Research into Religious Extremism
Donation protected
I am seeking private donors to sponsor my in-depth and comprehensive research into Islam and Islamic extremism. My university has made it impossible for me to pursue this avenue of academic research, so I have decided that upon completion of my Master’s degree in Studies in Religion (Jan. 2017), I will undertake my own personal research into Islam and Islamic extremism. This ambition will involve various expenses. Funds will be required for courses in Arabic, research materials, data-accumulation activities, travel to conferences, travel to collect data, hardware and equipment needed to conduct research and other funds directly related to this large undertaking.
At present, the scholarly consensus regarding the relationship between Islam and Islamic extremism holds, in contradiction to the obvious and available evidence, that there is virtually no connection between the doctrines of Islam and Islamic extremism. My goal is to begin a shift in the tide of scholarship in this area – but the halls of academia deem such a shift as being ‘Islamophobic’, which, I hope my possible donors will agree, is a poisonous term that not only conflates anti-Muslim bigotry with the criticism of a religion, but that also thwarts the necessary discussion needed into the harms directly associated with some of the core and peripheral doctrines of Islam.
Thus far my research into Islam has been extensive, but in order to take this desperately needed area of research to the next level, I humbly request your assistance in providing me with the means to launch in-depth and comprehensive research into the obvious connections between Islam and Islamic extremism.
Some of my existing research into Islam has been published in books, within papers for my Master’s degree in Studies in Religion, on my personal blog, and also on The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.
I sincerely hope you will consider sponsoring my research, because as it stands, scholarship in this area is overrun by academics whose primary concerns are political rather than intellectual, and who, are more concerned with avoiding the charge of Islamophobia than reviewing and expressing the evidence with intellectual integrity and honesty.
At present, the scholarly consensus regarding the relationship between Islam and Islamic extremism holds, in contradiction to the obvious and available evidence, that there is virtually no connection between the doctrines of Islam and Islamic extremism. My goal is to begin a shift in the tide of scholarship in this area – but the halls of academia deem such a shift as being ‘Islamophobic’, which, I hope my possible donors will agree, is a poisonous term that not only conflates anti-Muslim bigotry with the criticism of a religion, but that also thwarts the necessary discussion needed into the harms directly associated with some of the core and peripheral doctrines of Islam.
Thus far my research into Islam has been extensive, but in order to take this desperately needed area of research to the next level, I humbly request your assistance in providing me with the means to launch in-depth and comprehensive research into the obvious connections between Islam and Islamic extremism.
Some of my existing research into Islam has been published in books, within papers for my Master’s degree in Studies in Religion, on my personal blog, and also on The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.
I sincerely hope you will consider sponsoring my research, because as it stands, scholarship in this area is overrun by academics whose primary concerns are political rather than intellectual, and who, are more concerned with avoiding the charge of Islamophobia than reviewing and expressing the evidence with intellectual integrity and honesty.
Organizer
Michael Sherlock
Organizer
