Integration in Multicultural England: Community Relations Between Muslims and Non-Muslims

Positive relations between Muslims and non-Muslims are important for the future, in Britain and beyond. By studying community relations, this book takes an innovative approach that moves beyond mapping ＂British Muslims＂ or ＂British Islam＂. Instead, Jörg Friedrichs discusses the actual ways Muslims and non-Muslims relate, or fail to relate, where it matters most, namely in diverse inner cities. Is Britain a multicultural country, is it moving towards greater integration, or is this a false dichotomy?

Given their unique everyday experience, inner city residents prove to be experts when it comes to community relations. To give them a voice and learn from their experience, the book takes us on a tour of diverse English inner cities. Reassuringly, the grassroots perspective of residents is consistent with a vision of integration in multicultural England. Residents are concerned not so much about hot-button issues like extremism or terrorism. Instead, their minds are set on practical matters: how to coexist peacefully in stressful urban environments, and how to find love and raise families when norms diverge.

Caught between grievance and aspiration, inner city residents from any background express disappointment at Muslim and non-Muslim parents sending their children to different schools. They also discuss whether governance should be community-blind or community-based, and if Britain is ready for a Muslim Prime Minister. In all of this, Muslim and non-Muslim residents acknowledge that we live in a multicultural society. For most, however, it does not follow that we should adopt multiculturalism as an ideology. Instead, most people crave and support a move towards greater integration.

Jörg Friedrichs is Associate Professor of Politics at the Department of International Development and Fellow of St Cross College, University of Oxford and has has also worked on Han-Muslim relations in China. His last book was on Hindu-Muslim Relations: What Europe Might Learn from India (2019).