Preachers, Patriots and Islamists

Mapping Intimacies ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190688349.003.0009 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Yahya Birt

Keyword(s):

British Muslims ◽

Effective Preaching ◽

Post War ◽

Community Builder

Rediscovered by Islamic converts in the late 1960s and post-war migrants in Liverpool in the 1970s after he had been largely forgotten, British Muslim interest in Abdullah Quilliam has grown significantly, especially in the last decade. Although not without his contemporary critics, there is a strong hagiographic tendency that puts Quilliam forward as a founder figure in British Islam. Contemporary appropriations of Quilliam center on questions of British Muslim belonging, which is drawn out in debates on racism and effective preaching (da‘wa), and about Islam, politics and patriotism. This chapter argues that, within his overarching role as progenitor, Quilliam’s reimagined afterlives as patriot or rebel, reformer or traditionalist, or community builder or preacher, reveal tensions and developments among British Muslims today.

Download Full-text

The Postcolonial Subject’s Discontent

Islamophobia and Radicalisation ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190083410.003.0012 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 141-152

Author(s):

Tahir Abbas

Keyword(s):

National Level ◽

Lower Class ◽

National Identities ◽

Direct Result ◽

Minority Children ◽

Average Performance ◽

Class Mobility ◽

British Muslims ◽

Post War ◽

Intractable Problem

The prevailing post-war paradigm on education and social class is based on a direct association between these two concepts, such that they are inseparable in the minds of many. That is, education leads to class mobility as a direct result of the education system. In extending this argument, the idea that minority children underperform in education due to their ethnic and class characteristics should hold sway, but research has also claimed that stronger schools can raise the average performance levels of pupils from weaker backgrounds, while weaker schools tend to reduce the average performance of pupils from lower-class backgrounds. Many see educational underperformance among young Muslims as an intractable problem; however, in reality, the poor educational performance of young British Muslims is often due to policy decisions made at a local or national level. The education of British Muslims has evolved in the context of the policies of post-war immigration, integration and diversity policy. In reality, in situating these groups, popular systems of multiculturalism endorse notions of tolerance and secularity through the popularization of a multiculture that racializes the civilized, modern or backward in the construction of national identities.

Download Full-text

Tomorrow Belongs to Those …

Islamophobia and Radicalisation ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190083410.003.0011 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 133-140

Author(s):

Tahir Abbas

Keyword(s):

Trojan Horse ◽

Minority Communities ◽

Modern Racism ◽

Muslim Minority ◽

The World ◽

The Status ◽

The Face ◽

British Muslims ◽

Post War ◽

Local Levels

This chapter delves into the world of British Muslims who have experienced a whole host of interconnected challenges at the national and local levels, with the perils of Brexit sowing deep divisions. It also introduces the so-called ‘Trojan Horse’ affair of 2014, which demonstrated that Islamophobia had reached the highest levels of government. After seventy years of post-war immigration, settlement and adaptation to society, many Muslim minority communities continue to face racism, prejudice, intolerance, bigotry and discrimination, affecting educational outcomes and their sense of identity. Dominant notions of race and nation have thrust Muslims into the limelight as the most racialized, objectified and ‘othered’ group in education, but adaptation and social integration has simply not occurred because of the workings of wider society. The presumption that promoting ‘British values’ will somehow eliminate the structural inequalities that result from modern racism is nonsensical, as it will simply reproduce the status quo, recreating the conditions for disadvantage and discrimination. It is an attempt to preserve ethnic nationalism in the face of its ongoing disintegration.

Download Full-text