Sharing Experiences of ‘Suspect Communities’ in Britain: Irish Catholic and Muslim Women’s ‘Voices in Harmony’

Abstract

Lyn Thomas analyses one of seven focus groups organised as part of an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project on the construction of ‘suspect’ communities in British media and political discourse during periods of political violence. The focus groups explored how representations of ‘suspect communities’ in media and public life impact/ed on Irish communities and Muslim communities living in Britain. Thomas discusses how gender, religion, ethnicity and experiences of racialisation intersect in this discussion by a group of self-identified Muslim and Irish Catholic women. She concludes that although the women belong to communities that are separated by boundaries of religion, race and ethnicity, within the discussion group space, they construct a micro-community of gender, religious sensibility, educational capital and ‘suspectness’, where they are self-defining actors rather than victims.