From crisis to opportunity – 9/11 and the progress of British Muslim political engagement

Abstract

The attacks of September 11th 2001 had a profound and lasting impact on British political life, most pertinently in relation to Britain’s Muslim communities. Rapid alterations took place in the global and domestic arenas in reaction to the terrorist attacks of September 11th. The ‘war on terror’ launched by the USA and her allies was to dramatically change international politics. In the UK, the need for securitisation presented urgent challenges for both the government and Muslim community organisations. The government felt the pressing need to act immediately against the threat of modern terrorism, and Muslim organisations were thrown into the task of denouncing it, while at the same time defending their communities against the hostility of a racist backlash, and engaging with the government on both domestic and international issues of concern. In this chapter, I look at how the period 2001-2005 proved to be a watershed for the development of British Muslim identity politics, arguing that despite the immense pressures, tangible progress was made particularly by younger generations in British Muslim community organising. This period is characterised by a sharp increase in the level of Muslimpolitical agency and the intensity of community organising. Much of this increase came about as a direct response to the rapid alterations which were taking place in the global and national arenas in reaction to the 9/11 attacks. The introduction of new anti-terror laws and the style, discourse and thinking behind the resulting ‘war on terror’ provoked concerns in many quarters about silencing, restricting and/or channelling of expression and dissent. These presented Muslim community representatives and the governmentwith fresh challenges that resulted in a defining moment in their relationship, leading to a somewhat cool and more cautious attitude between them. At the same time, there was an essentially reactive drive among Muslims to state clearly their positions on matters which they felt they were being misunderstood and seriously misjudged on – including the denouncement of terrorism and violence, issues of loyalty and citizenship, and the notion of separate cultures and the irreconcilability of Islam with western democracy – oftencharacterised as a ‘clash of civilisations’ (Huntington 1996). The latter concept, as I will show later on in this chapter, became increasingly utilised as a tool by the far-right and others to justify an emergent ‘clean-faced’, pseudo-respectable form of Islamophobia. This period saw a growth in second and third generation Muslim involve-ment within broad-based social and political coalitions (such as the anti-war movement), as well as the emergence and development of various new and more creative modes of Muslim self-expression to join pre-existing ones. It also witnessed a refreshed, more nuanced approach to reasoning that was used by Muslims to argue for their causes in the public-political domain, in particular the old issue of a legal response to religious discrimination and incitement to religious hatred. I will first outline notable aspects of British Muslim political consciousnessin the few years prior to the attacks of 9/11. This will help me to draw out exactly how this juncture represents a turning point and the role that freedom of expression and civil liberties played in these changes. I will look at the reactions to 9/11 across government and Muslim advocacy groups and then discuss the changes that took place during the four years between 9/11 and the summer of 2005 under four main headings: new security legislation and the language of securitisation, relations between the government and the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), developments in the far-right and Islamophobia, and innovation in self-expression among young British Muslims. I will analyse what the various developments under each of these four themes meant for Muslim groups, and also what they meant for the government’s relations with them as well as British Muslim political consciousness in general. This analysis will include a consideration of the policy developments related to each of these respective themes.