Muslim Schools in Britain: Muslim-Consciousness in Action

Abstract

Earlier chapters have delineated the emergence of a heterogeneous Muslim identity and characterised it as a form of Muslim-consciousness. Reporting on the first of three case studies, this chapter examines the relationship between this Muslim-consciousness and the civic status Muslims are seeking through the mobilisation for schools. In the opening quotation, the director of the Association of Muslim (AMS), Idreas Mears, figuratively traces the emergence of Muslim schools in Britain, presently numbering over one hundred and thirty in the independent sector and ten with state funding. While their number may indeed support Mears’ vision of a ‘flowering’ British Muslim identity, their place within the British education system remains the subject of intense debate (Tinker, 2007; Meer, 2007a; Parker-Jenkins; Hartas & Irving, 2005; Fetzer & Soper, 2004). Frequently named in various deliberations concerning Muslim civic engagement, political incorporation and social integration, to some commentators Muslim schools represent little more than an irrational source of social division (Dawkins, 2006; Grayling, 2006; National Secular Society (NSS), 2006; Bell, 2005; Humanist Philosophers’ Group (HPG), 2001). Many Muslims, meanwhile, view their existence as an antidote to a prescriptive or coercive assimilation, and herald their potential incorporation into the mainstream as an example of how ‘integration’ should be based upon reciprocity and mutual respect (Ameli, Azam & Merali, 2005; Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS), 2004; Hussain 2004; CBMI, 2004).

I think we’re at a very interesting stage. The metaphor I use is that the first Muslims that came here were like the farmer standing on the ground; they were standing on it but didn’t have roots in it. But their seed has been scattered with some falling on good ground, others falling on stony ground and yet some being blown away in the wind. In some ways we’re only now at the beginning of establishing a genuine Muslim presence in the United Kingdom and that presence is from the seed of the second and third generations.

Idris Mears, Association of Muslim Schools, (Interviewed by Meer on 1 April 2006)