Faculty Member, Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations
Fellow
About
H.A. Hellyer is Fellow at the Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations at the University of Warwick (UK). A recognised expert on Muslim communities worldwide, political philosophy, government policies on religion, and the interplay between Islam and modernity, Dr. Hellyer was Ford Fellow of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution (USA), where he focused on Muslim European communities. From October 2007 to April 2008, he was also Economic and Social Research Council Placement Fellow at the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, where he carried out research as Warwick University’s Senior Research Fellow, on a project looking at Muslim communities.
In 2005, Dr. Hellyer was nominated as Deputy Convenor of the UK Government’s Home Office working group on “Tackling Extremism and Radicalization” in the aftermath of the July 7th bombings in London; two years later, at the behest of the Brookings Institution in the United States, he released a book relating to community engagement in counter-terrorism entitled ‘Engagement with the Muslim community and counter-terrorism: British lessons for the West’. He remains an independent advisor to a number of government departments in the US and the UK.
Dr. Hellyer, previously Member of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies of the University of Oxford, was also Visiting Professor at the Law Department at the American University in Cairo (Egypt), where he taught graduate classes on European policy and Muslim populations, and researched classical Islamic law. He is Member of International Institute of Strategic Studies (London, Washington, Singapore), and Founder-Director of the West – Muslim world relations research consultancy, the Visionary Consultants Group.
Dr. Hellyer holds a Law degree from the University of Sheffield’s Law School, and a Masters degree in International Political Economy from the University of Sheffield. He received his PhD from the University of Warwick (UK) where he studied political philosophy and Muslim communities under Professor Muhammad Anwar, one of Europe’s most prolific academics on Muslim communities. He has taught and studied all over the West and the Muslim world, including the UK, Egypt, the UAE, Malaysia and the USA.
He is a regular commentator in mediums such as the Guardian (UK), the Washington Post (USA), the National (UAE) and the Prospect Magazine (UK), and speaks to forums such as the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Royal United Services Institute (UK), the Azhar University in Cairo and the BBC Doha Debates. He continues to work with and assist think-tanks and foundations such as the Tabah Foundation (UAE), Demos (UK) and the World for All Foundation (South Africa) in the development of their work.
In his latest book, “Muslim Europeans: The ‘Other’ European” (due to be published in 2009 by Edinburgh University Press), 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 Europe. He is completing work on two books entitled “Western Muslims and Islam in the 21st Century” and “Muslims on the Margins: Muslim Minorities in Southeast Asia, Africa and the West”.
Contact Information
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/crer/staff/hellyer/
