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‘Elite’ young Muslims in Britain: from transnational to global politics

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Abstract

Studies on the politics of young western Muslims have been diverse; however, radicalisation theory has achieved dominant status. As espoused by its key proponents Kepel (2004) and Roy (2004), this theory argues that young, western Muslims are being radicalised by the dislocations and uncertainties of globalization, and trying to forge a religious identity in a secular environment. Focusing on a cohort of ‘elite’ young British Muslims, this paper highlights an often overlooked current of thinking whereby sectarianism/localism has been replaced with a commitment to universal principles such as human rights and other global causes. This cohort of young Muslims was less ‘home-centred’ (i.e. transnational) than their parents’ generation and more global in political orientation, reinforcing the view that ethnic and/or religious politics and universalism are not necessarily counter-posed. This shift is explained as a process whereby inter-generational differences (in terms of aspirations and resources) have created a momentum for intra-generational cohesion across boundaries and peer-to-peer information transfer heightened by experience of major traumas, either directly or indirectly, and by new global communications. In the face of global traumas such as 9/11, the first generation’s localism and transnationalism is regarded as inappropriate to the new global context.

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Notes

  1. Marranci (2009) has pointed out that discussion about Islamic ‘extremism’ is often simplistic and belies the complex dynamics underpinning the adoption of politics that promote violent political action. In this context, i.e. referring to European Muslims, it is used to describe views that range from support for political separatism to violent protest.

  2. Organisations websites: www.mpacuk.org; www.fosis.demon.co.uk; www.femyso.net; www.ymuk.nt; www.theoakproject.org.uk.

  3. Operation Muslim Vote, Channel 4, 11 May 2005.

  4. Interview, YMUK.

  5. Interview, FOSIS.

  6. Interview, OAK project.

  7. This body ran a separatist programme until the mid-1990s.

  8. Q-News, November 2005: 38

  9. Q-News, April 2005: 28.

  10. Eastern Eye, 15 April 2005: 8.

  11. C2M.

  12. L2F.

  13. BF4.

  14. BFGrpM1.

  15. Interview with member of YMUK.

  16. Q-News, April 2005: 13.

  17. Q-News, November 2005: 4.

  18. Eastern Eye, 24 March 2006.

  19. Eastern Eye, 15 April 2005: 2.

  20. BFGrpM4

  21. C8M.

  22. Interview, FOSIS.

  23. Interview, FEMYSO.

  24. Q-News, November 2005: 15.

  25. BFGrp M2.

  26. Interview,YMUK.

  27. Q-News, November2005:40.

  28. Out of the twenty six individual interviews, twenty one respondents simply described themselves as Muslim, three as Shi’a and two as agnostic.

  29. CF10.

  30. LF4.

  31. Interview, YMUK.

  32. Interview with member of FOSIS.

  33. LM4.

  34. Only one student mentioned a link with his mother’s country of origin, South Africa.

  35. Fifty-four per cent of the individual student respondents considered themselves less interested than their parents in the politics of their parents’ country of origin, with only 14% rating themselves as having higher interest.

  36. See www.mpacuk.org.

  37. Eastern Eye, 31 March 2006: 12–13.

  38. Eastern Eye, 15 September 2006: 8.

  39. Eastern Eye, 16 June 2006: 9.

  40. Out of the twenty-six individual interviews, six students were involved in national organisations, four in transnational, ten in global and seven in charitable/ humanitarian organisations.

  41. LF4.

  42. Of the 26 individual interviews, when asked to rank issues according to their importance, 19 (73%) put human rights at the top of the list.

  43. CF3 emphasis added.

  44. Eastern Eye, 3 February 2006.

  45. Eastern Eye, 12 May 2006: 25.

  46. Eastern Eye, 2 March 2007: 12.

  47. Q-News, November 2005: 24.

  48. Q-News, November 2005: 23.

  49. LF6.

  50. BFGrpM5.

  51. BM5.

  52. Interview, YMUK.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the ESRC (grant number RES-000-22-1948) for providing the funding for this research and Dr Rana Jawad who worked as a post-doctoral researcher on the project.

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  1. Development Studies, University of Cambridge, 17 Mill Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1RX, UK

    June Edmunds

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Edmunds, J. ‘Elite’ young Muslims in Britain: from transnational to global politics. Cont Islam 4, 215–238 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-009-0107-x

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