Muslim Organizations and the United Kingdom from 1980 to 2005: From the Local to the National Level
Garbaye, Romain
Muslim Organizations and the United Kingdom from 1980 to 2005: From the Local to the National Level - 2010.
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This article retraces the transition from the local to the national level of the political participation of Muslim organisations between 1980 and 2005. At the beginning of that period Muslim organisations participated in British politics essentially at the local level, in particular in cities with large Muslim populations where mosques, Muslim charities and networks successfully articulated demands related to Islam and Muslim identity in the local public sphere. They were helped in this by the then-influential left of the Labour party, which sought to establish electoral alliances and policy partnerships with black and minority ethnic groups, among which Muslim ones, as part of its multiculturalist agenda. From the 1990s onwards, then most visibly after 9/11, newly created national Muslim organisations managed to reach an unprecedented level of official recognition and media visibility, in the context of a governmental policy which encouraged their institutionalisation. This is the case in particular of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). However, the MCB’s success seems to have been built on shaky ground, and it has lost some of its influence since 2005, in the context of the increasing fragmentation and complexification of the Muslim scene. British governments have also displayed signs of interest in new styles of local partnership as part of their counter-terrorism strategy.
Muslim Organizations and the United Kingdom from 1980 to 2005: From the Local to the National Level - 2010.
37
This article retraces the transition from the local to the national level of the political participation of Muslim organisations between 1980 and 2005. At the beginning of that period Muslim organisations participated in British politics essentially at the local level, in particular in cities with large Muslim populations where mosques, Muslim charities and networks successfully articulated demands related to Islam and Muslim identity in the local public sphere. They were helped in this by the then-influential left of the Labour party, which sought to establish electoral alliances and policy partnerships with black and minority ethnic groups, among which Muslim ones, as part of its multiculturalist agenda. From the 1990s onwards, then most visibly after 9/11, newly created national Muslim organisations managed to reach an unprecedented level of official recognition and media visibility, in the context of a governmental policy which encouraged their institutionalisation. This is the case in particular of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). However, the MCB’s success seems to have been built on shaky ground, and it has lost some of its influence since 2005, in the context of the increasing fragmentation and complexification of the Muslim scene. British governments have also displayed signs of interest in new styles of local partnership as part of their counter-terrorism strategy.
Réseaux sociaux