Policy & Research

Our policy and research department, which has strong academic credentials, has been commissioned by private and public funders to undertake research on a wide range of issues related to faith and BAME communities in the UK and Europe. Over the last decade, we have carried out consultations for numerous partners on an array of areas including barriers to employment, diversity and housing strategies.

Centre for the Modern Family

Dr Husna Ahmad was recently invited to be a panel member of the Centre for the Modern Family which has been formed by Scottish Widows. The Centre for the Modern Family looks at the changing dynamics of the modern British family life. The initial report has been published which demonstrates how dramatically family life has changed and Dr Husna amongst other expert panel members explore some of the issues and questions the research poses.

On the modern family – Dr Husna commented that: “if we do not have strong families and we do not nurture our children to have ambition and drive, that has a seriously damaging effect on the economic viability of this country.”

The Centre for the Modern Family has received significant interest, and Dr Husna was interviewed by the Asian radio channel-Sunrise radio to discuss her opinions on the changes within Asian family structures.

To find out more information about the Centre for the Modern Family- you can go to the following website:

http://www.centreformodernfamily.com

Faith in London’s Economy

FiLE is a new network working to create coordinated faith-community responses to the issues facing London ‘s economy. They are a practitioner group of Mission in London’s Economy and are supported by the Employer’s Forum on Belief, European Baha’i Business Forum, FRF UK and St Etheburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace.

FiLE is organising a series of seminars on issues of faith and business. The first such seminar, which FRF UK helped organise was on the topic of Ethics in a global economy and happened in October 2008. It was a successful and highly topical exploration of faith perspectives on business ethics, at the level both of the global economy and the individual workplace. Contributors included: Saif Ahmad (Muslim Aid); Jay Lakhani (Hindu Academy), Dr. Edmund Newell (St Paul’s Institute). As a result of the seminar a ‘Shared Faiths response on the credit crunch.’ was developed in as series of follow up meeting and fed into the 2009 G20 summit. To see a copy of the statement please click here:

FiLE is planning another seminar on Faith and Leadership – so watch this space for details!

Inform

Inform was a 3 year project funded by the Department of Health. The project aimed to achieve better health provision and information for faith and BAME groups across London, Manchester and Birmingham. As part of the project, FRF has developed the Health Navigator – a touch screen information system which provides public health information for faith communities. The Kiosks have the capacity to provide information in the eight languages of English, Arabic, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Somali, Turkish and Urdu.

Modernity and Islam: Roundtable discussion with Malaysian Prime Minister 2011

FRF UK had the great pleasure to host a roundtable discussion on ‘Modernity and Islam: The Role of British Muslims in the Global Framework’ on the 15th of July 2011. We were honoured to have the Malaysian Prime Minister, the Honourable Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak join the discussion at the Dorchester along with British Muslim leaders in various sectors of British society.

The roundtable discussion was an opportunity for those in a leadership positions to air their views on the priorities for the Muslim community in the UK and ways in which global challenges can be tackled whilst promoting peace and harmony. The discussion also looked at the engagement of Muslims with the West.

FRF UK also took this opportunity to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. We were delighted to have the Malaysian Prime Minister cut the cake to mark the celebration.

Muslims in EU Cities

The Open Society Institute’s (OSI) European Union Monitoring and Advocacy Program (EUMAP) was a project focusing on eleven cities in the European Union with significant Muslim populations. The research looked into the way municipal and national authorities address challenges relating to integration in European cities; how they counter growing social, political and economic tension and to what extent they consider the needs of Muslims and involve them in key decision making processes.

FRF was commissioned to act as a project coordinator for the research to be conducted in the Borough of Waltham Forest. This involved conducting 200 interviews with 50% of the interviewees from the Muslim community and a 50% ratio of males to females.

FRF also organised 6 focus groups, each comprised of 8 – 10 Muslim participants, who discussed the integration of Muslims in the community. The outcome of the research is to be published by OSI in 2008/2009.