Dr Fahad Rahman

fahad rahan photo

Postdoctoral Affiliate

My research is interdisciplinary and placed at the nexus of the anthropology of Islam, feminist and queer critical theory, sociology of race and policing, and Islamic theology. I focus on identities, beliefs, practices, and communities that socially marginalised people construct to find meaning and initiate change. I have been working and socialising with individuals in minority Muslim communities who are seeking social and religious change both within their religious communities and the broader national context. My doctoral thesis centred British progressive Muslim organisations and community groups working on gender justice, queer rights, Islamophobia, and security/securitisation processes. My key question has been: ‘How do individuals balance the complex power dynamics of internal critique in a context where their communities are securitised and subjected to wider social prejudice and discrimination?’ This balance is particularly fraught and consequential for issues that become politicised and associated with social boundaries and policing. For minority Muslim communities in the West these issues are often related to gender, sexuality, security, visible religiosity, and immigration. Hence, minority Muslim discourses and activism around inclusion and diversity often get enmeshed with discourses related to race, citizenship, and security. This topic is even more relevant with the advent of Artificial Intelligence technologies that encode social biases in ways that can reinforce the securitisation of racialised minorities. Overall, I want to explore how people navigate the politics of inclusion, and its link with exclusionary social processes, within multiple communities and contexts in the hopes of highlighting model approaches that can inform our personal and social politics.