Imam Abdul Hafeez Siddique is the founder and group Chief Executive of The Flowhesion Foundation, The Flowhesion Centre for BAMER Research and The Flowhesion Academies Trust. He is an experienced, qualified Muslim Chaplain who studied at a traditional Islamic seminary. Abdul enrolled at the boarding school at the age of eleven, graduating at the age of seventeen, making him, at the point of graduation, one of the youngest Imam’s in Britain. Post qualification, he continues to serve as a Muslim Chaplain within the prison service as part of a wider faith team.
Imam Abdul has a strong academic background in sociology, community cohesion and social capital. He completed an undergraduate degree in this field and was awarded a postgraduate scholarship in 2008 by the Mariott Trust to complete a research degree i.e. MPhil in community cohesion. The research undertaken led to him to become one of the first people in Northern England to document how the south-asian community in Bolton interpret the terminology and lexicology surrounding community cohesion. He asked difficult questions to marginalised members of these communities documenting their experiences, challenges and aspirations. The research allowed Imam 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.
Abdul has over 15 years experience working at strategic, grassroots and programme delivery level with CERI (communities experiencing racial inequalities) groups and their representatives across Northern England. A regular contributor to policy discussions, panels, workshops, guest lectures and forums, his interests lay in community, identity, intersectionality, integration and cohesion.
In 2014 Imam Abdul completed an MA in social work from The University of Manchester. He believes in the power of a holistic, values-based education system to improve community relations. This is why in 2019 he founded The Flowhesion Academies Trust.
Passionate about Health Inequalities, he is a non-executive director at Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. Imam Abdul is the Trust’s wellbeing guardian and chairs the People Committee.