Professor Matthew Wilkinson

Publication

• Date
• Type

Research

• For courts, as an Expert Witness in 35 Terrorism and Hate Crime cases, Matthew used the theological philosophy of Islamic Critical Realism to help juries reach just and evidenced verdicts by distinguishing between the Worldviews of Islam, Islamism, and Islamist Extremism and to understand the nature of other types of extremism, such as Satanist and Christian Identity Extremism. This work has included the Manchester Arena Inquiry for which Matthew was instructed to describe and explain the radicalization of the bomber of the Manchester Arena. The Chair of the Manchester Arena Inquiry, The Hon. Sir John Saunders, commended Matthew’s evidence as follows,

"I hope that his [Matthew's] evidence to this Inquiry will be considered carefully by the authorities, as it could enhance their ability to identify signs of radicalisation and the appropriate level of importance to be attached to them."        

Volume 3, Clause 25.8, p. 104       

In the 2016 case of S. Begg v. BBC, Matthew’s Expert Witness Report was taken almost verbatim by the Judge to give a 10-point definition of Islamist Extremism which has now become the only widely accepted legal definition of this Worldview. Matthew published the full methodology in The Genealogy of Terror: how to distinguish between Islam, Islamism and Islamist Extremism.

• For schools, using the philosophy of Islamic Critical Realism, Matthew developed the Concept of the Absent Curriculum which showed how the absence of the contributions of classical Arab, Persian and Indian scholars to the intellectual history of humanity generated bad, incomplete history for all pupils and that school history that included these contributions at natural moments, such as the History of Science, would be more accurate, useful and better history for all pupils. This concept has been used for teacher training at the University of Cambridge, UCL Institute of Education and the University of Oxford.

• In prisons, Matthew’s work in the law courts made him aware that policy around rehabilitation and faith was hampered by ignorance of the presence and effects of faith in prison. Therefore, from 2018-2021 he and his research team conducted the largest study of Islam in prison. This was independently funded and involved research in ten prisons in England, Switzerland and France. The research showed that choosing faith in prison presents some criminogenic risk and significant rehabilitative opportunities. The findings were published in a book for frontline criminal justice professionals, Islam in Prison: finding faith, freedom and fraternity.

Based on these research findings, Matthew established at Cardiff University the independently funded programme PRIMO to develop innovative whole-prison university accredited professional training for Correctional Officers, for Prison Chaplains and for Incarcerated People to help mobilize deeply reflective religious faith specifically tailored to reducing the high 5-year reoffending rates in the UK of 44% and in the USA of 71%.

PRIMO has been successfully trialled in the UK and USA, and Matthew is now developing new commercial digital platforms to make this course available to the criminal justice systems Worldwide in collaboration with Computer Scientists.

• Matthew has been commissioned by Cambridge University Press to write a ground-breaking book on the interaction between a wide range of Mainstream, Polarised and Extremist Worldviews which includes a Big Data experiment to map the societal impacts of different forms of extremism at ‘trigger moments’ and how these interactions affect society.

Biography

In 1989, Matthew won a scholarship in Theology & Religious Studies at Trinity College, University of Cambridge where he had become fascinated by the Protestant philosophical theology of Schleiermacher and Barth. Here, he became gradually convinced of the need for Divine principles to guide humanity, and that Western civilization, especially vis à vis young people, was suffering from the atrophy of the spiritual dimension and its reduction to other things.

Matthew came to believe that religious faith - defined as Worldviews of metaphysical belief and absolute value that inspire behavioural outcomes - deeply motivates humans and shapes the institutional cultures in which we live.

Unlike Freud, he believes that religion is rational behaviour and that human beings cannot live fully without finding meaning in this spiritual dimension. He also believes that when people’s connection to absolute value goes wrong, religion has the capacity to wreak unparalleled damage. His own life has been inspired by a quest to integrate religion and rationality and to retain a space for reasonable faith in secularizing cultures. 

Matthew’s desire to share a love of practical scholarship led him to qualify as a QTS History teacher, teaching History, Citizenship, and Religious Studies in London secondary schools for ten years.

In 2011, Matthew was awarded an ESRC Grant for his PhD in Education at King’s College London, examining how history curriculum might help under-achieving Muslim boys engage better with education and engage more fully with British life.

This PhD led to a watershed moment when he attended a lecture given by Professor Roy Bhaskar (1944-2014). Bhaskar was the founder of the philosophy of critical realism whose brilliant schema of dialectical philosophy to explain the transformation of Being prompted Matthew to realise that Abrahamic principles of worship, justice and excellence could be integrated into fields of research, education and law. Matthew became Roy’s postdoctoral student developing an original theological philosophy specifically designed to provide a space for rational inquiry at the interface of personal faith and institutional public life. This was published in A Fresh Look at Islam in a Multi-faith World: a philosophy for success through education which was awarded the Cheryl Frank Memorial Prize.

• For schools, using the philosophy of Islamic Critical Realism, Matthew developed the Concept of the Absent Curriculum which showed how the absence of the contributions of classical Arab, Persian and Indian scholars to the intellectual history of humanity generated bad, incomplete history for all pupils and that school history that included these contributions at natural moments, such as the History of Science, would be more accurate, useful and better history for all pupils. This concept has been used for teacher training at the University of Cambridge, UCL Institute of Education and the University of Oxford.

• For courts, as an Expert Witness in 35 Terrorism and Hate Crime cases, Matthew used this theological philosophy to help juries reach just and evidenced verdicts by distinguishing between the Worldviews of Islam, Islamism, and Islamist Extremism and to understand the nature of other types of extremism, such as Satanist and Christian Identity Extremism. This work has included the Manchester Arena Inquiry for which Matthew was instructed to describe and explain the radicalization of the bomber of the Manchester Arena. The Chair of the Manchester Arena Inquiry, The Hon. Sir John Saunders, commended Matthew’s evidence as follows,

"I hope that his [Matthew's] evidence to this Inquiry will be considered carefully by the authorities, as it could enhance their ability to identify signs of radicalisation and the appropriate level of importance to be attached to them."        

Volume 3, Clause 25.8, p. 104       

In the 2016 case of S. Begg v. BBC, Matthew’s Expert Witness Report was taken almost verbatim by the Judge to give a 10-point definition of Islamist Extremism which has now become the only widely accepted legal definition of this Worldview. Matthew published the full methodology in The Genealogy of Terror: how to distinguish between Islam, Islamism and Islamist Extremism.

• In prisons, Matthew’s work in the law courts made him aware that policy around rehabilitation and faith was hampered by ignorance of the presence and effects of faith in prison. Therefore, from 2018-2021 he and his research team conducted the largest study of Islam in prison. This was independently funded and involved research in ten prisons in England, Switzerland and France. The research showed that choosing faith in prison presents some criminogenic risk and significant rehabilitative opportunities. The findings were published in a book for frontline criminal justice professionals, Islam in Prison: finding faith, freedom and fraternity.

Based on these research findings, Matthew established at Cardiff University the independently funded programme PRIMO to develop innovative whole-prison university accredited professional training for Correctional Officers, for Prison Chaplains and for Incarcerated People to help mobilize deeply reflective religious faith specifically tailored to reducing the high 5-year reoffending rates in the UK of 44% and in the USA of 71%.

PRIMO has been successfully trialled in the UK and USA, and Matthew is now developing new commercial digital platforms to make this course available to the criminal justice systems Worldwide in collaboration with Computer Scientists.

• Matthew has recently been commissioned by Cambridge University Press to write a ground-breaking book on the interaction between a wide range of Mainstream, Polarised and Extremist Worldviews which includes a Big Data experiment to map the societal impacts of different forms of extremism at ‘trigger moments’ and how these interactions affect society.

Honours and awards

2021-2026 - Awarded £2M grant by the Dawes Trust as Principal Investigator of Prison-based Interventions for Muslim Offenders (PRIMO).

2017-2021 - Awarded £840k grant by the Dawes Trust as Principal Investigator of Understanding Conversion to Islam in Prison (UCIP).

2015-2017 Awarded £190k grant by the charity Curriculum for Cohesion for a Senior Research Fellowship at SOAS, University of London.

2014 - Awarded 2014 Cheryl Frank Memorial Prize for, A Fresh Look at Islam in a Multi-faith World: a philosophy for success through education as the most “creative and innovative” work of critical realist philosophy.

2011-2015 - Awarded £276k grant by the charity Curriculum for Cohesion as Principal Investigator of Curriculum for Cohesion

2007 - Awarded ESRC-King's College London CASE PhD studentship to complete PhD research entitled History Curriculum, Citizenship and Muslim Boys: learning to succeed?

1989 - Awarded Undergraduate Scholarship in Theology & Religious Studies by Trinity College, University of Cambridge.

Professional memberships

Editorial Board, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism (Taylor & Francis).

Member of the Expert Witness Institute.

Member of the European Society of Criminology.

Academic positions

2022-present - Professor of Religion in Public Life, Cardiff University.

2020-2021 - Reader in Religion & Criminal Justice, Birkbeck, University of London.

2017-2020 - Senior Research Fellow in Contemporary Islam, SOAS, University of London.

2015-2017 - Research Fellow in Contemporary Islam, SOAS, University of London.

2013-2015 - Research Fellow for Islam and Muslims in Education, UCL, Institute of Education.

2012 - Visiting Lecturer on Islam in Education, UCL, Institute of Education.

2011-2015 - Visiting Lecturer on Islam in Education, University of Cambridge.

2011-2013 - Research Fellow, Cambridge Muslim College.

2010 - Visiting Lecturer in Education, Anglia Ruskin University.

2010 - Visiting Lecturer in Education, London Metropolitan University.

Supervisions

Current supervision

Md Kamruzzaman Bhuiyan