Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-mp689 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-20T05:29:04.568Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Social Policy, Cultural Integration and Faith: A Muslim Reflection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 July 2012

Dilwar Hussain
Dilwar Hussain*
Affiliation:
Policy Research Centre, Islamic Foundation E-mail: dilwar@policyresearch.org.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article is a reflection on some of the discussions around faith and public life, within the context of Muslim communities and their interaction with public policy. It looks at the gap between popular debates on Muslims and the actual lived socio-economic reality of most people of Muslim background, and then goes on to look at aspects of identity formation and Muslim identity politics in the UK. It also considers the idea of integration and looks briefly at emerging Islamic discourses that are grappling with some of the challenges presented by modern British society. Finally, the article explores the role of faith in the public sphere and if it can help to build social capital and play a role in ideas such as the Big Society. The article concludes by emphasising the need to move beyond identity politics and communitarianism and asks where the real divides in society are – between religious and ideological groups or within them?

Keywords

Integrationfaithpublic spheresocial policyBig SocietyIslamMuslim
Type
Themed Section on Social Policy and Religion in Contemporary Britain
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 11 , Issue 4 , October 2012 , pp. 625 - 635
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Affendi, A. (2001) Rethinking Islam and Modernity: Essays in Honour of Fathi Osman, Leicester: Islamic Foundation.Google Scholar
Ayoub, M. (1997) ‘Islam and pluralism’, Encounters: Journal of Inter-Cultural Perspectives, 3, 2, 103–18.Google Scholar
Ahmed, S. (2009) Seen and Not Heard: Voices of Young British Muslims, Leicestershire: Policy Research Centre.Google Scholar
Baker, C. and Skinner, H. (2006) Faith in Action – The Dynamic Connection between Spiritual and Religious Capital, Manchester: William Temple Foundation.Google Scholar
Barlas, A. (2002) Believing Women in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an, Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Birt, Y., Hussain, D. and Siddiqui, A. (eds.) (2010) British Secularism and Religion: Islam, Society and the State, Leicester: Kube Publishing.Google Scholar
Bretherton, L. (2006) Hospitality as Holiness, London: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Bukhari (2007) Translation of the Meanings of Sahih al-Bukhari, Saudi Arabia: Dar us-Salam Publications.Google Scholar
Commission on Urban Life and Faith (CULF) (2006) Faithful Cities, London: Methodist Publishing House and Church House Publishing.Google Scholar
Coote, A. (2010) Cutting It: The Big Society and the New Austerity, London: New Economics Foundation.Google Scholar
Department for Communities and Local Government (2008) Citizenship Survey 2007: Race, Cohesion and Faiths Statistical Release 2, London: Department for Communities and Local Government.Google Scholar
Downing Street (2010) Government Launches Big Society Programme, http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/big-society/ [accessed: 30.04.2012].Google Scholar
Giddens, A. (1998) The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Hula, R., Jackson-Elmoore, C. and Reese, L. (2007), ‘Mixing God's work and the public business: a framework for the analysis of faith-based service delivery’, Review of Policy Research, 24, 1, 67–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hussain, D. (2005), ‘Can Islam make us British?’, in Bunting, M. (ed.), Islam, Race and Being British, London: Guardian Publications.Google Scholar
Hussain, D., Ahmed, S., Hannan, R. and Siddiqi, N. (2010) Muslims in Leicester, Budapest: Open Society Institute.Google Scholar
Lowndes, V. (2004), ‘Religious involvement and social capital: incompatible, invaluable or irrelevant?’, Proceedings of the Launch Conference of the Manchester Centre for Public Theology, Religious Capital in Regenerating Communities, 10 May 2004.Google Scholar
Morisy, A. (2003) Beyond the Good Samaritan, London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Muslim (2000) Sahih Muslim, Delhi: Kitab Bhavan.Google Scholar
Osman, M. F. (1996) The Children of Adam: An Islamic Perspective on Pluralism, Washington, DC: Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.Google Scholar
Putnam, R. (2000) Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, New York: Simon & Shuster.Google Scholar
Rahman, F. (1982) Islam and Modernity: Transformation of an Intellectual Tradition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Ramadan, T. (1999) To be a European Muslim, Leicester: The Islamic Foundation.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. (2005) Political Liberalism, New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Said, E. (1978) Orientalism, New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Soroush, A. (2000) Reason, Freedom, and Democracy in Islam: Essential Writings of Abdolkarim Soroush, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Suleiman, Y. (2009) Contextualising Islam in Britain: Exploratory Perspectives, Cambridge: Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
Wadud, A. (1999) Qur'an and Woman: Re-Reading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Williams, R. (2006) Secularism, Faith and Freedom (Rome Lecture) http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/1175/rome-lecture-secularism-faith-and-freedom [accessed 30.04.2012].Google Scholar