From Accommodation to Participation: Organized Muslims and Public Policy in Britain

This paper explores interactions between ‘organized’ Muslims and public authorities in London and Birmingham. Theoretically it draws on the idea that our understanding of the development of Islam, the accommodation of ‘Muslim religious needs’ and state-civil society interactions should no longer take an ‘immigration-incorporation’ paradigm as given. Instead, by focusing on (organized) Muslim groups and their interaction with public policies and public institutions, we find ways in which new groups in the population attempt to have a voice in the way policies and institutions develop, most importantly in domains they consider of vital importance. This paper discusses the ways organized Muslim have (more or less successfully) aimed to ‘speak with influence’ in the domains care, education and anti-radicalisation in two major cities in Britain. The paper demonstrates how a theoretically refined  conceptualization of ‘speaking with influence’ helps to identify the various ways in which minorities attempt to be authors in shaping the policies and institutions of ‘societies they are  a part of’.