ARC Australian Professorial Fellow and Emeritus Professor,
Flinders University, South Australia
RIAZ HASSAN is
an Australian Research Council Professorial Fellow and Emeritus
Professor in the Department of Sociology, Flinders University in
Adelaide, South Australia.
In his academic career spanning over 40 years he has conducted
research in a number of areas including sociology of housing,
sociology of suicide, organizational culture and Muslim societies.
He has recently completed a 10 year multi-country study of Muslim
religiosity in which he explored key aspects of Islamic
consciousness. The findings from this study have been published in,
Faithlines: Muslim Conceptions of Islam and Society and
Inside Muslim Minds.
He is currently conducting research on "Suicide Terrorism: The
Use of Life as Weapon".
Media
Recent coverage of Riaz Hassan's research on Islam and suicide terrorism.
Professor Hassan's new book, Inside Muslim Minds, is a ground-breaking comparative study of contemporary Islamic consciousness, an important insight into aspects of the Muslim faith, and its place in the twenty-first century.
Using data gathered from more than six thousand Muslim respondents from Southeast, South and Central Asia and the Middle East, Riaz Hassan examines attitudes to issues such as religious commitment; the status of women; the concept of jihad and its alleged links to terrorism; Islamic philanthropy; attitudes towards blasphemy; and Muslim perceptions of the 'other'.
Inside Muslim Minds argues for a new intellectual commitment that honours Islamic heritage yet simultaneously confronts Islamic reassertion and the sense of powerlessness felt by Muslims as they strive to reaffirm their faith in the twenty-first century.
"This is an excellent book and will make a welcome and major contribution to the hottest topic of the day -- Islam. ...The book is well written, giving evidence of the deep scholarship from which it springs, but with an open style that is readily available to the reader."
- Professor Gary Bouma, Dept. of Sociology, Monash University
2009 TASA (Sociological Association of Australia) Public Lecture, Adelaide, South Australia
18 August 2009
'Suicide Bombings: Homicidal Killing or a Weapon of War?'
Read paper»
NCEIS International Conference: Challenges to Social Inclusion in Australia: The Muslim Experience, Melbourne University
19-20 November 2008
Paper presented, "Social and Economic Conditions of Australian Muslims: Implications for Social Inclusion". Read paper»
Listen:
First International Conference on Psychotrauma, Islamabad, Pakistan
30-31 August 2008
Keynote address, "Suicide Bombings: An Analysis of Global Trends (1981-2006)"
Melbourne Writers Festival
22-31 August 2008
Hanifa Deen, Arnold Zable and Riaz Hassan present "A Clash of Civilisations", a discussion on whether the tensions and fault-lines in Australian society are the result of increasingly polarised religious and cultural values. More»
Byron Bay Writers Festival
25-27 July 2008
In Conversation: "People like us: inside Muslim minds". A dialogue with Waleed Aly & Riaz Hassan with Margaret Simons. More»
'Courting Controversy', Melbourne Law School Public Lecture Series
20 May 2008
Professor Hassan gave the inaugural presentation, entitled 'War on the West: Changing Ideas of Jihad'.
Synopsis»Read paper»
National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies Australia (NCEIS) Public Lecture Series, University of Melbourne
8 May 2008
Professor Hassan discusses the findings of his new book, Inside Muslim Minds.
"Security, State and Subject Formation" Conference, University of Alberta
26-27 October 2007
Professor Hassan conducted a workshop entitled "Islamism: The Rise of a New Enemy?".
20th Annual ANZSOC Conference, Adelaide, South Australia
24 September 2007
Professor Hassan was a keynote speaker at the 2007 Australian and New Zealand Society
of Criminology (ANZSOC) Conference in Adelaide. He delivered a
paper, "Suicide Attacks: Homicidal Killing or a Weapon of War?" in
which he addressed the neglected but important question of whether
suicide terrorist attacks are homicidal killing or a weapon of war.
Using ethnographic studies about the nature of war and homicide, his
paper concludes that suicide terrorist attacks could be regarded as
a weapon of war but given that they are characterised by the wilful
killing of civilians they could be regarded as 'War Crimes' under
the Fourth Geneva Convention.
ICT 7th International Conference, Herzliya, Israel
8-11 September 2007
At the
International Institute for Counter Terrorism's 2007 International
Conference in September, Professor Hassan gave a paper entitled
"Observations on the Sunni-Shia divide and its global implications".
Adelaide Festival of Ideas
5-8 July 2007
Professor Hassan was
a guest speaker at the 2007 Adelaide Festival of Ideas, where he
delivered a well attended public lecture entitled "Islamism: The
Rise of a New Enemy?". Professor Hassan argues that the genisis of
modern Islamism is located in the historical, social, political and
material conditions of Muslim countries and the imperialistic
policies of Western nations.
Listen: Introduction by Morag
Fraser
Lahore School of Economics International Conference on Globalization and Governance
23 April 2007
At the International Conference on Globalization and Governance Professor Hassan gave a
paper entitled "Religion and Governance in a Globalizing World: A comparitive study of Muslim countries".
Press & Journal Articles
What Motivates the Suicide Bombers?
Suicide bombing attacks have become a weapon of choice among terrorist groups because of their lethality and ability to cause mayhem and fear. Though depressing, the almost daily news reports of deaths caused by suicide attacks rarely explain what motivates the attackers. Between 1981 and 2006, 1200 suicide attacks constituted 4 percent of all terrorist attacks in the world and killed 14,599 people or 32 percent of all terrorism related deaths. The question is why? Yale Global, September 3, 2009
The Reality of Religious Labels: A Study of Muslim Religiosity The meaning of the religious labels used by people to describe themselves and others is often problematic. Religiosity, religious behavior and experience vary in the way they are reported and understood. This study presents a methodological approach to investigating the relationship between self-reported religiosity and an objectively constructed index of religious intensity. The data were obtained from a multi-country study of Muslim religiosity in which over 6000 Muslim respondents were surveyed through a structured questionnaire. The survey questionnaire included questions on the self-reported religiosity of the respondent and forty four items to ascertain respondents’ attitudes toward key Islamic beliefs and practices. Australian Religion Studies Review, Volume 21, Number 2, 2008
Global Rise of Suicide Terrorism: An Overview Suicide attacks are the targeted use of self-destructing humans against a perceived enemy for political ends. After reviewing terrorism and suicide terrorism trends between 1980 and 2003 the paper shows that suicide attacks have increased dramatically between 2004 and 2005 and have become a global phenomenon. Three main sites of suicide terrorism namely, Iraq, Israel and Sri Lanka are examined in some detail including information about the main terrorist groups responsible for sponsoring suicide attacks and some profiles of individuals involved. The paper then examines the main sociological explanations of suicide attacks, including a description of the strategic logic behind these atrocities, and the notion of life being a weapon. It concludes with an overview of the recommendations emerging from studies that seek to prevent suicide terrorism. Asian Journal of Social Science, Volume 36, Number 2, 2008
Cracks appear in the monolith ISLAMIC consciousness - Islamic identity, doctrines and religiosity - is a multidimensional phenomenon. Interpretive communities have emerged to contextualise the meanings of the sacred texts and these communities have developed explanations of existential conditions to reinforce the moral foundation of the group. The Australian March 1, 2008
Interrupting a History of Tolerance - Part
II The roots of anti-Semitism in the Middle East are based
not in Islamic traditions, but in practical opposition to external
intervention, argues Riaz Hassan. Yale Global July 25,
2007
Interrupting a History of Tolerance - Part
I Anti-Semitic rhetoric, literature and films emerge from
modern Middle Eastern society, and yet Arab nations do not have a
long history of intolerance. Riaz Hassan explains how there is
little evidence of deep-rooted anti-Semitism in classical Islamic
society. Yale Global July 19, 2007
The Jihad and the West - Part I Before defining
or reacting to the word 'jihad', the meaning must be considered in
its historical context. Riaz Hassan cautions that any interpretation
that dismisses jihad as merely a violent manifestation of religious
fanaticism strips the term of its complexity. Yale
Global September 21, 2006
Islamic thinking in limbo Is the Islamic world
intellectually stagnating? One way to answer this is to ask how many
world-class universities there are in Muslim countries. The 2006
rankings of the top 200 universities by The Times Higher Education
Supplement show the poor state of academic institutions in Muslim
countries. The Australian, October 25, 2006
Suicide Attacks - Life as a Weapon Suicide
attacks have increased dramatically in the Middle East over the past
year with the war in Iraq and the escalation of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This rise in suicide attacks is
remarkable given that the total number of terrorist incidents
worldwide fell from its peak of 665 in 1986 to 190 in 2003 alone,
whereas the incidents of suicide attacks increased from 31 in the
1980s to 98 in 2003. There is growing evidence that current American
domestic and foreign policies may be further contributing to an
acceleration of this trend. ISIM Newsletter 14, June
2004
Globalization's Challenge to Islam The
telephone, satellite television, and the Internet have connected the
Islamic community of 1.2 billion people across the globe. This
connectivity has strengthened Muslims' sense of belonging to one
community, which Islamic scholars call ummah. Yale
Global April 17, 2003
Terrorists and Their Tools - Part I The weapon
of mass destruction that seems to be favored most by terrorists is
their own lives. But, though most suicide bombers are Islamic
youths, sociologist Riaz Hassan argues that there is no direct link
between suicide attacks and Islamic fanaticism. Suicide attacks,
Hassan says, are motivated more by politics than
religion. Yale Global April 23, 2001
The Ethical, Social and Legal Implications of the Human Genome Project
The public awareness and curiosity about the ‘New Genetics’ or Genomics have been galvanised by the debates emanating from the scientific achievements of the Human Genome Project (HGP). The increased availability of genetic information will have many ethical, social, economic and legal implications which will profoundly affect human societies. Some of the ethical issues raised relate to the proper and fair use of genetic information by insurers, employers, courts, schools, adoption agencies, law enforcement bodies and the military. It raises questions about the confidentiality and privacy of genetic information, who should have access to individual genetic information, who owns it and how it will be used. ASSA-Flinders University sponsored workshop, December 2000
Social consequences of manufactured
longevity The signs are that advances in biomedical sciences
will add more years of "manufactured time" to life expectancy in
industrialised countries, resulting in unprecedented rates of
survival into older ages. Increasing longevity will force economic
and social changes and the 20th-century revolution in social roles
looks set to continue into the 21st century. The Medical
Journal of Australia 173 2000
The euthanasia debate The end of life: We need
a humane and informed framework, not only a medical model, to deal
with death and dying. The Medical Journal of Australia
165 1996