Islamophobia: examining causal links between the state and “race hate” from “below”

PurposeThe paper's aim is to examine whether there is a causal link between “race” hate, particularly Islamophobia (defined as anti‐Muslim feeling and violence based on “race” and/or religion), and media treatment of Muslim communities in Britain in recent years.Design/methodology/approachThe paper looks at the reporting of terror activities and examines the way the media (tabloid press) constructs racists news.FindingsThe article discusses some of the themes developed in a previous paper that looked at government policy towards Muslim communities by examining the media campaign directed against Muslims within this broader political context. The implications for the cultivation of “race” hate are considered.Practical implicationsThe paper demonstrates that “race” hate and routine attacks on Muslim communities appear to be increasing and needs to be addressed by developing strategies that are inclusive of all disadvantaged communities, racism, “war on terror”, working class.Originality/valueThe paper adds to the literature on “race” hate by examining these theories in the light of recent and ongoing terror attacks and their impact on Muslim communities in Britain.

The landscape of mental health services for Muslim communities in England and Wales remains fragmented with many Muslims unsure how to access services that accommodate their religious beliefs and practices. This article reports findings from a pilot study of mental health services and Muslim communities in England and Wales. It explores the role of Muslim mental health organisations, charities, therapists, counsellors, faith leaders and community groups in supporting the communities they serve. The study’s aim was to establish a larger project to identify and amplify best practice across mainstream and non-mainstream mental health services in relation to improving provision for Muslim communities. Focus group data from key informants was analysed using grounded theory. Four analytical themes emerged from the analysis: “Knowledge gaps”, “Policy gaps”, “Working together” and “Moving forward”. Based on this, the authors argue for an asset-based approach to building collaborative partnerships between Muslim communities and mental health providers.

The Relationship between Religion and the Public Square: Freedom of Religion in the Public Space

The London bombings, 10 years ago this year, radically transformed the education policy framing of Muslim communities in Britain. The events signified a radical shift away from the politics of racial inequality/multi-culturalism to racialised politics of securitisation. By focusing on recent legislation and policy announcements, this chapter highlights how minority communities in general and Muslim communities in particular are racialised and also criminalised, as can be seen through the politics associated with the Counter-Terrorism and Securities Act 2015 and its impact on education policy. This chapter further explores the relationship between Muslims, securitisation and racial governmentality.

The absence of one single religious authority for the whole Muslim community in Britain results in the emergence of various religious authorities due to ethnic and sectarian differences. Muslim communities in Britain have generally been ghettoized around ethnic and sectarian identities, and thus establishing mosque and religious authority accordingly. This paper investigates what the sources of religious authority for British born young Sunnī Muslims are. The data was gathered via an ethnographic research made in Leeds, one of the most cosmopolitan cities of Britain, interviewing young Sunnī British Muslims who are between 18 and 30 years old. The main aim of this study is to reflect on how and where these young Muslims get religious advice for their daily religious lives. This paper presents the preferences of the informants in seeking religious authority in the context of Britain. It is particularly significant to discover the orientation of British born Muslims from that aspect. Based on the preferences of young Sunnī Muslims in searching religious authority in Leeds, this paper initially introduces four mosque imāms, who lie at the centre of religious authority for ordinary Muslims. By dealing with them, I expose the role of mosque imāms in the life of Sunnī Muslims in Britain. The types of the questions raised by the mosque attendees and their methods in approaching the imāms are reported while each imām’s profile is examined. Then, I focus on two famous figures who issue religious rulings and have a special importance in the religious lives of Muslims in Leeds. Finally, the Internet is examined as a virtual platform in seeking religious authority for ordinary Muslims living in Britain. Thus, this study offers two main results: From different sectarian orientations, such as Deobandī, Barēlwī and Jamāʿat-i Islāmī, they generally admit that following a school of law (Ḥanafī, Mālikī, Shāfiʿī, and Ḥanbalī) in current is essential for a lay person. Therefore, the tendency among them in seeking religious guidance initially starts from local mosque imāms, and then widened with more expert ʿulamāʾ repudiated across their ethnic and sectarian oriented communities.

This chapter examines Muslim communities in Britain today from a demographic and sociological perspective. British Muslims are profiled here in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, household composition, residential patterns, geographic distribution, employment, health and socio-economic status. These are of course major topics in their own right, and some of them have been systematically studied in depth. For the purposes of this book, a survey of some of the most significant patterns and trends is provided to contextualize later discussion, and reference to more in-depth research is provided accordingly.

Irish and Muslim communities in Britain are, or have often been, constructed negatively in public discourse, where they have been associated with terrorism and extremism. Despite similarities in the experiences of these communities, little comparative research has been conducted. We address this gap by implementing a critical discourse analysis of national and diaspora press coverage of events involving Irish and Muslim communities that occurred in Great Britain between 1974 and 2007. We identified a consensus within the press that “law-abiding” Irish and Muslim people must stand up against “extremists” within their ranks and defend what newsmakers perceive are British values; in this way Irish and Muslim communities are constructed as both inside and outside Britishness. We conclude that the construction of these communities as “suspect” happens mostly in the ambiguity of news discourse, which contributes to fostering a socio-political climate that has permitted civil liberties to be violated by the state security apparatus.

The question of how to simultaneously deal with a potential threat of terrorism and not undermine the integration of British Muslims in the process is one that everyone is asking, but hardly anyone is answering. In Pariah Politics, Saggar (2008) sticks his neck out and gives a number of proposals directed at British policy-makers on how to fix the problems in the Muslim community and by extension, in his view, the problem of the terror threat. His main argument is that without an integrated, accepted and respected Muslim community lead by enlightened and compromise-seeking leadership, the terror threat will never be fixed. This may not be a new argument, but what makes Saggar's treatment unique is the focus on political reputations and their translation into political and policy solutions. Saggar's proposed solutions revolve around the main four problems facing Muslim communities in Britain, which create what he terms the ‘pariah problem': (1) the socio-economic position of Muslims, (2) community cohesion and social capital, (3) political leadership, (4) dealing with Global Islam. Saggar (2008, pp. 251–255) is a multiculturalist at heart and refers to Muslim communities, rather than Muslims, throughout his book. This also impacts the solutions he proposes. Some solutions are classic multicultural proposals focussed on increasing the cultural sensitivity of certain policies (pp. 251–255) ranging from more widely accepted proposals on education policy and the protection against religious discrimination (which incidentally has already been introduced), to more contentious policies such as religious exemptions from humane slaughtering regulations. These solutions based on cultural sensitivity are quickly loosing popularity, which Saggar does not consider. Joppke (2009) for example, makes a compelling case that British culture-sensitive integration policy may be actually adding to Muslims’ political grievances by raising expectations of recognition and respect for their cultural difference when these can no longer be sustained by the liberal state. However, Saggar firmly believes culturally sensitive policies are better at targeting Muslim-specific roots of certain wide-spread problems, like under-participation of women in employment or public life.

There exist many parallels between the experiences of Irish communities in Britain in the past and those of Muslim communities today. However, although they have both been the subject of negative stereotyping, intelligence profiling, wrongful arrest and prejudice, little research has been carried out comparing how these communities are represented in the media. This article addresses this gap by mapping British press coverage of events involving Irish and Muslim communities that occurred between 1974 and 2007. The analysis shows that both sets of communities have been represented as ‘suspect’ to different degrees, which the article attributes to varying perceptions within the press as to the nature of the threat Irish and Muslim communities are thought to pose to Britain. The article concludes that a central concern of the press lies with defending its own constructions of Britishness against perceived extremists, and against abuses of power and authority by the state security apparatus.

This article examines the indirect impacts of hate crimes on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and Muslim communities in the United Kingdom. Based on 34 qualitative interviews, we explore both the perceived meaning of ‘community’ in the context of targeted victimization and the emotional and behavioural effects that anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and Islamophobic hate crimes have on other members of the victim’s group. Building on previous quantitative data undertaken as part of a larger programme of research, this study helps to explain how and why hate crimes have significant indirect consequences on two distinct but commonly targeted communities. The focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and Muslim communities allowed us to draw out similarities and commonalities across different groups, further enhancing the understanding of the impacts of hate crime. In particular, the article highlights how for many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and Muslim people feelings of anger and anxiety about hate crimes were linked to enhanced levels of empathy towards those that they share a group identity with. These empathic bonds often gave rise to a sense of ‘shared suffering’, with participants frequently feeling connected to group members worldwide through their common experiences of hate and prejudice. Although group identity was important to many participants’ sense of belonging to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender or Muslim communities, it was clear that the most profound impacts of hate crime were experienced when incidents occurred within someone’s local area. This highlighted the importance of location as a key variable in understanding both the meaning of ‘community’ and the indirect impacts of hate crime.

We compare the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities in Britain with other ethnic minorities to ask the questions ‘are Muslims different?’ and ‘is their behaviour changing over time?’. We look at the gender gap in education, age at marriage, marriage from the source country and female employment. In all these dimensions we find that Muslim communities are different but also that there is a convergence in behaviour. This is because those born in Britain generally differ markedly in behaviours from those born in the country of origin, but also because there is change within both the UK- and foreign-born communities.

BackgroundInequalities exist in uptake of bowel cancer screening in England with low uptake in areas with high deprivation and amongst certain ethnic and religious groups. Individuals from these groups are more likely to receive a late diagnosis of bowel cancer. Uptake in Muslim communities, for example, has been shown to be lower than in the general population. Culturally adapted interventions are needed to address these inequalities. This feasibility study aims to assess the acceptability and accessibility of an educational faith-placed bowel cancer screening intervention in the East of England, alongside its impact on bowel screening uptake. It was developed by the British Islamic Medical Association in partnership with community stakeholders and professionals.MethodsEthical approval was granted on the 27 October 2021, REC reference number 21/EE/0231. A two-group non-randomised feasibility mixed methods study will be conducted, using surveys, focus groups and semi-structured interviews. Participants eligible for bowel screening will be recruited through local mosques and community venues. We aim to recruit 100 participants to the intervention group and 150 to the comparison group (not receiving the intervention). Intervention group participants will complete a survey at baseline, post-intervention and at six-month follow up. Comparison group participants will complete a survey at baseline and at six-month follow up. Outcomes will include: intention to take up screening; actual screening uptake; knowledge, attitudes, barriers and facilitators towards screening. Regional screening hub records will be used to ascertain actual screening uptake at six-month follow-up. Quantitative survey data will be summarised using descriptive statistics (e.g., proportion), and exploratory univariate analysis will be undertaken (e.g., chi-squared test). Two focus group interviews will be conducted with intervention group participants (with up to 16 participants). Semi-structured interviews will be conducted with 10 clinicians delivering the intervention to explore the acceptability of the intervention, training, and delivery. All qualitative data will be subject to a general inductive analysis.DiscussionThe findings will inform how faith-placed interventions can be implemented to increase uptake of bowel cancer screening, and potentially other health promotion programmes, to address health inequalities in ethnically diverse communities in England.

PurposeThis paper aims to analyze and compare attitudes and perceptions of Muslim leadership toward society and politics based on their personal experiences in England and the Netherlands.Design/methodology/approachThis study provides valuable insights into how Muslim leadership experiences socio-political realities from own perspectives. The comparative analysis of Muslim leadership in England and the Netherlands highlights the unique qualities of each community, while also demonstrating shared communal awareness regarding political participation and concerns regarding the rise of Islamophobia and populism.FindingsThe study reveals significant differences between Dutch and British Muslim leadership regarding attitudes toward politics. While the Dutch political system enables minorities to have political parties, British leaders prefer peaceful resistance, internal cooperation and voting power for influence. Muslim communities in both countries face similar challenges, such as access to politics, rising Islamophobia and populism. However, there are variations in leadership maturity and attitudes toward communal unification and political participation.Research limitations/implicationsEspecially Dutch Muslims were much more open toward cooperation once approached. The biggest challenge was to get into the Muslim communities in England. Even though British Muslims showed a much greater aptitude toward their civic duties, British Muslims were much more careful and wished that interviews were written down instead of being recorded. But once the author was part of the community, community leaders were more accepting and tolerant towards the author's presence. From that point on, to be recommended (snowballing) became easier.Practical implicationsThis research shows clearly how different ethnic Muslim communities differ across two different countries. Even though both countries have their own advantages and disadvantages, understanding how civic responsibilities and the progressive development of minority attitudes can be best approached is important to policymakers.Social implicationsOne major social implication is the way minorities perceive social and political equality and how these minority expectations can be met. Research shows that there is much fear and anxiety to growing sentiments of populism and right-wing appraisals. For a better integration and inclusion, a sound assessment of social and religious expectations is crucial.Originality/valueAs far as the author knows, there are no qualitative research studies that compare Muslim minority conditions in the Netherlands and England. This research makes this even more interesting for how to create policy that contributes to a European understanding of Muslim existence in Europe and a common European identity. This is crucial for a more stable and stronger European future.

Foreword Acknowledgements List of Figures 1. Introduction 2. The Muslim Community in Britain 3. Overview of the Hounslow Muslim Community 4. The Sharia, Religious Law of Muslims 5. The Muslim Law (Shariah) Council (UK) 6. The Many Faces of ADR in Hounslow 7. The Case for Court-Invoked Adjudication 8. Towards an Islamic Model of ADR 9. Policy Considerations Appendix: Some Perspectives on ADR Notes Glossary of Arabic, Persian and South Asian Terms Bibliography Index

The 2011 census revealed that there are 2.7 million Muslims in the United Kingdom. Muslim communities in Britain are diverse and have grown since the Industrial Revolution: a microcosm of this development can be found in Cardiff. The 2001 census showed that Cardiff was home to 11,268 Muslims and according to the most recent census in 2011 this number has increased by 2.7 per cent. The implications of multiculturalism and the balance between civil liberties and security for the Muslim communities have come to the fore, especially since events such as the London bombings on 7 July 2005 and the Woolwich murder in 2013 of Fusilier Lee Rigby.