Introduction: Muslims in Western Politics

Abstract

This is the introductory chapter of the book Muslims in British Local Government: Representing Minority Interests in Hackney, Newham, and Tower Hamlets, which evaluates the specific process of their interaction through case-study analyses of the London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Newham, and Hackney, while also investigating the role of representational styles of Muslim councillors on their political effectiveness. Although Muslims in the West is a flourishing research area, there are few rigorous studies on the political representation of Muslims in Western Europe. Most studies focus on ethnicity rather than the sociopolitical Muslim identity. The book investigates the dynamics of effective Muslim political representation in a liberal democracy. It defines effective political representation as high levels of congruence between policy preferences of voters and elected officials. The research is situated within the broader debates in the political representation literature. Political representation is a highly contested concept in the social sciences.Keywords: Muslim councillors; political representation literature; sociopolitical Muslim identity; Western Europe