Nevertheless,They Persist: American and European Muslim Immigrants in the Era of Trump

This paper reviews the consequences of Donald J. Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies vis-à-vis his travel ban on Muslim immigration experiences. The paper looks at the impact of Trump’s and like-minded European leaders’ Islamophobic rhetoric and policies on dominant cultures, public policies, and assimilation of Muslims in the U.S. and in Europe. The review correlates said rhetoric and policies with public attitudes about Muslims, the rise of hate crimes and violence against Muslims, public policy changes, and assimilation (including civic engagement) of Muslims. The paper contrasts the differences in attitudes and responses of Muslim and non-Muslim communities in the U.S. and Europe. It concludes that U.S. and European Muslims retain overall positive attitudes about their new home countries and institutions and are politically engaged against the rise of anti-Muslim xenophobia, which varies between America and Europe, based on their respective histories, cultures and economies.     

Fear,Terror and the New Global Economy of Salvation–Global Excess and ‘Suicide’ Bombing in London

The article looks at the London bombing of July 2005 as a double volunteered witnessing. The four male British ‘suicide’ bombers purported to witness the plight of the victims of global excesses in places like Iraq and Palestine as Muslims and their own privileged membership of the Muslim Community (umma). The witnessing was as much a trans-national self-identification by the bombers with their Islamic faith as a counter-identification against their British citizenship. On their trails of death and destruction, the bombers advocated the supremacy of the privilege of faith over the rights of citizen by destroying the mortal bodies of individuals to which is anchored citizen rights in order to provide room for the immortal body of the Muslim Community which cherishes the privilege of the faithful. In their surrogacy for the will of fellow Muslims, the bombers drew on a new economy of salvation that promised them the magnanimity of the witnessing (martyrdom) for the Muslim Community and offered the Other the ignominy of an apocalyptic retribution. By substituting the body for the mind as the immediate object of power the Muslim volunteers inspired fear among the potential victims of their violence without giving them the opportunity to reciprocate fear thus turning the fear into a sense of despair—terror—that makes power incontestable and abolishes politics. Faced with the threat of terror, the British public erected invisible, internal borders within which they constructed an invincible Britishness from which no one was excluded. The insurrectionary, multicultural assertion of British identity through recourse to the notion of individual rights is followed by a moment of constitution of Britishness by the institutions of government. An institutional construction of the general will to protect public safety within the spatially fixed borders is mediated by the Anglo-American model of multiculturalism. The article explores the incompatibility between cultural construction of boundaries sanctioned by the model and the state's educating role to dis-identify the faithful in order to identify them as citizens.     

Perceptions of the processes of radicalisation and de-radicalisation among British South Asian Muslims in a post-industrial city

This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study exploring the perceptions of British South Asian Muslims in relation to the pathways towards radicalisation and the challenges of community leadership in relation to de-radicalisation. The study is based on in-depth interviews, using an ethnographic methodological framework, with a purposive sample of 30 Muslim men and women, including senior political figures, community leaders, religious figures and young Muslims (aged 18–25) from across the city of Birmingham, UK. The fieldwork was carried out between September 2005 and May 2007. Respondents reflected a general perspective that regards social exclusion, Islamophobia, lack of effective theological and political leadership, regressive anti-terror law and geo-political events as principal factors in the radicalisation and the de-radicalisation of British Muslims. These findings provide important insights into Muslims in Britain in relation to questions of ‘radicalism’ and politics, and they have specific implications for research, policy and practice in this area.     

The “Trojan Horse” Plot and the Fear of Muslim Power in British State Schools

In 2014, an alleged “Trojan Horse” plot to Islamise education in a number of schools attended predominantly by diverse Muslim pupils in the inner city wards of Birmingham raised considerable questions. Ofsted investigations of 21 schools explored these concerns at the behest of the then Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove MP. At the head of this so-called plot, a certain Tahir Alam, once a darling of New Labour’s policies on British Muslim schools, faced the brunt of the media and political furore. Based on a series of face-to-face interviews with Alam in 2015 and 2016, this paper provides a detailed insight into the allegations, the context in which they emerged and the implications raised for young Muslims in the education system. Ultimately, as part of the government’s counter-terrorism policy the accusations of the “Islamisation” of education in these “Trojan Horse” schools foreshadowed the additional securitisation of all sectors of education. However, there was neither the evidence nor the legal justification to ratchet up anti-extremism education measures that eventually followed; namely the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015. The consequences of the negative attention heightened existing Islamophobia but, paradoxically, they also limited the opportunities for de-radicalisation through education.     

Reported schooling experiences of adolescent Jews attending non-Jewish secondary schools in England

This article explores the reported schooling experiences of 28 adolescents attending non-Jewish English secondary schools who self-identified as Jews. Their reported school peer-interactions suggest Jews attending non-Jewish schools may face several challenges from members of non-Jewish peer groups, including anti-Semitism. Their reported experiences of classroom worlds, on the other hand, suggest that curricula and pedagogical methods could be perceived to exacerbate these challenges. These findings are discussed in relation to two on-going educational debates: the provision of state-funded faith schools, and the debate about the nature and purpose of the curriculum subject Religious Education in non-faith schools.     

“It’s like this Myth of the Supernegro”: resisting narratives of damage and struggle in the neoliberal educational policy context

As pathologizing, racialized, and patriarchal rhetoric undergirds neoliberal education reform, deficit narratives characterize the education of Black youth. Such narratives present deep challenges for educational policy and community-based educational spaces. This article explores the ways in which community-based educators resist narratives of damage and struggle in their own personal and professional narratives in order to prevent the cycle of deficit-oriented discourse that follow Black youth through myriad educational spaces. By situating the narratives of community-based educators within a broader policy context shaped by race, class, and gender, this article illustrates the challenges that arise for community-based educators that seek to frame Black youth beyond deficit narratives and who avoid framing themselves as heroes and saviors of Black youth.     

‘I grew a beard and my dad flipped out!’ Co-option of British Muslim parents in countering ‘extremism’ within their families in Bradford and Leeds

Research on the effects of counter-terrorism has argued that Muslims are constructed as a ‘suspect community’. However, there remains a paucity of research exploring divisive effects membership to a ‘suspect community’ has on relations within Muslim families. Drawing from interviews conducted in 2010–2011 with British Muslims living in Bradford or Leeds, I address this gap by examining how co-option of Muslim parents to counter extremism fractures relations within Muslim families. I show that internalising fears of their children being radicalised or indeed radicalising others, means parents judge young Muslims’ religious practices through a restrictive moderate/extremist binary. I advance the category of ‘internal suspect body’ which is materialised through two intersecting conditions: the suspected Muslim extremist to lookout for and young Muslims at risk of radicalisation. I delineate the reproductive effects of terrors of counter-terrorism on Muslims’ experiences as they traverse state, intra-group and individual levels.     

To be or not to be an Australian: Focus on Muslim youth

In 2001, 67% of Australians identified themselves as Christians and only 1.5% as Muslims, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Other Australians are Jews, Buddhists and Hindus – to name just a few of the religious minorities. Since 1975 until recently when the Anti-Discrimination Act was legislated, multiculturalism has been the official policy of the Federal Government. Yet in these terror-ridden times, the policy – however interpreted – has well and truly fallen into disfavour. This article discusses both the historical and contemporary dimensions of Muslim Australians’ national identity, focusing particularly on Muslim youth. It examines how one group of Australian-born Muslims exhibited their national identity during the Second World War and how the newly arrived Muslims feel about their identity during the ‘War on Terror’. The article is based on both primary and secondary sources – particularly on oral testimonies.     

Supporting the democratic political organisation of Muslim immigrants: the perspective of Muslims in the Netherlands and Germany

Using data from three survey studies, this paper examines the support for the democratic political organisation of Muslims among Muslim immigrants in the Netherlands (Studies 1, 2, and 3) and Germany (Study 3). Using a social psychological perspective, support is examined in relation to religious group identification, Muslim linked fate, perceived discrimination, fundamentalist religious belief, and host national identification. The findings in all three studies show support for the political organisation of Muslims. Furthermore, higher religious group identification and higher linked fate were associated with stronger support. More discrimination and more fundamentalist beliefs were also associated with stronger support, and part of these associations was mediated by linked fate. National identification was not associated with support for the political organisation of Muslims.     

Muslim Women in Australia,Britain and the United States: The Role of “Othering” and Biculturalism in Identity Formation

When Muslims migrate to Western countries, they bring their identity and culture with them. As they settle in their host countries, some Muslims encounter structural inequality, which is often revealed through media representation, unequal labour market status and racial profiling. Through the dynamics of structural inequality, some Muslim women remain doubly disadvantaged. Within their ethnic/religious community, Muslim women are expected to follow their cultural traditions and in the wider society their overtly Muslim appearance is often questioned. The discussion of identity formation in this paper is based on interviews with Muslim girls and women in Australia, Britain and the United States, aged between 15 and 30 years. Though the cultural and political contexts of these three countries are different, the practice of “othering” women have been similar. Through their life stories and narratives, I examine the formation of the participants’ identities. It was found that for many of these women their sense of identity shifted from single to multiple identities, thus revealing that identity formation was a flexible process that was affected by a variety of factors, including the relevance and importance of biculturalism in the women’s identity formation.     

Marketing an imagined Muslim woman: Muslim Girl magazine and the politics of race,gender and representation

This article examines the magazine Muslim Girl (started publication 2007) and explores how the representations on the magazine's pages construct a particular type of identity for Muslim women: an ‘idealized’ Muslim woman who is both North American/Western and Muslim. Such a woman is portrayed as liberal, educated, fashionable, a ‘can-do’ woman, who is also committed to her faith. This ‘ideal’ woman is situated squarely as a neo-liberal subject in an increasingly consumerist world: she is ‘marketable’ (and marketed) as the ‘good Muslim’ (Mamdani, 2004) and is positioned as the ‘familiar stranger’ (Ahmed, 2000) in North America. This so-called ‘modern’ Muslim (read: ‘good Muslim’) is juxtaposed both against the ‘fundamentalist’ Muslim (read: ‘bad Muslim’) and the ‘normalized’ white North American subject. Against the discourse of post 9/11 nationalism and within the context of (gendered) Orientalism, this article argues that such idealized representations present easily recognizable tropes, which serve important political, ideological and cultural purposes within North American society. An analysis of these representations – and the purposes which they serve – provides an important window into the nuances of the structured discourses that seek to control and discipline the gendered Muslim body. On the one hand, the representations in Muslim Girl focus on the so-called ‘integrated North American Muslim’ – a ‘modern’ or ‘good’ Muslim – within the context of the multicultural, neo-liberal and post 9/11 nation-state. On the other hand, these representations also highlight examples of Muslim women, who seemingly remain committed to their faith and community. Such representations of hybridized North American Muslims speak powerfully to the forces – ideological, cultural, political and social – that are at play in the post 9/11 world. In analyzing the representations found in Muslim Girl, this paper provides an insight into some of these forces and their implications.     

Unequal among equals: lessons from discourses on ‘Dalit Muslims’ in modern India

Questioning ‘Dalit Muslims’ as an authentic social group, the authors enumerate the challenges inherent in presupposing that clearly delineated social groups exist and challenge the efficacy of designating such groups as discernible and cohesive. An interdisciplinary critique that draws on history, religion and social sciences, reveals a pervasive, yet ambiguous, group consciousness shaped by two prevalent discourses: social stratification among Muslims in India; and emerging activist platforms claiming to represent a Dalit Muslim polity. The ways in which ‘Dalit Muslims’ are reified as a presumably singular social group are highlighted (and disputed) in order to further scholarly debate regarding dynamics of group formation and definition. The analysis shows that, given similar social, economic and political experiences of some segments of the population, ‘Dalit Muslims’ may be treated (cautiously) as a social category for purposes of discussion. Nevertheless, despite enduring discourses about social hierarchy and socio-political activism, and a generalized have-nots versus elite rhetoric that underlies assertions of community coherence and demands for amelioration, no established, homogeneous group appropriate for either scholarly investigation or policy planning can be identified. Rather, diversity, status ambiguity and ongoing change processes provide the most cogent characterization of Dalit Muslim communities in India today.     

民族精英 国家栋梁——纪念中国回回穆斯林青年留学埃及80周年

1931年至1937年间,经考试选拔,我国35位回回穆斯林青年分六批先后赴埃及爱资哈尔大学留学,这是中国历史上最早的回回穆斯林"有组织的留学",这批留埃学生学成后都成为了民族的精英和国家的栋梁。重温这段历史,我们对当时中国的回回穆斯林学术界、宗教界、教育界的先贤们更加崇敬。     

“Heave Half a Brick at Him”: Hate Crimes and Discrimination against Muslim Converts in Late Victorian Liverpool

Throughout the existence of the Liverpool Moslem Institute, 1887–1908, there were many incidents of discrimination, intimidation, violence, and other acts of hate directed toward the British converts to Islam. This was particularly evident during the first decade after the group’s founding. The band of Muslims, led by Sheik Abdullah William Henry Quilliam, faced continued opposition, be it disruptions of events and religious services, or violent street fighting. This article explores the incidents of hate and discrimination, the milieu in which they occurred, and the reaction of the Muslim community. A brief comparison to the experience of the contemporaneous American Muslim converts also is presented.     

Do white voters support welfare policies targeted at ethnic minorities? Experimental evidence from Britain

Academics and policymakers have begun discussing ethnically focussed policies to offset the penalties ethnic minorities suffer due to discrimination, but little is known about how such policies would be received by the public. We employ new survey experiments fielded in Britain to examine public reactions to equal opportunity policies targeted at working class, black or Muslim Britons, and redistributive policies aiming to reduce inequality between the rich and the poor or between whites and ethnic minorities. We find widespread support for class- or income-targeted policies among white British respondents, but much lower support when identical policies are ethnically targeted. We find evidence for two mechanisms which help to explain this drop in support. Firstly, political and ideological values such as egalitarianism and support for an active state strongly predict support for class- and income-targeted policy, but have a much weaker effect on support for ethnically targeted policy. Secondly, hostility to immigrants has a strong negative effect on support for ethnically targeted policy, but no effect on support for class- and income-targeted policy. The combination of intense opposition from anti-immigrant voters and indifference from traditionally pro-welfare left wingers results in very little public support for explicitly ethnically targeted policy.     

Tradition and transformation: Pakistani-heritage young people explore the influences upon their educational progress

This article explores the perspectives of Pakistani-heritage Muslim young people on their educational progress, against a background where Muslim students are monitored for their vulnerability to radicalisation. The literature offers competing explanations for the persistent inequalities in attainment among different minority-ethnic groups, but the voices of pupils themselves are seldom heard. In this study, young people offer their own explanations of distinctive aspects within the local attainment data, which run counter to national trends. The principal sources of data are extended discussions with 36 Pakistani-heritage young people, and a survey conducted by some of the young people among 165 of their peers. Analysed through a Bourdieuian lens, the findings indicate that these Muslim young people are motivated by a strong sense of habitus and religious identity that transcends the divisions of social class. Further, they are actively engaged in habitus transformation, which drives their educational aspirations but involves personal cost, dilemmas and constraints.     

British Constructions with Constitutions: The Formal and Informal Nature of 'Island' Relations on Montserrat and Gibraltar

This article explores social, economic and political relations on two British Dependent Territories (BDTs) -- Montserrat and Gibraltar. This article notes that though BDTs are British colonial constructions, created, sustained and modelled upon and by Britain, they differ from Britain in that they have political constitutions. They also exhibit an ambiguous dependence and independence upon and with Britain. This article goes on to look at social and economic relations on Montserrat and Gibraltar before comparing and contrasting the political climates on each BDT. Throughout this article, it is suggested that there is a dynamic tension between formal and informal aspects to managing life. Finally, this article concludes with a discussion about the suitability of the split between Executive and Legislative Councils in these two BDTs.     

A Fragmented Discourse of Religious Leadership in France: Muslim Youth between Citizenship and Radicalization

Abstract

At a time when public debates about radicalization of Muslim youth in the West are taking center stage and when questions about “home-grown” security threats are increasing in the wake of a number of terrorist attacks in many émigré societies, this article provides fresh empirical insights from the perspective of religious leadership. It outlines a picture of a highly diverse Muslim religious landscape where competing religious discourses are struggling to attract and support Muslim youth facing social dislocation and identity crises within increasingly contested social milieus. The article argues that a typology of religious leadership is clearly emerging where a spectrum of faith-based orientations and religious practice emphasize, to different degrees, notions of attachment to universal ethics and individual agency. The fact that conservative, sometimes radical, interpretations of such contestations represent a minority of voices is heartening even though the actual damage by such minority is often disproportionate to its actual size within the so-called silent majority. The empirical insights provided by the religious leaders interviewed for this study offer hope that the future of Western Muslims is more positive than we are led to think, if the possibility of combining devout faith with local political engagement becomes a real and sustainable conduit towards social inclusion and intercultural understanding and if necessary support and understanding are extended by the host communities.     

当代"蕃坊"的崛起——义乌穆斯林社区发展历程的初步调查

唐宋时期,在当时的杭州、明州(宁波)等地,建立了有外国侨民居住的“蕃坊”。随着中国对外开放的进行,大量的中外穆斯林到浙江义乌来经商贸易,定居生活,使义乌成为新的“蕃坊”。通过对义乌穆斯林的人口变迁,义乌的清真寺、寺管会、阿洪和墓地,义乌穆斯林的职业构成,义乌穆斯林的婚姻家庭与子女就学情况,义乌穆斯林的精神生活状况等方面的论述,使人们对这一新的“蕃坊”有一个较全面的了解。浙江义乌新的“蕃坊”的出现,也反映了伊斯兰文化与中华文化均重视和谐与和平的共同价值取向。     

阿拉善的"蒙古浩腾"人族群——对阿拉善地区蒙古族穆斯林群体的初步田野调查报告

“蒙古浩腾”人是对居住于内蒙古自治区西部阿拉善盟阿拉善左旗东北部境内的一部分信仰伊斯兰教的蒙古族穆斯林的称谓。本文作者等一行多人历经多年田野考察,对这一独特族群进行了较为深入的研究,不仅全面地进行了摸底调查,分析了该族群独特的民族传承、独特的民族习俗、独特的宗教信仰、独特的民族心理素质,而且还通过历史文献与现实状况的比较,廓清了学术界的一些模糊甚至不准确的认识,使这一既与蒙古族有着明显区别,又与穆斯林民族有着较大差异的“边缘化群体”的历史与现状,能够比较充分地展示在学术界与世人面前。