This book explores the idea of Muslim diaspora in context of Muslim communities in the United Kingdom. It critically looks at the notion of ummah and presents a comprehensive account of South Asian Muslims in London. Employing qualitative research methods and drawing on extensive fieldwork, it delves into the identification and transnational connections of Muslims in Britain. It shows the ways in which religious identity, practices and experiences may instigate diasporas focusing on South Asian Muslims in London — Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslims — who account for 3.6 per cent of the total population. Further, the inter as well as intra group dynamics and studies how Muslims of different ethnic background settled in the same geo-political context engage with the notion of ummah. The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of religion, especially Islam, politics, British studies and South Asian studies.

Drawing upon sociology, history, anthropology, and politics, this book provides an informed understanding of the daily lives of British Muslims.

Following the events of 11th September 2001 in the USA, and more especially, the bombings on the London underground on 7th July 2005 and the incident at Glasgow Airport on 30th June 2007, an increasing amount of public attention has been focused upon Muslims in Britain. Against the backdrop of this debate, this book sets out a series of innovative insights into the everyday lives of Muslims living in contemporary Britain, in an attempt to move beyond prevalent stereotypes concerning what it means to be 'Muslim'. Combining original empirical research with theoretical interventions, this collection offers a range of reflections on how Muslims in Britain negotiate their everyday lives, manage experiences of racism and exclusion, and develop local networks and global connections. The authors explore a broad range of themes including gender relations; educational and economic issues; migration and mobility; religion and politics; racism and Islamophobia; and the construction and contestation of Muslim identities. Threaded through the treatment of these themes is a unifying concern with the ways in which geography matters to how Muslims negotiate their daily experiences as well as their racialised, gendered and religious identities. Above all, attention is focused upon the role of the home and local community, the influence of the economy and the nation, and the power of transnational connections and mobilities in the everyday lives of Muslims in Britain. Includes contributions from: Louise Archer, Yahya Birt, Sophie Bowlby, Claire Dwyer, Richard Gale, Peter Hopkins, Lily Kong, Sally Lloyd-Evans, Sean McLoughlin, Sharmina Mawani, Tariq Modood, Anjoom Mukadam, Caroline Nagel, Deborah Phillips, Bindi Shah, and Lynn Staeheli

There has been an explosion of research into the experiences of British Muslims, but what has been conspicuous by its absence is a proper historical treatment of the phenomenon. This book aims to address this issue.

This sociological analysis looks at the attitudes of young Muslims, and Muslim parents, to religion, education and other related cultural issues.

Immigration has long been associated with the urban landscape, from accounts of inner-city racial tension and discrimination during the 1960s and 1970s and studies of minority communities of the 1980s and 1990s, to the increased focus on cities amongst contemporary scholars of migration and diaspora. Though cities have long provided the geographical frameworks within which a significant share of post-war migration has taken place, Sarah Hackett argues that that there has long existed a rural dimension to Muslim integration in Britain. This book offers the first comprehensive study of Muslim migrant integration in rural Britain across the post-1960s period, examining the previously unexplored relationship between Muslim integration and rurality by using the county of Wiltshire in the South West of England as a case study. Drawing upon a range of archival material and oral histories, it challenges the long-held assumption that local authorities in more rural areas have been inactive, and even disinterested, in devising and implementing migration, integration and diversity policies, and sheds light on smaller and more dispersed Muslim communities that have traditionally been written out of Britain’s immigration history.