British Muslims perceptions of social cohesion: from multiculturalism to community cohesion and the \u2018war on terror\u2019

Shamila Ahmed

doi:10.1007/s10611-018-9804-9

Abstract

Since the Northern disturbances of 2001 and the terrorist attacks of September 11th, the UK government has changed the focus of policies from those that predominantly focused on British Muslims’ Asian identity, to those that focus on British Muslims’ religious identity. The fracturing of the Asian identity has been evident in the political discourses on the ‘war on terror’ and community cohesion, with both defining British Muslims through their religious identity, as opposed to their Asian identity, an identity for which inter Asian commonality existed. This article draws on research that was conducted on British Muslims’ perceptions of social policy since the 1980s and explores the extent to which changes in governmental policies have impacted British Muslims’ perceptions of commonality with non-British Muslims. The article demonstrates how the ‘war on terror’ and community cohesion are negatively impacting social cohesion through making British Muslims feel isolated and marginalised in society. The implications of the findings are discussed in relation to the radicalisation of British Muslims and the growing influence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Highlights

This section explores how the Northern disturbances of 2001 and the terrorist attacks of September 11th changed the governmental policies and discourses associated with British Muslims
This paper presents research conducted on British Muslims’ perceptions of governmental policies to assess the cumulative impact of the change from multiculturalism to community cohesion
In the retrospective period, where negative perceptions of the state did exist, a great deal of inequality was not perceived because the state was not perceived to have failed British Muslims but all ethnic minorities

Summary

Introduction

This section explores how the Northern disturbances of 2001 and the terrorist attacks of September 11th changed the governmental policies and discourses associated with British Muslims. Modood [40] note, multiculturalism has a contested meaning, in its most general sense it advocates ethnic, cultural and religious differences being positively embraced. Multiculturalism marked the institutionalisation of the protection of cultural, ethnic, religious and racial groups from discrimination [34, 42]. According to Parekh [45], within this framework the national identity should be defined in ‘politico-institutional rather than ethnocultural terms’ so that minority groups are not excluded because of their different ethnic identities. British Muslims were predominantly defined through their ethnocultural identity, events such as the Rushdie Affair did bring British Muslims’ religious identity into the public domain [30, 36]

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Conclusion