Good Muslim Citizens? Conceptualisations of British citizenship among Muslims (original) (raw)

After September 11th the European Muslim minorities became subject to increased hostility, suspicion and prejudice. Since then, following the war in Iraq, 7/7 London bombings, 21/7 attempted London bombings, and the aff air over the Danish cartoons, it has gotten progressively worse. Increasingly, the ‘strongly voiced if imprecise doubts (...) on their loyalty as citizens’1 became a huge part of this prejudice. Numerous surveys questioning Muslim Britons on issues of Sharia law and freedom of speech were published and despite being most seriously fl awed in their methods, gained mainstream infl uence and fuelled the fear-mongering atmosphere surrounding the Muslim minorities in Britain (all these surveys aside from the policy exchange). Th e left wing media has been particularly critical of Muslims as a result of the assumption that Islam is inherently illiberal.2 Islam is often perceived as a threat to British values and as incompatible with British democracy – the wider public sup...