Risk and resilience in British Muslim communities

ABSTRACT

This article presents findings from a survey of British Muslims communities. It employs the research frameworks of risk, hate crime and grounded theory to examine ‘everyday’ experiences of victimization and discrimination and the perceived complicity of the British media in creating adverse social conditions for Muslim communities. The article also examines the rather surprising descriptions of agency, personal strength and coping offered by the research participants when discussing their reactions to experiences of hate crime and prejudice. An examination of these reactions was informed by emerging psychological and sociological literatures concerning the concept of resilience.

KEYWORDS:

• British Muslim communities
• hate crime
• risk grounded theory
• British media
• resilience

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Dr Paul Anderson (University of Cambridge), Ms Mikhaila Fogel (Harvard University), Dr Amanda Holt (Roehampton University), and Mr John Oakes for reviewing earlier versions of this article. The author also offers his sincere thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments. The research project reported in this article was funded and supported by the Centre of Islamic Studies. For this, the author wishes to thank its directors, Professor Yasir Suleiman and (again) Dr Paul Anderson.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.