Professor Matthew Wilkinson

Publication

• Date
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Research

Matthew's theoretical and empirical research has focussed on: (1) law courts (2) schools (3) prisons:

(1) Law Courts

Matthew developed the only widely accepted definition of Islamist Extremism:

• In S. Begg v. BBC the judge Rt. Hon. Justice Haddon-Cave used almost verbatim the definitions from Matthew's Expert Witness Report to give a legal 10-point definition of Islamist Extremism: Points 118-128

• These 10-Points have now become the basis of the only widely accepted legal definition of Islamist Extremism. 

• Please see here Matthew's Expert Witness Report and the Judge's subsequent Approved Judgement.

• The Courts have called on Matthew to analyze evidence in 34 Terrorism and Hate Crime trials, including the Manchester Arena Inquiry where he explained the process of radicalization of the bomber.  

• Matthew's analytical framework was published in The Genealogy of Terror: how to distinguish between Islam, Islamism and Islamist Extremism which was described by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Max Hill KC, as, "A book of stunning clarity and detail which will be of enormous value to practising criminal lawyers and to the interested 'lay' reader...a must-read."

(2) In Schools

Through the UK Government's National Curriculum Review for History, Matthew showed how alienated Muslim school pupils could be re-connected to the national community by removing the 'absent' curriculum of Islamic civilization and integrating it into the National Curriculum for History. 

• On behalf of the UK Muslim community, The Muslim Council of Britain presented Matthew's report A Broader, Truer History for All to the UK Government.

• The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge incorporated into their PGCE History Teacher Training Courses this concept of removing the absent curriculum to provide a more inclusive classroom history experience.

(3) In Prisons

Matthew and his team conducted the largest international study on Islam in prison. The findings of the 3-year research have been published in Islam in Prison: finding faith, freedom and fraternity.  

Based on these findings, Matthew and his team are designing innovative training for the UK Prison Service (HMPPS) for accreditation by Cardiff University through PRIMO:

• For Incarcerated People: PRIMO is using Islam to help them process their guilt and re-engage with a productive life.

• For Correctional Staff: PRIMO is building their religious literacy to give them confidence in their dealings with Muslim incarcerated people.

• For Prison Chaplains: PRIMO is enhancing their pastoral care by improving their theological and criminological awareness.

• The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, USA have asked Matthew to give them the same programme and he has agreed in principle.

Biography

I am often asked, "Why are you interested in religion and why do you research religion in prison?”

I believe that religious faith, defined as worldviews of metaphysical belief and ultimate value that inspire behavioural outcomes, deeply motivate humans and shape the institutional cultures in which we live, especially prison cultures. Unlike Freud, I believe that religion is rational behaviour and that human beings cannot live fully without finding meaning in this spiritual dimension. My own life has been inspired by a quest to integrate religion and rationality and retain a space for reasonable faith in secularizing cultures. 

In 1989, I won a scholarship in Theology & Religious Studies at Trinity College, University of Cambridge, against a backdrop of family tragedy when my father, a renowned Nature Conservationist, went blind. At Cambridge, I became fascinated by the Protestant philosophical theology of Schleiermacher, and Barth. As a result, I became gradually convinced of the need for Divine revelation and principles to guide humanity. This conviction led me to seek Islam since, inexplicably, Islam, the third Abrahamic faith and the world’s second largest religion of 2 billion people, was at that time completely absent from the Theology degree course at Cambridge University.

I met Muslims and was impressed by their discipline and dignity in performing five daily prayers and the doctrinal simplicity of the core Islamic belief in one Omnipotent God. Islam provided the spiritual clarity that I had been seeking and in 1991 I became Muslim. I understand my choice of Islam as a natural development of my Judaeo-Christian heritage rather than a rejection of it. To deepen my understanding of Islam, I embarked on a seven-year period of travel to study The Quran, Islamic Law and Arabic in the UK, Spain, Morocco and West Africa, where I also enhanced my French and Spanish to fluent levels.

My desire to share a love of scholarship led me to qualify as a QTS History teacher, I taught History, Citizenship, and Islamic Studies in London secondary schools for ten years. Inspired to investigate how Islamic principles of excellence and faithful integration could be accessed by young people through the school curriculum, in 2011 I completed an ESRC-funded 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 I 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 me to realise that Islamic principles of worship, justice and excellence could be integrated into fields of research, education and law. As Roy’s postdoctoral student, I developed an original educational philosophy of Islam called Islamic Critical Realism 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 as the most “creative and innovative” work of critical realist philosophy.

For schools, using the philosophy of Islamic Critical Realism, I developed the Concept of the Absent Curriculum based on research of 400 Muslim boys’ experience of school history. This study showed how school history that included the contribution of Islamic civilization at natural moments, such as the History of Science, would be more accurate and useful for all pupils. This concept has been used for teaching 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, I have used this theological philosophy to distinguish between the worldviews of Islam, Islamism, and Islamist Extremism and to characterize other types of extremism, such as Satanist and Christian Identity extremism. This work has included the Manchester Arena Inquiry where I 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 my 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, my 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 Islamist Extremism. I have published my full methodology in The Genealogy of Terror: how to distinguish between Islam, Islamism and Islamist Extremism.

As for prison, my work in the law courts made me aware that Muslims are disproportionately represented in prison and that prisons are unusually religious spaces. For example, in the UK 18% of the prison population is Muslim compared with 6.5% of the general population. Of this 18%, 29% are converts to Islam. Therefore, from 2018-2021, my research team and I conducted the largest study of Islam in prison building on the earlier pioneering work of Beckford, Gilliat-Ray and Quraishi. This was independently funded and involved research in ten prisons in England, Switzerland and France and showed that choosing to follow Islam in prison presents some criminogenic risk and significant rehabilitative opportunities. The findings are published in Islam in Prison: finding faith, freedom and fraternity.

Based on these research findings, I established at Cardiff University the independently funded programme PRIMO to develop innovative training for incarcerated people, correctional officers and Muslim Prison Chaplains. PRIMO aims to reduce reoffending by maximising the rehabilitative potential of faith to help prisoners engage in work, education, and the avoidance of crime. This work will also be carried out in the USA from 2024, where there are more than 150,000 incarcerated Muslims, making up c.10% of the US prison population.  In future, the education of PRIMO, based around the Abrahamic ideal of Stewardship, will be broadened to meet the spiritual and rehabilitative needs of chaplains, professionals, and people in prison of other faiths and worldviews.

I feel most fortunate to be married to Lucy, a partner in my research and faith, and to have been blessed with a son.

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

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.