Tahir Abbas FAcSS is Professor of Radicalisation Studies at Leiden University’s Institute of Security and Global Affairs in The Hague. He graduated with a PhD in Ethnic Relations from the University of Warwick in 2001. His current research interests include Islamophobia and radicalisation, gender and violence, and polarisation and extremism. He is the author, editor, and co-editor of twenty books, as well as the author, editor, and co-editor of over one hundred peer-reviewed articles and chapters.

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• Profile
• Books and special editions
• Academic and professional career
• Academic qualifications
• Academic expertise
• Courses

Profile

TAHIR ABBAS PhD FAcSS was a sociology professor at the Universities of Birmingham and Istanbul before joining the Institute in August 2018. His current research focuses on comparative reciprocal polarisation, extremism, and radicalisation. He is the Scientific Coordinator of the European Commission (EC)-funded Drive project, which explores Muslim minority and ethnic majority issues related to polarisation and extremism, and the Principal Investigator of the EC-funded Protone project, which explores protecting Abrahamic religious places of worship in Europe. His most recent book, Islamophobia and Securitisation: The Dutch Case, was published in August 2022 by Palgrave-Pivot-Springer (with L. Welten). His previous books include Countering Violent Extremism: The International Deradicalization Agenda, which was published by Bloomsbury in 2021, and Islamophobia and Radicalisation: A Vicious Cycle, which was published in late 2019 by Hurst and co-published by Oxford University Press in New York. Other recent publications include examining the waves of ‘Islamist extremism’ in the UK in Journal of Contemporary European Studies (2023), the impact of the Prevent Duty on Muslim university students in the UK (with I. Awan and J. Marsden) in Race Ethnicity and Education (2023), the theorisation of ‘structural radicalisation’ in relation to violent extremism in southeast Turkey (with K. Ovet and J. Hewitt) in Studies in Conflict and Terrorism (2022), and how the Brexit vote in the UK and Refugee Crisis events in Germany shaped tolerance towards immigrants and minorities in Ethnic and Racial Studies (2021).

Books and special editions

(2022) Islamophobia and Securitisation: The Dutch Case, Cham: Switzerland, Palgrave-Pivot-Springer.

(2021) Countering Violent Extremism: An International Global Deradicalisation Agenda, London and New York: Bloomsbury-IB Tauris.

(2019) Islamophobia and Radicalisation: A Vicious Cycle, London and New York: Hurst and Oxford University Press. 

(2018b) (eds.) Political Muslims: Understanding Youth Resistance in a Global Context, New York: Syracuse University Press Middle East Studies Series (+ introduction and conclusion) (with S Hamid). 

(2018a) (ed.) Special Issue ‘Educating British Muslims: identity, religion and politics in a neoliberal era’, British Journal of Sociology of Education 39(2): 161-259 + ‘Editorial’ 39(2): 161-165. 

(2017) Contemporary Turkey in Conflict: Ethnicity, Islam and Politics, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

(2016) (ed.) Muslim Diasporas in the West: Critical Readings in Sociology, four volumes, London and New York: Routledge (Major Works Series) + introduction. 

(2015) (assoc. ed.) Critical Muslim 16: Turkey, London and Delhi: Hurst and Oxford University Press + Introduction. 

(2011b) (ed.) Islam and Education, four volumes, London and New York: Routledge (Major Works Series) + introduction. 

(2011a) Islamic Radicalism and Multicultural Politics: The British Experience, London and New York: Routledge. 

(2010) (eds.) Honour, Violence, Women and Islam, London and New York: Routledge + Chapter (with MM Idriss). 

(2007b) (ed.) Islamic Political Radicalism: A European Perspective, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press + Introduction. 

(2007a) (eds.) Immigration and Race Relations: Sociological Theory and John Rex, London and New York: IB Tauris + Introduction (+ chapter) (with F Reeves) (published in paperback in 2020).

(2005) (ed.) Muslim Britain: Communities under Pressure, London: Zed and Chicago: Chicago University Press + Introduction (republished in 2013). 

(2004) The Education of British South Asians: Ethnicity, Capital and Class Structure (Palgrave-Macmillan).

Academic and professional career

2017-2019, Visiting Senior Fellow, Department of Government, London School of Economics, UK

2016-2017, Senior Research Fellow, Royal United Services Institute, London, UK

2015-2016, Remarque Visiting Fellow, New York University, USA

2009-2016, Professor of Sociology (2012-2016), Associate Professor (2009-2012), Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey

2013, Visiting Professor, Leiden Institute for Religious Studies, Leiden University, Netherlands

2012, Visiting Associate Professor, Graduate School of the State Islamic University in Jakarta, Indonesia

2012, Iqbal Fellow, Institute for Research and Dialogue, International Islamic University in Islamabad, Pakistan

2012, Schonbrunn Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel

2009-2011, Honorary University Fellow, Centre for Ethno-Political Studies, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, UK

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

2007-2008, Visiting Fellow, University of Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, UK

2003-2009, Reader (Associate Professor) in Sociology (2006-2009), Senior Lecturer (2005-2006), and Lecturer (2003-2005), and Director of Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Culture, University of Birmingham, UK

2002-2003, Senior Research Officer, Lord Chancellor’s Department Research Unit, London, UK

2000-2002, Senior Research Officer, Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate, London, UK

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

1999-2000, Director, Race Equality West Midlands, Worcester, UK

1997-1999, Research Fellow, University of Central England Business School, UK

1995-1997, Research Assistant, Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations, University of Warwick, UK

Academic qualifications

2001, PhD in Ethnic Relations, University of Warwick, UK

1994, Master of Social Science in Economic Development and Policy, University of Birmingham, UK

1993, BSc(Econ) in Economics with Mathematical Studies, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, UK

Academic expertise

• Critical Terrorism Studies
• Ethnic Studies
• Islamic Studies
• Islamophobia
• Radicalisation
• Social Policy
• Sociology

Courses

• Dealing with Terrorism and Foreign Fighters
• Extremism in a Global Context (Islamism)
• Researching Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism
• Sociology of Terrorism
• Understanding Terrorism

Publications