From Multiculturalism to
Muscular Liberalism?
Muslim Participation in
Contemporary Governance
Therese O’Toole
Daniel Nilsson DeHanas
Tariq Modood
Stephen Jones
Nasar Meer
Faith, Diversity and State Engagement
with Muslims
David Cameron:
1) ‘People often say that politicians shouldn’t “do God”’… [but
we do] King James Bible Speech, 12/2011
2) ‘We are a Christian country. And we should not be afraid to
say so’ King James Bible Speech, 12/2011
3) ‘We have allowed the weakening of our collective
identity. Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we
have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives’
Munich speech, 2/2011
4) ‘We must make it impossible for extremists to succeed…
we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years
and a much more active, muscular liberalism’ Munich
Speech, 2/2011
A radical departure from New Labour?
MPCG Study
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Religion & Society large project: Muslim
Participation in Contemporary Governance
(MPCG), based at Bristol University
Study of state engagement with Muslims from
New Labour to the Coalition, based on:
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National policy analysis, 1997-present
National interviews (40) with key policy actors
3 local case studies in Birmingham, Leicester and
Tower Hamlets
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Local policy analysis
Local interviews (~60)
Participant observations
Faith under New Labour: Failing to ‘Do God’?
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‘People often say that politicians shouldn’t “do
God”… [but we do]’ –Cameron, King James Bible
Speech, 12/2011
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‘We don’t do God’ Alastair Campbell/Tony Blair
‘I have always been more interested in religion than
politics’ Tony Blair, A Journey (2010)
Faith in Third Way governance (Dinham & Lowndes 2008)
Face to Face and Side by Side (2008) set out a blueprint
for state engagement with faith groups
Faith under New Labour: Failing to ‘Do God’?
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Focus on Islam was sometimes contested/confused:
‘Muslim staff in one [govt] department wrote to HR saying
they would like more taps for their prayer room and they
got a letter back from the preventing extremism division
because it was a Muslim issue’ Francis Davis, DCLG Advisor
Often argued that New Labour cast Muslims as
‘conditional citizens’ and ‘suspect communities’ (McGhee
2008; Pantazis & Pemberton 2009),
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Engagement based on a limited repertoire of subject
positions (moderate/good) (Birt 2006; Mamdani 2002)
Faith under New Labour: Failing to ‘Do God’?
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But, there was investment in faith & Muslim civil
society:
– MCB was, for a time, a major interlocutor with govt
– Prevent, despite pitfalls, contributed to maturation of,
Muslim civil society: sometimes an unintended
outcome of local/Muslim agency in disrupting Prevent
from below (Birt 2009), exercising ‘practices of freedom’
(Tully 2002), or ‘claiming’ governance spaces (Cornwall
and Coelho 2006)
Faith under New Labour: Failing to ‘Do God’?
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Other key milestones of Muslim participation in
governance under New Labour:
– A religion question added to 2001 Census
– state funding granted to Muslim, Sikh & Hindu faith schools
– Single Equality Act 2010 provides the most robust legal
protection against religious discrimination in Europe
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In sum: New Labour ‘did God’ – though not always
consistently and with internal divisions
– Differing policy logics across govt depts (Swartz 2003)
– Differing practices across governance (Griggs et al 2012)
– Unintended outcomes to policy decisions (Newman 2005)
Faith under the Coalition: ‘A Christian Country’?
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We are a Christian country. And we should not be
afraid to say so’ Cameron, King James Bible Speech, 12/2011
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Signals a different approach to faith engagement
Labour meticulously balanced representatives from
different faiths (Working Together 2004) for the
appearance of multi-faith consensus
Labour tended to pluralise faith group access to funding
and governance, even if its implicit interest was in
Muslims
Faith under the Coalition: ‘A Christian Country’?
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Coalition’s Near Neighbours programme is a key locallevel Big Society initiative, channelling funding through the
Church of England and CUF
• Single-faith projects ineligible for funding
• Muslim observers divided on Near Neighbours
– ‘It’s a softer approach. Hopefully it will achieve the
results that the Prevent agenda wanted to achieve but
its more palatable.’ Ibrahim Mogra (Leicester)
– ‘Do you think Muslim communities know which parish
they’re part of? .…To me it’s undemocratic.’ AbdulRehman Malik (Tower Hamlets)
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Role of the CofE: core, ‘broker’ or agent for a multi-faith
establishment?
Faith under the Coalition: ‘A Christian Country’?
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So far, Coalition has been clearer than New
Labour in presenting a consistent view on faith,
although emphasising Christian heritage
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Baroness Warsi’s ‘Christian country’ remarks (‘Militant
secularisation’ speech, 2/2012)
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Eric Pickles’ defence of Christian council prayers
Coalition funding to faith groups is channelled through
the Church via Near Neighbours (even if key Church
leaders do not see it as the government does)
Bolder, yes. But fit for today’s Britain?
New Labour on Multiculturalism
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‘We have allowed the weakening of our collective
identity. Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we
have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives’
Cameron, Munich Speech, 2/2011
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Multiculturalism was important to New Labour, but…
there was also a similar emphasis on ‘shared values’ and
collective identity to that of the Coalition
‘Standing up for Britain means fighting for British
values…. [including] fair play, rights and
responsibilities….’ Tony Blair: Britain Speech, 3/2000
Labour undertook a ‘civic re-balancing’ of
multiculturalism (Meer and Modood 2009)
New Labour’s ‘Passive Tolerance’?
• ‘We must make it impossible for extremists to
succeed… we need a lot less of the passive
tolerance of recent years and a much more active,
muscular liberalism’ ’ Cameron, Munich Speech, 2/2011
• There was tolerance & pragmatism in New Labour’s Muslim
engagement in many cases (e.g., Muslim Contact Unit /
relationship with MCB)
• … and a more ‘muscular’ approach in other cases: The
‘rebalancing of our relationship with Muslim organisations
[will focus on those] that are taking a proactive leadership
role in tackling extremism and defending our shared
values.’ Ruth Kelly: Speech, 10/2006
New Labour’s ‘Passive Tolerance’?
• New Labour’s tolerance not ‘passive’; but perhaps
‘ambivalent’ or inconsistent due to internal disagreements
and different policy logics across govt depts
• ‘There was confusion… about the extent to which we
should, in any sense, compromise with some of the forces
which have deep, deep, deep roots and a lack of
appreciation of the nature of our democratic society… I do
think it was an issue where we didn’t have a coherence.’
Charles Clarke, former Home Secretary
• ‘I found in the CLG, after some very rigorous examinations
with officials, that there was no understood model of how
Prevent was meant to work’ John Denham, MP
A Coalition Era of ‘Muscular Liberalism’?
• In practice, Muscular Liberalism seems to signal
four changes:
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Tighter boundaries around ‘British values’
Less faith sector funding
Reliance on ‘nudges’ for integration
Recognition of individuals, not groups
A Coalition Era of ‘Muscular Liberalism’?
Tighter boundaries around British values
• To be partners for the new Prevent Strategy, one
must complete an extensive ‘British values’ form
relating to patriotism, gender, foreign policy, etc
Less faith sector funding
• Much less funding is available to faith sector
groups; Prevent or cohesion/ integration
“How do we actually resist radicalisation without funding,
without projects?” Local Prevent Coordinator, Tower Hamlets
• Organisations must adapt or end their work
A Coalition Era of ‘Muscular Liberalism’?
Reliance on ‘Nudges’ for Integration
• In a period of funding cuts, new integration strategy
relies on Big Lunches, Near Neighbours, and small
initiatives to ‘nudge’ better behaviour
Recognition of individuals, not groups
• Key philosophical shift to individuals
• No formal engagement with the MCB, and no
agreed Muslim representative bodies
• ‘The Conservative model on engagement… is not
organisations but individuals. So it’s a nice way to
meet whoever you want.’ Muslim policy actor
Unintended consequences
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Despite Cameron’s anti-multiculturalism stance,
Big Society may enable it to flourish as faith and
cultural groups take on key state functions
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A boom in faith schools (over ¼ of free schools)
‘unintentional multiculturalism’ (Modood 2012)
No funding means groups are less beholden to state (e.g.
in local implementation of Prevent)
Concluding Thoughts
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Coalition rhetoric masks many continuities
Yet there are key changes: 1) Christian heritage
narrative, 2) less faith sector funding / eligibility
A clean break from multiculturalism? Unlikely.
Decentred governance  contingency,
variation & unintended consequences
New Labour set up a scaffolding on which
Muslim civil society developed; its strength once
this is removed remains to be seen.