Muslim identity politics: Islam, activism and equality in Britain

The rise of divisive and far-right politics and growing Islamophobia in Britain poses new challenges for Muslim advocacy organisations.

In the last fifty years, Muslim identity politics has worked to preserve religious identity, lobby the state and offer concerted responses to the political establishment.

This is the first book to critically chart the national and global factors influencing the political mobilisation of British Muslim activists as Muslims.

From analysing the establishment of regional organisations after 1960, Khadijah Elshayyal traces the changes of thought, direction and method for Muslim identity politics.

She argues that the Rushdie affair experience was highly formative, bringing with it international media attention, the opportunity for negotiation with the government and prompting new debate around the subject of freedom of expression.