Re-Placing the Term British Muslim: Discourse Difference and the Frontiers of Muslim Agency in Britain

Abstract

The term “British Muslim” has over the last three decades become a familiar part of public discourse, to the extent that it is becoming naturalised as a neutral social descriptor rather than as an active or contested concept. This article examines the genealogy of the term in relation to three overlapping discourses: (i) state-led discourses of racialised citizenship (ii) tacit academic support for forms of civic nationalism and (iii) emergent Muslim agencies and mobilisations through the concept of “British Muslim”. Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida, the article interrogates the tension between determinism and agency contained within conceptions of British Muslimness. It is claimed that while the term “British Muslim” is implicated by public debates concerning racialised citizenship—and a corresponding academic response viz civic nationalism—there is a flourishing of Muslim imaginaries through the re-appropriation of British Muslimness. The article therefore offers new theoretical insights into the language concerning Muslim minorities and makes a series of methodological observations that are relevant for writing and research conducted in this field.