Evening Madrasa – the way forward

Speakers Profile

Professor Mohammed Talib – is a fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. He is also Islamic Centre Lecturer in the ‘Anthropology of Muslim Societies’ at the University of Oxford. He teaches at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology. His research interest in the area of anthropology of Islam focuses on the institutions of religious education and spiritual practices among Muslims in India as well as UK. Some of his publications in the area of Islam / Muslims are: ‘Sufis and Politics’ in TheOxford Encyclopaedia of the Modern Islamic World, John Esposito (ed). OxfordUniversity Press, New York (2009).“Personalising Islam in Communicating Divorce”, in Imtiaz Ahmad (ed) Divorce Among Muslims In India ( 2003). “Soul of the Soulless: An Analysis of Pir-Murid Relationship in Sufi Discourse”, in Christian W. Troll (ed.) Muslim Shrines in India(2002). “Construction and Reconstruction of the World in the Tablighi Ideology”, in Muhammad Khalid Masud (ed.) Travellers in Faith : Studies of the Tablighi Jama’at as a Transnational Islamic Movement for Faith Renewal ( 2000).

Dr. Bill Gent – Having spent 15 years teaching & then 20 years as a local authority school improvement adviser, Dr Bill Gent now works as an independent consultant and researcher. He is
editor of REsource, the journal of the National Association of Teachers of RE (NATRE), and is an associate fellow at Warwick Religions & Education Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of Warwick. He has had a number of articles published based on his doctoral research including
fieldwork on a boys' hifz class in a north-east Londonmosque.

Maurice Irfan Coles – Director of the ICE (Islam & Citizenship Education in Madrasa) project. Maurice Irfan Coles has been in the education service for 40 years. From childhood in Lambeth he has been actively involved in issues related to education for our multicultural/multifaith society. He has been a teacher, Head of Department and an advisory teacher in challenging areas. For 18 years he held a range of senior portfolios in the City of Birmingham, including Senior Adviser for Multicultural Education, Secondary, Special Needs, Community Education and School Improvement. He established the largest Multicultural Support Service in the country and for a period of time led one of the largest advisory teams. He has been an OFSTED Registered Inspector in both the primary and secondary phases, and a team member for special schools. For 6 years he headed the School Development Support Agency in LeicesterCity which works on a range of school improvement initiatives in Leicester, regionally, nationally and internationally. He now acts as a consultant to the SDSA and is Chief Executive of his own company, Promoting Community Cohesion. He has managed countless educational and social projects, including the Cultural Understandings of Science Project (CUSP), working under the direction of the Association of Science Education and Professor Salim al Hassani of the Foundation of Science, Technology and Civilisation. At present he is also the Director of the Islam and Citizenship in Education Project (ICE) which is developing materials for the teaching of citizenship in madrasahs. He has published extensively on a large range of issues including School Improvement, Race Equality, Intercultural Education and Continuing Professional Development. He led the writing team and edited a major work on Faith, Interfaith and Cohesion: The Education Dimensionwhich can be accessed electronically on the ICOCO website. His latest book, Every Muslim Child Matters, was published by Trentham in May 2008. His next work, ‘Every Muslim Parent Matters,’ will be published by the Markfield Institute in the summer of 2009. He has travelled the world and has been to most of the countries from whence hail our major minority ethnic groups. He is a convert to Islam, has been married to a Hindu for over 30 years and has 2 daughters. He believes humour, collaboration, organisation and passionate commitment are the keys to stopping conflict, promoting faith and interfaith, and building a cohesive society.

Nadeem Baksh – Principal Associate at the Institute of Community Cohesion (iCoCo). He has conducted many reports into the diversity of Muslim communities and recently carried out a study into the various structural arrangements operating in Madrasahs across the country and the different approaches to how promote Community Cohesion.

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