The Flowhesion Foundation Research Centre for BAMER Research

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.