Director's Lecture Series: "Divide and Rule: The Political Weaponization of Religion"
Channel: SOAS University of London
Date: 13/10/2023

Exploiting our differences and sowing the seeds of division among people and communities – whether through religion, ethnicity, race, gender or age – has been used by people in power, or those seeking power, throughout history.

But what is the cost to societies? Last year the UK saw violent unrest between British Muslims and British Hindus in Leicester. During the Trump Presidency in the US, extremist and anti-Semitic groups marched on the streets publicly voicing their world view. And almost a year ago, two police officers were shot and killed in Australia, in what was later described as the country’s first ‘religiously motivated terror attack.'

What are the mechanisms being used to encourage a growing appetite in nationalist extremist ideologies - ultimately with the aim of promoting dislike and suspicion of the perceived ‘other’ - and importantly, who benefits?

In this edition of the Director’s Lecture Series, Shehzad Hameed Ahmad, whose recent award-winning documentary 'India's Saffron Brigade' investigates reasons behind the weaponization of Hinduism in India, joins Dr Josh Roose, political sociologist and Associate Professor at the Alfred Deakin Institute, who specialises in political and religious extremism to discuss the political weaponization of religion. The event was hosted by the Director of SOAS Professor Adam Habib.

Speaker Biographies:

Shehzad Hameed Ahmad

Shehzad is a Pakistani freelance journalist and award-winning documentary filmmaker. His work has ranged from filming with the III % white militia in the US, investigating Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed’s Lashkar-e-Taiba, and ISIS recruiters in Marawi, exposing Nepali child marriages, illegal gold mining in Brazil's Amazon forests, filming underwater to investigate the Great Barrier Reef's bleaching, filming with RSS Hindutva vigilantes, exposing coal giant Adani's destruction of elephants habitats in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, investigating Jamia Haqqania's link to violent jihad in Afghanistan, to filming human rights violations in Afghanistan, Indonesia and Philippines.

Shehzad's documentaries have been broadcast on Al Jazeera, TVF International, Toggle, Dawn News, VICE, National Geographic, TV Ontario, Deutsche Welle, CNA and Crime & Investigation Channel. He received the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation from the King of Spain in 2014: Video: Pakistani Filmmaker Shehzad Hameed Ahmad Receives Prince of Asturias Award from King of Spain.

Shehzad is a Fulbright scholar with a Masters in News and Documentary from New York University. He has won 10 World Medal at New York Festivals, 3 Global Media Awards in Germany, Green Image Award in Japan, 2 Silver Awards Handle Climate Change Film Festival in China, Singapore's Mediacorp News Award of the Year 2015, Gender Equality Impact Change-maker Singapore 2020 amongst others.

Associate Professor Josh Roose

Dr Josh Roose, political sociologist and Associate Professor of Politics at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University, Melbourne, is an internationally recognised authority on the role of masculinities in violent extremism and terrorism and the attraction of men to Salafi jihadist, far right and anti-democratic movements.

His research focuses on the intersection of politics, sociology, law, and religion and has advised state governments and the Federal Government in Australia and spoken in a number of key international forums including the UNOCT, NATO, ANZCTC and Nordic Council funded workshop on Masculinities and Violent Extremism. His research and comments have been cited across a variety of international media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, BBC, The Economist, Time Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Sydney Morning Herald, and ABC.

Dr Roose is currently a Chief Investigator on an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded study The Far Right: Intellectuals, Masculinity and Citizenship (2021-2023) and lead Chief Investigator of the ARC funded project Anti-Women online Movements; Pathways and Patterns of Participation (2022-2025). He edits the book series New Directions in Islam with Palgrave with Professor Bryan S. Turner and is the current Vice President of the Australian Association of Islamic and Muslim Studies (AAIMS).

Dr Roose’s authored books are Masculinity and Violent Extremism (Palgrave 2022), The New Demagogues: Religion, Masculinity and the New Populism (Routledge 2020), and Political Islam and Masculinity: Australian Muslim Men (Palgrave 2015). His latest book, co-edited with colleagues, is titled Security, Religion, and the Rule of Law (Routledge 2023).