Tom Gallagher

Tom Gallagher is the chair of East European Studies in the Department of Peace Studies at Bradford University and a research fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington DC. In his capacity as a terrorologist and a 'leading Scots academic on religious affairs' he has repeatedly condemned the Scottish Government for its alleged role in being 'soft' on radical Islam.

Attack on Alex Salmond

Gallagher was accused of Islamophobia for his sweeping attack on Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond after the latter's nuanced response to the terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport. Gallagher also accused Salmond of pandering to 'minorities' -- 'as Scotland's answer to Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt or the Irish leader Michael Collins'.

Islam and 'Culture Talk'

While in his writings Gallagher is always at pains to mention that it is 'Islamism' he is attacking rather than Muslims, this is not so obvious from the implications of his statements. Following the terrorist attack on the Glasgow airport, Gallagher wrote an article for Open Democracy which reads:

[Osama] Saeed's argument that the Muslim community's moderation is a given might be confirmed by the absence (in those parts of Glasgow where most Scots Muslims reside) of the Islamic bookshops, bitter young men and fully-covered women that are characteristic of parts of London and of other English urban conurbations with large Muslim populations.

Here is he definig 'moderation' by the absence of things he lists: the presence of 'Islamic bookshops, bitter young men and fully-covered women' would presumably be an example of Muslim community's lack of moderation. Of course Glasgow has several Islamic bookshops, and many fully covered women. But does a Muslim's strict observance of Islam translate into political immoderation? It is also not unlikely that there are bitter youth in Glasgow. It is not self-evidence however that this is due to Islamic immoderation rather than socio-political reasons. This deliberate blurring of cultural and political categories -- what the noted African scholar Mahmood Mamdani has called 'Culture Talk' -- allows Gallagher to indict all observant Muslims by implication.

Publications, Resources, Contact, Notes

Books

• His two most recent books are The Balkans in the New Millennium (Routledge, 2005) and The Balkans After the Cold War: From Tyranny to Tragedy (Routledge, paperback edition, 2005).
• His Theft of a Nation: Romania since Communism (Hurst & Co, 2005) is published in the United States as Modern Romania.
• Gallagher, T: Theft of a Nation: Romania Since Communism, London: Hurst & Co, 2005
• Gallagher, T: The Balkans in the New Millennium, London: Routledge 2005.
• Gallagher, T: The Balkans After the Cold War: From Tyranny to Tragedy, Routledge, UK, 240 pp., May 2003, ISBN 0-415-27763-9.
• Gallagher, T: ‘The Balkans Since 1989: The Rocky Road From National Communism’, in Developments in Central and East European Politics 3, edited by Stephen White, Palgrave 2003, pp 74-91.
• Gallagher, T: 'Minorities in Eastern Europe' in the reference work,Central Europe 2003, Routledge, 2002.
• Gallagher, T: Nationalism and Romanian Political Culture in the 1990s, Post-Communist Romania: Coming to Terms with Transition, Light D, Phinnemere D (eds) Palgrave, pp 104-126, 2001.
• Gallagher, T: Outcast Europe: The Balkans, 1789 - 1989, Routledge, London, 2001.
• Gallagher, T: Democratie Si Nationalisme in Romania, 1989-98, Editura Ali, Bucharest, pp 405, 1999.
• Gallagher, T: 'Romania', in Eastern Europe and the C.I.S. 1999, 4th Edition, Europa Publications, London, pp 609-612, 1999.
• Gallagher, T: 'Conflict between East European States and Minorities in an Age of Democracy', Democratization, Vol. 5, No 3, pp 200-224, 1998.
• Gallagher, T: 'Ceausescu's Legacy', The National Interest, No 56, pp 107-111, Summer 1999.
• Tom Gallagher (1987) Edinburgh Divided: John Cormack and No Popery in the 1930s Edinburgh: Polygon.
• Gallagher, Tom 1987, Glasgow The Uneasy Peace: Religious Tension in Modern Scotland, Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Articles by Tom Gallagher

• Tom Gallagher Nationalism and Islamism in Scotland by Tom Gallagher, Bradford, 2008 14. pp. Democratiya, Autumn 2008.
• Tom Gallagher, Scotland’s nationalist-Muslim embrace, OpenDemocracy, 11 July 2007.
• Tom Gallagher, 'The SNP and the Islamist threat The SNP is playing a deadly game with Islam' The Spectator, Wednesday, 25th July 2007
• Tom Gallagher, Articles written by Tom Gallagher Prospect Magazine.

Further reading

• openDemocracy Tom Gallagher, accessed 23 March 2009
• Gerry Hassan, The Scottish Nationalists, Alex Salmond and the Slur of Fascism, OurKingdom, openDemocracy, 4 October, 2010.