Professor Mohammed Abdel Haq

Dr Mohammed Abdel-Haq is co-founder of the Centre for Opposition Studies and a Professor in Banking and a Director of the Centre for Islamic Finance at the University of Bolton.

As well as his academic knowledge, Mohammed has a wealth of practical experience. In a long career in banking in major financial institutions such as Citi, Deutsche Bank and HSBC. Also he is the founding member of Oakstone Merchant Bank.

Mohammed is active in public life and holds a number of positions, amongst them from 2011-2014 he was an elected member of the Council of the Royal Institute for International Affairs (Chatham House) and a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Social Justice. In 2011 Mohammed was appointed Chairman of the UK Ministerial Advisory Group on Extremism in Universities and FE Colleges. He is the author of a book on Islamic finance and wrote several articles on various issues related to public life. He is also a regular speaker at conferences.

Mohammed stood as a prospective parliamentary candidate for the Conservative Party in 2005 general election for Swansea West. He previously Chaired the Advisory Board for the Conservative Middle East Council from 2011-2015. In March 2013 the UK Government launched the first Islamic Finance Task Force. Mohammed was one of a small group of non-ministerial industry experts within the Islamic Finance Task Force.