This thesis is a qualitative investigation that explores how British Muslim civic actors within Muslim organisations perceive belonging, citizenship and negotiate tensions. Fifty interviews with civic actors from fifteen national Muslim civic organisations were undertaken across Britain during 2007/08. The theoretical debates which shaped the study, are based on Goffman's notion of stigma, dramaturgy and frame analysis. The findings suggest that although facing alienation and exclusion, Muslim civic actors increased their participation and exercised forms of active citizenship. This was based on their frames, religious values and principles in difference to liberal and national normative conceptions. They performed an authentic Muslim self to present a diligence to participation, civic duty and responsibility. The civic actors circumvented the 'them and us' approach by actively participating in the front stage, British civil society. The marginalisation, framing, as 'bad Muslim', stigma and Islamophobia they experienced did not prevent them from identifying with British citizenship identities. Britishness, multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism and social cohesion were seen as other forms of belonging. These did not present a sense of 'divided loyalties' to the civic actors. The religious notion of the Ummah was perceived as a core identity, which provided participants with a sense of belonging amongst the uncertainties they found within Britain. In the present neoliberal political context, the findings suggest a need to increase dialogue between the state and Muslim civic organisations to counter divides and dissolve the perceived boundaries of 'us versus them'. This thesis furthers the debates on citizenship, integration, belonging and multiculturalism in a contemporary British socio-political context.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:715182 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Malik, Abida |
| Publisher | University of Nottingham |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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