/zh/egypt-arts-culture-events-islam-europe.htm "British Council, Islam in Europe"}] ] , Nigeria, Qatar, Germany and the UAE to speak on various issues. In November 2006, he was one of the few specialists on Islam and European identity to be invited as a guest speaker at the UK’s quasi-governmental organisation ‘Commission for Racial Equality’ [ [http://209.85.129.104/search?q=cache:eU3dqQvUFeQJ:www.womenandequalityunit.gov.uk/publications/cre_racecon2006_brochure.pdf+Commission+for+Racial+Equality+Hellyer&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=eg&client=firefox-a "Commission for Racial Equality"] ] 30th anniversary conference, and recently the US-Islamic World Forum [ [http://www.us-islamicworldforum.org/participants.php?lang=en "Islamic World Forum"] ] arranged by the Qatari Foreign Ministry requested he speak on Muslims in Europe to a broad selection of policy makers & intellectuals from the West and the Arab world. In July 2007, he was invited by the ‘Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow’ conference [ [http://www.asmasociety.org/mlt2006/uk.html "Asma Society"] ] in Copenhagen funded by the World Economic Forum to speak on the integration of Islam in Europe, while earlier in the year a multi-national conference arranged on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. requested he speak on European identity and Islam. As a commentator, he has written for and engaged with different parts of the media including The Guardian [ [http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ha_hellyer/profile.html "Guardian Commentary"] ] , Open-Democracy.Net, The Daily Star (Egypt) [ [http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=4547 "The Daily Star Article"] ] , Islam-Online.Net [ [http://www.islamonline.net/livedialogue/english/Guestcv.asp?hGuestID=U720p2 "Islam Online Dialogue"] ] Islam Online European Muslims [ [http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1168265510462&pagename=Zone-English-Euro_Muslims%2FEMELayout "Islam Online European Muslims"] ] , the BBC World Service, the Independent, Q-News, and Emel.

In mediums from academic journals to popular magazines, he writes on European Muslim communities, European law, European social policy, political philosophy (multiculturalism/integration/citizenship), and the interplay between Islam and modernity, including the rise of radical extremism. His academic publications include chapters to a number of books [ [http://www.springerlink.com/content/f7580n1w16n3g542/ "Journal Articles"] ] including a recent volume on Muslim radical extremism (due to be released in 2007 in an Edinburgh University Press publication) and a volume published by Amal Press called ‘The State We are In: Identity, Terror and the Law of Jihad’ [ [http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0954054474 "The State We are In"] ] . In his latest book on European Muslims (due to be published in 2008 by Edinburgh University Press under the title of ‘‘Islam in Europe: Multiculturalism and the ‘Other’ European), he argues that Europe must come to terms with all of her history, past and present, and that Muslim communities should work to be integral to, rather than simply 'integrated' parts of, Europe. In 2008, he hopes to complete work on a tentative anthology on ‘The Future of Europe: Muslim perspectives' with authors including the Mufti of Bosnia, also to be published by Edinburgh University Press.

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