The political inclusion of British Muslims: from multiculturalism to muscular liberalism

In this paper, I address the implications of the Prevent and associated
Counter Extremism agendas for the accommodation of Muslims in British
public life, by examining: modes of governing areas of Muslim
settlement; the schooling of British Muslims; the introduction of forms of
sousveillance of Muslims within public institutions; and the framing of
integration, British values and equalities through the Counter Extremism
agenda. I argue that these agendas are underpinned by an ideological
retreat from a pluralistic approach to recognising and accommodating
minority religions, to a more ‘muscular liberal’ approach, that seeks to
defend a particular set of ‘fundamental British values’, and implicitly
asserts an identitarian form of Christian majoritarianism that limits the
conditions for the political inclusion of British Muslims. I argue, though,
that it is important to recognise the incomplete nature of civic integration
as a governing project, due to the assemblages of different governance
actors, professional norms and competing agendas that characterise the
fields of governance through which civic integration is implemented.