Tahir Abbas
Born	Birmingham, United Kingdom
Residence	England
Nationality	British
Fields	Ethnic Studies Political Islam Economic Sociology Educational Anthropology
Alma mater	Queen Mary, University of London BSc(Econ) University of Birmingham MSocSc University of Warwick PhD

Tahir Abbas (born 1970) is a British social scientist with research and teaching experience in the study of race, ethnicity, multiculturalism, political Islam and Muslim minorities in Britain and Western Europe.^[1] He was Reader in Sociology and founding Director of the Birmingham University Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Culture, before it was closed down in 2009.^[2] Between 2001 and 2003 he was a senior researcher at the Home Office and the Department for Constitutional Affairs in London.^[1]

Abbas has published a number of books^[3] and his comments have been featured in articles by the BBC^[4] and the Daily Times of Pakistan.^[5] He has also written articles for The Guardian.^[6] He is Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts^[7] and a member of the Lunar Society.^[8] Abbas has held numerous research grants and has worked with government departments, universities and civil society organisations^[9] throughout Asia, Europe and North America. In 2009 it was revealed that Abbas had plagiarised a number of other academics' work whilst at the University of Birmingham.^[10]

In 2008 he was given a government grant to research the radicalisation of students on university campuses in the UK.^[11]

Contents 1 Education 2 Family 3 Views 4 Plagiarism 5 External appointments 6 Select bibliography 7 References 8 External links

Education

Abbas attended a Catholic primary school and then went to a local comprehensive school. He then attended a sixth form college, "as far away from where we lived as possible", retook his GCSEs, then sat his A levels and was admitted to Queen Mary, University of London to study economics. After graduating he studied for a master's degree in economic development and then started a PhD at Warwick University's Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations.^[1]

Family

Abbas' father emigrated to the UK from Kashmir in 1957 at the age of 16. Abbas grew up in Birmingham, in the Small Heath area.^[12] He has three children.^[1]

Views

Abbas has written and spoken widely about the integration of immigrants and minorities in the UK, especially the situation of Muslims. Among the reasons integration of some Muslim groups has been problematic, Abbas includes the fact that some parents can insist that their children retain traditional practices such as arranged marriages, which can potentially lead to family conflict. Another reason is the failure of older community leaders, whose position is rooted in clan and family ties, to represent the views and frustrations of younger people.^[13] He notes that the second generation want to integrate to a greater extent and are less inclined than their parents to tolerate racism and discrimination.^[14]

In comments on the Jyllands-Posten Mohammad cartoons controversy, Abbas wrote that the Danes had failed to appreciate that freedom of expression comes with responsibility, that the media jumped at a chance to cover confrontational actions by Muslims, and that Muslim protestors had fallen into “a trap set by neo-conservative European elites.”^[15]

Abbas advocates for greater attention in British schools to Muslim history and argues that education is part of the solution to the problem of Islamic radicalism.^[16]

Plagiarism

The Times Higher Education Supplement reported in 2009 that the University of Birmingham investigated Abbas for plagiarism in 2007 and determined that there had been multiple instances of his published work having been copied from other academics, including Bhikhu Parekh. Taylor & Francis, publishers of the journal Citizenship Studies, has retracted a 2005 paper of his, having determined that some sections were copied without attribution.^[17] Information in two of his books was also found to have been plagiarized. After the Birmingham investigation's conclusion, Abbas returned to work and filed a race-related grievance against his head of department. Further allegations of plagiarism led to his departure from Birmingham in June 2009.^[10]

External appointments

2009-present, Honorary University Fellow, Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies, School of Humanities and Social Sciences^[18]

2007-2009, Fellow, Centre for Studies in Security and Democracy, University of Birmingham.

2007-2008, Visiting Fellow, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (a Recognised Independent Centre of the University of Oxford).

1999-2001, Associate Fellow, Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations, University of Warwick.

Select bibliography

Tahir Abbas has published 4 books and numerous journal articles and book chapters. Books include:

• The Education of British South Asians: Ethnicity, Capital and Class Structure, Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2004.
• Muslim Britain: Communities under Pressure, London and New York: Zed, 2005 (edited collection).
• Islamic Political Radicalism: A European Perspective, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007 (edited collection).
• Immigration and Race Relations: Sociological Theory and John Rex, London and New York: IB Tauris, 2007 (edited with Frank Reeves).

References

External links

• Personal Website
• openDemocracy - Tahir Abbas
• Works by or about Tahir Abbas in libraries (WorldCat catalog)