Islam and the New Political Landscape: Faith Communities, Political Participation and Social Change

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Back, Les; Keith, Michael; Khan, Azra; Shukra, Kalbir and Solomos, J.. 2009. Islam and the New Political Landscape: Faith Communities, Political Participation and Social Change. Theory, Culture and Society, 26(4), pp. 1-24. ISSN 1460-3616 [Article]

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Official URL: http://tcs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/26/4/1

Abstract or Description

In this paper we consider the forms of democratic participation that revolve around issues of religious faith and Islam. The context of such work is one in which a concern with the levels of participation in the political institutions of Western Europe and North America feature prominently in both journalistic and academic debate. The paper speaks to debates that are concerned with the efficacy of specific forms of participation. In doing so we argue that we need to think carefully about the forms of social action that constitute participation in the democratic process. We also need to think precisely about definitions of the political with which people engage. If we take the political as a domain in which the ethical settlement of society is contestable the sorts of mobilisation around faith communities that this paper describes are clearly a form of political participation. Yet the paper argues that the reasons many become involved in these forms of social organisation in contemporary East London is precisely because they are seen as less complicit with mainstream political institutions of the British state.

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Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276409104965