Intro to the Outro

I thought I should have a separate page for those who are interested in my personal background, a sort of summary autobiography. The trouble is where to begin. My personal life is all relevant to me, but not particularly relevant to this website - and come to that, not something I particularly want to splash around the world. It's a long time since I wanted to be famous, and right now I would be happy to have a quiet and peaceful life for a few years more, so that I can finish IZWAYZ and then spend the rest of my days relaxing and studying. So let me just deal with the things I've done, starting with adulthood, even if it doesn't seem quite so adult in retrospect.

The Early Years

At University I studied architecture, but got thrown out for non-attendance, went into the theatre and did all sorts of things, designed things, wrote things, built things, occasionally directed things, worked on sound and lighting, acted a little bit, moved scenery, and did quite a lot of what might best be called special effects. But after ten years of that I needed to move on, spent a year or so doing nothing but reading (mostly books on philosophy and religion) and then decided it was time to see the world, made my way to America and almost immediately discovered Islam - although it actually felt more like Islam discovering me. 

After a few year wandering around the USA, I flew to Australia and then my first muslim country, Indonesia. From there to Malaysia, India and Pakistan, the Emirates, visited Makkah, Madinah, Jerusalem and Cairo, and eventually returned to the UK seven years after I had left. If you had told me at the time that I would still be living here twenty-five years later, I wouldn't have believed you. But so it goes. 

In the beginning, I thought I would be able to somehow find gainful employment in the bosom of the muslim community. Many new muslims do, and it takes a while to realise that it doesn't quite work that way. I tried to make a living by engraving Qur'anic ayats on to crystal glass, but after a few years struggling to survive, I gave it up with the onset of a rather more pressing problem, and for a while devoted myself to surviving a bout of cancer, and as you can see, I'm still alive, if rather feebly kicking.

Meanwhile, before and after, my life was mainly focused on a few interconnected areas, Education, Inter-Faith dialogue, Broadcasting, and the linking factor that dominated all of them - Islam and the muslim community. The stuff that I did over those years is all fairly well represented on the website, but to frame it all in a different context I'll summarize it here. 

The Academic & Education Connection

In the years 1986 - 2001, my work in Education extended into a variety of areas across the education system, including :- 

Annual lectures and seminars on Islam for Glasgow University's degree course in World Religions. 

Various adult and post-graduate lectures and seminars at Glasgow University (e.g. seminars on cultural awareness in a range of situations & seminars on death & dying for post-graduate medical students).

Lectures at St. Andrews RC Teacher Training College (now part of the University of Glasgow Faculty of Education).

Numerous in-service training courses led for Education Advisors, teachers and other professionals in Glasgow and elsewhere in Scotland and the UK. 

With the Education Department of Strathclyde Regional Council, produced classroom resource packs for primary and secondary level, as well as staff development material related to the new Scottish 5-14 RME Curriculum. Also produced resource material related not just to RME & PSD, but also such areas as Mathematics, Expressive Arts, and Environmental Studies.

Regular classroom visits to a wide variety of primary and secondary schools, including the use of slide presentations and installation of exhibitions.

Two articles written for the Journal of the Scottish Working Party on Religions of the World in Education.

Teaching Assistant in the Dept. of Religious Studies at Stirling University (also presenting a paper at the Department's “Contemporary Innovations in Religion in Scotland” Conference).

Also at the University of Stirling, but through the Institute of Education, spent four years researching and writing a thesis entitled “Knowledge, Religious Understanding, and Education in a Multi-Faith Society”, an exploration of the relationship between secular school and faith community in the development of a child’s identity and values in a local and global context. Unfortunately this was not considered acceptable for an MSc.

Not strictly speaking academic, but until quite recently I was also Muslim Chaplain to the University.

The Inter-Faith Dialogue Connection

For many years I was known for my association with a wide range of Inter-Faith activities :-

Chairman, of Glasgow's Sharing of Faiths Inter-Faith dialogue group for over ten years.

Participant in many and various Inter-Faith conferences and seminars (Iona, Dunblane, Birmingham, Kilmarnock, London, Glasgow etc.).

Numerous contacts with a broad cross-section of Christian churches and faith groups (6 month study programme facilitated for Glasgow Methodists; reporting on Church of Scotland Assembly for the BBC etc.).

Various magazine articles for Christian and Inter-Faith Journals.

Development of several Interfaith exhibitions with Strathclyde Regional Council and Glasgow Museums (including St. Mungo's Museum of Religion).

The Broadcasting Connection

I have only occasionally scripted or appeared in items for TV, but for a long time I made regular radio broadcasts with BBC Radio Scotland, and also broadcast on Radio Clyde, Radio 4, and the BBC World Service. All told, these come to about 200 appearances over the years, the most recent being a half-hour adaptation of traditional muslim stories broadcast in October 2002. Since then, I've moved myself on to the sidelines.

The Islam & the Muslim Community Connection

My work with the Muslim community in Scotland and other parts of the UK has been fairly extensive :-

Devised curriculum approved for education of all Muslims in Glasgow on behalf of the Islamic Education Council (Chairman of the Curriculum Committee).

Produced reports for various organisations relating to Muslim education and the education of Muslims in the context of the English National Curriculum.

Presented numerous public talks and lectures on aspects of Islamic understanding, including on several occasions a 26 week series of lectures on Islam (Presented as chairman of Islamic Outreach, at Glasgow's Muslim House, as well as in libraries across the city).

Designed several exhibitions used in Glasgow Schools and Libraries (as well as Glasgow Central Mosque).

Lecture tour of Malaysian Universities and Colleges, including meetings with Government Ministers and other officials (1993).

UK representative of Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia, Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (resigned 1994).

Chairman of the Scottish Branch of the Islamic Society of Britain (resigned 1991).

Development of distance learning project on behalf of ISB and the Islamic Foundation Leicester.

Articles, poems and comic art for Insight (A magazine for young Muslims).

Youthleader training and co-operative development of possible education systems for Muslim youth organisations (Glasgow area Young Muslims, and Muslim Youth Circle).

Numerous talks, lectures and seminars for a wide variety of Muslim youth and student organisations across the UK.

Wrote the script for an educational CD dramatising the life, works and heritage of Abu Hanifa, one of the four classical Imams recognised as founders of the Sunni Muslim legal traditions.

My last formal association with any part of the Muslim community was with the Islamic Research Academy, where from 1997-2001 I was secretary to the Academy, co-organiser and co-chair of its Annual International Academic Conference, Designer and English Language Editor of the Journal of Islamic Jerusalem Studies, Website designer and Publications Editor. In 1999, along with other members of the board, I travelled to the UAE at the invitation of Shaikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, where we toured tertiary education facilities and held meetings with Government Ministers. This resulted in the establishment of a series of annual post-graduate scholarships in studies related to Islamic Jerusalem. In the year 2000 I developed a project for the establishment of an Islamic Studies Institute in Scotland, and after presentations to representatives from Dubai they agreed funding, whereupon the Academy and I parted company. The Al-Maktoum Institute has now been established in Dundee, and anyone wanting a more complete story of the events that drew my relationship with the Academy to a summary close can find it here.

That's All Folks !

Well, all for now at any rate.