the flowhesion foundation research centre for bamer research
Bolton
Imam Abdul Hafeez Siddique is the Founder and CEO of The Flowhesion Foundation.
He is an experienced, qualified Muslim Chaplain who studied at a traditional
Islamic seminary in Bolton. Abdul graduated from the seminary at the age of 17
making him, at the point of qualification, one of the youngest Imam’s in
Britain. Post qualification, he serves as a Muslim Chaplain at HMP Wymott where
he works as part of a multi-disciplinary, multi-faith team. Abdul has a strong
academic background in community cohesion and social capital research. After
completing his undergraduate degree in this field, he was awarded a postgraduate
scholarship by the Mariott Trust. Subsequently this led him to become the first
person in the Northwest to look in to how members of the South-Asian Muslim
community in Bolton interpreted the terminology and lexicology surrounding
community cohesion. He asked these difficult questions to marginalised members
of the bamer community. The research allowed Abdul to undertake an in-depth
theoretical study of the evolution of the concept: community cohesion and his
in-depth qualitative interviews formed the basis of his study that was
supervised by Professor Carole Truman and Dr Margaret Boneham at the University
of Bolton. This seminal study came to fruition in the form of a thesis submitted
for the degree of Master of Philosophy (M.Phil) titled ‘A critical analysis of
Cantle’s (2001) community cohesion model and its applicability to marginalised
elements of Bolton’s south-asian Muslim Community’ that was awarded to him in
2011. In addition, Abdul has over 10 years experience working with socially
excluded immigrant BAME communities and their representatives in Bolton to
promote community cohesion and build social capital.
