I am passionate about engaging with the wider community and challenging Islamophobia. In 2017 I served as Chair of Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND) Leeds Working Group, a not-for-profit organization that empowers Muslims to be more actively involved in media and politics.

 

In 2019 I was headhunted by senior members of the American Psychiatric Association to co-edit a textbook on Islamophobia and Psychiatry published by Springer (I was the only member of the editorial team from outside of the United States).

 

I pioneered an anti-Islamophobia programme that I have been fortunate to deliver at Leeds, Sheffield and Cambridge Universities and as a Keynote Address in the University of East Anglia Conference on Religion and Psychiatry (alongside the Secretary General of the European Psychiatry Association Dr Julian Beezhold). In December 2019, I was invited to lecture Psychiatry Residents at Harvard Medical School.

 

I was also invited to deliver my anti-Islamophobia presentation in an international conference in Orlando following the heinous terrorist attack perpetrated against the LGBT+ community and the subsequent spike in anti-Muslim hate crime that soon ensued. Please see the material below for further information.

 

I am increasingly being consulted for my expertise on Muslim mental health and in  December 2019 the New Zealand Government contacted me to review a research proposal they received on the psychological effects of the heinous and horrific Christchurch Mosque Terror Attack.