Pariah Politics: Understanding Western Radical Islamism and What Should be Done

Abstract

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.