Ruminations comprises social criticism, political analysis and a biographical description of Tahir Abbas, a social scientist working on issues of ethnicity, social conflict, and politics. Born in Birmingham, UK, Abbas has lived and worked in London and Istanbul, and is now in The Hague, Netherlands. In this autoethnographic narrative, he examines the intersections of race, class, ethnicity, and Islam in the context of the British Muslim landscape through subjective experiences: growing up in Birmingham; navigating the precariousness of the education system; working in central government during the 9/11 attacks; and eventually becoming a leading expert in the field.