The politics of voluntary and involuntary identities: Are Muslims in Britain an ethnic, racial or religious minority?

Patterns of Prejudice

Volumn 42, Issue 1, 2008, Pages 61-81

  Meer, Nasar ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Anti discrimination legislation; Anti Muslim prejudice; Discrimination; Ethnicity; Islam; Islamophobia; Muslims; Race; Racial and Religious Hatred Act; Racialization; Religion

Indexed keywords

EID: 38749145901     PISSN: 0031322X     EISSN: 14617331     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00313220701805901     Document Type: Article

References (95)

1. While it would be easy to state at the beginning that the idea of race is being used under 'erasure' (à la Jacques Derrida) or rejected outright in the manner preferred by Robert Miles, it will instead be argued that, since all categories including ethnicity, age, gender and class are unstable and contested, and subject to potential reification and essentialism, the implication of 'race' as 'real' is dismissed at the outset. It should instead be understood as a social construction that nevertheless serves as a potential vehicle for subjective and attributed identifications. See Jacques Derrida, Of Grammatology, trans. from the French by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (London: John Hopkins University Press 1976)
2. and Robert Miles, Racism (London: Routledge 1989).
3. Instead of offering a post-race account (see Paul Gilroy, Between Camps: Nations, Cultures and the Allure of Race (London: Routledge 2004),
4. and Brett St Louis, 'Post-race/ post politics? Activist-intellectualism and the reification of race', Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol. 25, no. 4, 2002, 652-75), this article will argue for a widening of racial equality agendas to include those affected by the social reality of racism. For a trailblazing perspective on the British context,
5. see Tariq Modood, 'Political blackness and British Asians', Sociology, vol. 28, no. 4, 1994, 859-76.
6. John Solomos, Race and Racism in Britain (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2003);
7. Adrian Favell, Philosophies of Integration: Immigration and the Idea of Citizenship in Britain and France (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2001).
8. Anthony Lester, 'From legislation to integration: twenty years of the Race Relations Act', in Tessa Blackstone, Bhikhu Parekh and Peter Sanders (eds), Race Relations in Britain: A Developing Agenda (London: Routledge 1998).
9. For example, it has been argued that newer racisms do not solely rely on biological sign systems and hierarchy, but are often 'coded' in a language of cultural dysfunction and pathology (Miles, Racism, 84-7).
10. Thus, while biological racism may lead to the development of cultural racism, it has been argued that it may be possible for the latter to stand alone and, in some cases, replace the former; see Tariq Modood, '" Difference", cultural racism and anti-racism', in Pnina Werbner and Tariq Modood (eds), Debating Cultural Hybridity: Multi-Cultural Identities and the Politics of Anti-Racism (London: Zed Books 1997), 155.
11. According to this view, some groups, including Muslims, can face additional hostility made up of 'an oppositional hegemonic bloc which includes intellectual elites as well as "real" violent racists' (Pnina Werbner, 'Islamophobia: incitement to religious hatred-legislating for a new fear?', Anthropology Today, vol. 21, no. 1, 2005, 6).
12. See also Nasar Meer, '"Get off your knees!" Print media, public intellectuals and Muslims in Britain', Journalism Studies, vol. 7 no. 1, 2006, 35-59,
13. and Nasar Meer and Tehseen Noorani, 'A comparison of anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim sentiment in Britain', forthcoming.
14. David Tyrer, '"Fact" as MacGuffin: Islamophobia, "race" and Muslim identities', Ethnic and Racial Studies, forthcoming.
15. Olivier Roy, Globalised Islam: The Search for the New Ummah, trans. from the French and revd (London: Hurst and Co. 2004), 21.
16. It should be stressed that this distinction is problematic, but is adopted as a heuristic device to develop this particular point. For example, in her landmark Gender Trouble, Judith Butler argues that any coherence achieved within categories of sex, gender and sexuality in fact reflects a culturally constructed mirage of coherence that is achieved through the repetition of what she calls 'stylised acts'. She argues that, in their repetition, these acts establish the appearance of what she describes as an essential or ontological 'core' gender. This leads Butler to consider one's 'sex' - along with one's 'gender' and 'sexuality' - as 'performative'; since this challenges biological accounts of sexual binaries, it is recognized that Butler would both support and problematize the above analogy. While she may support it by agreeing with the contested nature of 'gender', she might also problematize it by rejecting 'sex' as something given, rather than produced.
17. See Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (London and New York: Routledge 1990).
18. Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (London: Bantom 2006);
19. A. C. Grayling, 'Religions don't deserve special treatment', Guardian (Comment Is Free online), 19 October 2006, http://commentisfree.guardian.co. uk/ac_grayling/2006/10/acgrayling.html (viewed 12 September 2007);
20. Polly Toynbee, 'My right to offend a fool', Guardian, 10 June 2005;
21. Joan Smith, 'Why should I be jailed for attacking religion?', Independent, 8 December 2004.
22. Katherine Bullock, Rethinking Muslim Women and the Veil: Challenging Historical and Modern Stereotypes (London: International Institute of Islamic Thought 2002), 154.
23. Comprising the beliefs, values, rights and duties of shahada (articles of faith), salat (daily prayer), zakat (charity), sawm (fasting during Ramadan) and hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).
24. Bullock, Rethinking Muslim Women and the Veil, 154.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid.
27. Yunus Samad, 'Media and Muslim identity: intersections of generation and gender', Innovation, vol. 11, no. 4, 1998,425-38;
28. Jessica Jacobson, Islam, in Transition: Religion and Identity among British Pakistani Youth (London: Routledge 1998).
29. Samad, 'Media and Muslim identity', 437.
30. Tariq Modood, Richard Berthoud, Jane Lakey, James Nazroo, Patten Smith, Satnam Virdee and Sharon Beishon, Ethnic Minorities in Britain: Diversity and Disadvantage: The Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities (London: Policy Studies Institute 1997), 337.
31. Nasar Meer, 'Muslim schools in Britain: challenging mobilisations or logical developments?', Asia Pacific Journal of Education, vol. 27, no. 1, 2007, 55-71.
32. Meer and Noorani, 'A comparison of anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim sentiment in Britain';
33. Nasar Meer, 'Less equal than others', Index on Censorship, vol. 36, no. 2, 2007, 114-16;
34. Meer, '"Get off your knees!'".
35. Peter Aspinall, 'Should a question on "religion" be asked on the 2001 British Census? A public policy case in favour', Social Policy & Administration, vol. 34, no. 5, 2000, 584-600.
36. Hansard (HC), col. 686, 21 June 2005. A view shared by the Labour backbencher Bob Marshall-Andrews: 'The difficulty is that there is a profound difference between race and gender and religion. Our race and our gender are what we are and should be protected. Our religion is what we choose to believe. It is a system of beliefs, fundamentally and quite properly held. It seems to many here and out there that there is, in truth, very little distinction between one's religion and one's politics' (Hansard (HC), col. 676, 21 June 2005).
37. Tariq Modood, Multicultural Politics: Racism, Ethnicity and Muslims in Britain (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press 2005), 16.
38. Nasar Meer, 'Lifting the veil on the Hegelian Du Bois: towards a normative construct of "double consciousness'", in Nasar Meer and Simon Weaver (eds), Connections 4 (Bristol: Department of Sociology, University of Bristol 2004).
39. Gary Younge, 'We can choose our identity, but sometimes it also chooses us', Guardian, 21 January 2005.
40. Judith Squires offers a useful catalogue of the development of anti-discrimination legislation in Britain: 'The Labour governments of the 1970s introduced a range of equality laws designed to remedy group discrimination (in preparation for joining the European Economic Community): The Equal Pay Act 1970, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (SDA), the Race Relations Act 1976 and the Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Act 1976. Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome (signed by the UK in 1973) also established the principle of equal pay. The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) and Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) were established to uphold these laws. The Disability Discrimination Act was introduced in 1995 and the Disability Rights Commission established in 2000. The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 amended the 1976 Act (fulfilling recommendation 11 of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry report) and The Race Relations Act 1976 (Amendment) Regulations 2003 implements the EC Article 13 Race Directive' (Judith Squires, 'Equality and New Labour?', Soundings: A Journal of Politics and Culture, vol. 27, 2004, 75).
41. For Sikhs, see Panesar v. Nestle Co. Ltd [1980] IRLR 64;
42. Mandla v. Dowell Lee [1983] 2 AC 548;
43. Singh v. British Rail Engineering Ltd [1986] ICR 22;
44. and Dhanjal v. British Steel plc [1994] unreported; for Jews,
45. see Seide v. Gillette Industries Ltd [1980] IRLR 427;
46. and Morgan v. CSC & British Library [1990] DCLD 6 19177/89.
47. See 'Racial group' in the Commission for Racial Equality's 'Glossary', available on the CRE website at www.cre.gov.uk/duty/grr/glossary.html#r (viewed 12 September 2007).
48. Mandla v. Dowell Lee [1983], House of Lords transcript available at www.hrcr.org/safrica/equality/Mandla_DowellLee.htm (viewed 12 September 2007). There were also four other, arguably more minor, criteria, including: '(4) a common language, not necessarily peculiar to the group (5) a common literature peculiar to the group (6) a common religion different from that of neighbouring groups or from the general community surrounding it (7) being a minority or being an oppressed or a dominant group within a larger community, for example a conquered people (say, the inhabitants of England shortly after the Norman conquest) and their conquerors might both be ethnic groups.'
49. Ibid.
50. M. Jefferson, 'Turban or not turban', Liverpool Law Review, vol. 1, no. 5, 1983, 75-90 (83).
51. Modood, Multicultural Politics, 215n2. It is worth noting that, while the EU Directive on Employment Regulations (Religion or Belief) contained within Article 13 of the Treaty of Amsterdam now provides some protection for direct discrimination in work, it remains woefully short of the broad protections across all sectors of society provided by the RRA. It also lacks a statutory positive duty and is further weakened by the fact that there is no legal aid available to those seeking redress. In all these ways, it is thoroughly inferior to the RRA.
52. Employment Appeal Tribunal, 10 May 1988 [unreported].
53. Quoted in Kuljeet S. Dobe and Sukhwinder S. Chhokar, 'Muslims, ethnicity and the law', International Journal of Discrimination and the Law, vol. 4, 2000, 369-86 (382).
54. See CRE v. Precision Engineering [1991] COIT 4106/91
55. and Malik v. Bertram Personnel Group [1990] DCLD 7 4343/90.
56. Miles, Racism, 75.
57. Meer, '"Get off your knees!'";
58. Meer and Noorani, 'A comparison of anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim sentiment in Britain'.
59. See Section 18 of the POA 1986. Though it is worth noting that it was not introduced to protect minorities per se but to maintain public order, to the extent that the offence of incitement to racial hatred 'should continue to be based on considerations of Public Order' (Home Office and Scottish Office, Review of Public Order Law, Cmnd 9510 (London: HMSO 1985), para. 65).
60. Kuljeet Dobe, 'Muslims, ethnicity and the law', Consilio Law Magazine, 9 November 2000, 1-2.
61. As testimonies to the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia (CBMI) bear witness; CBMI, Islamophobia: Issues, Challenges and Actions (Stoke on Trent and Sterling, VA: Trentham Books 2004).
62. See the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) news stories recording the 'backlash' against Muslims for seven weeks following 7 July 2005; the final article, 'The racist backlash goes on . . . ', 25 August 2005 is available on the IRR website (with links to all previous stories in the series) at www.irr.org.uk/2005/august/ha000021.html (viewed 12 September 2007).
63. The definition of 'ethnicity' in Section 17 of the POA is the same one established in the application of RRA legislation.
64. Cf. R v. DPP ex parte London Borough of Merton CO/1319/1998.
65. Murad Qureshi, 'Why Britain needs a religious hatred law', Morning Star, 21 November 2005.
66. Dobe and Chhokar, 'Muslims, ethnicity and the law', 373.
67. Though it was not adopted in Scotland. Following the findings of the Scottish Cross-Party Working Group on Religious Hatred, which reported that there existed enough provision in Scottish law, particularly in addressing sectarianism, to address incitement to religious hatred. In Section 5.04 it states: 'Common law in Scotland already covers assaults and abusive, insulting or threatening behaviour. It also allows for religious hatred as an aggravating factor to such offences when considering sentence'; Tackling Religious Hatred: Report of Cross-Party Working Group on Religious Hatred (Edinburgh: Stationery Office 2002), available online at www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/ 2002/12/15892/14531 (viewed 13 September 2007)
68. Racial and Religious Hatred Act (2006), Chapter 1, Section 29A and 29B, available online at www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2006/60001-b.htm#schl (viewed 13 September 2007).
69. The Labour Party 2005 Election Manifesto: The Future for Britain (London: Labour Party 2005), 111.
70. A more robust instrument exists in the Republic of Ireland as the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989, which prohibits the stirring up of hatred 'against a group of persons in the State or elsewhere on account of their race, colour, nationality, religion, ethnic or national origins, membership of the travelling community or sexual orientation'; available on the British and Irish Legal Information Institute website at www.bailii.org/ie/ legis/num_act/1989/zza19y1989.1.html (viewed 13 September 2007).
71. Hansard (HC), col. 681, 21 June 2005.
72. Smith, 'Why should I be jailed for attacking religion?'.
73. Meer, '"Get off your knees!'".
74. Adrian Favell and Tariq Modood, 'The philosophy of multiculturalism: the theory and practice of normative political theory', in Alan Finlayson (ed.), Contemporary Political Thought: A Reader and Guide (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press 2003), 493.
75. Teun van Dijk, 1999, quoted in John E. Richardson, '"Now is the time to put an end to all this": argumentative discourse theory and "letters to the editor'", Discourse and Society, vol. 12, no. 2, 2001, 143-68.
76. Richardson, '"Now is the time to put an end to all this'", 148.
77. Rowan Atkinson, quoted in 'Actor opposes new bill', Liverpool Daily Post, 7 December 2004.
78. Rowan Atkinson, quoted in Maurice Chittenden, 'Blackadder fights law that could catch out comedians', Sunday Times, 5 December 2004.
79. Smith, 'Why should I be jailed for attacking religion?'.
80. Matthew Parris, 'Mockery, calumny and scorn: these are the weapons to fight zealots', The Times, 11 December 2004.
81. Toynbee, 'My right to offend a fool'.
82. Polly Toynbee, 'In defence of Islamophobia', Independent, 23 October 1997.
83. Neil Addison, quoted in 'Beyond belief', Lancashire Evening Post, 22 November 2004.
84. Leo McKinstry, 'Don't sacrifice free speech to appease the Muslim fanatics', Daily Express, 22 September 2005.
85. Toby Young, 'What's so wrong with offending other people?', Mail on Sunday, 12 December 2004.
86. Ghassan Hage, White Nation: Fantasies of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society (Annandale, New South Wales: Pluto Press 1998), 28.
87. McKinstry, 'Don't sacrifice free speech to appease the Muslim fanatics'.
88. Michael Burleigh, 'Religious hatred bill is being used to buy Muslim votes', Daily Telegraph, 9 December 2004.
89. Hansard (HC), cols 731-2, 21 June 2006.
90. Kenan Malik, 'Are Muslims hated?', 30 Minutes, broadcast on Channel 4, 8 January 2005, transcript available online at www.kenanmalik.com/tv/ c4_islamophobia.html (viewed 13 September 2007).
91. Christian Joppke, 'Limits of integration policy: Britain and her Muslims', paper presented at the conference 'Muslims and the state in the post-9/11 West', Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT, 20-1 April 2007;
92. Randell Hansen, 'The Danish cartoon controversy: a defence of literal freedom', International Migration, vol. 44, no. 5, 2006, 7-16.
93. 'Enormous upsurge in anti-Muslim backlash', Islamic Human Rights Commission press release, 22 July 2005.
94. Simon Heffer, 'This really is beyond a joke!', Daily Mail, 11 December 2004.
95. For a historical comparison of this argumentation with that concerning Jewish minorities in Britain at the turn of the century, see Meer and Noorani, 'A comparison of anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim sentiment in Britain'.