Islamophobia, anti-racism and the British left: Muslim activists as ‘racialised outsiders’

ABSTRACT

Against a backdrop of racialised nationalism and widespread securitisation of Muslim communities, how are those on the British political left responding to the issue of Islamophobia? This paper draws together empirical accounts from anti-racist activists with a series of theoretical contributions from scholars in the field of ‘race’ and racism studies. I point towards an ambivalence in talking about and challenging Islamophobia amongst non-Muslim activists, and highlight accounts by Muslim activists of marginalisation and Islamophobia on the British left. I argue that these trends are best understood – and critically addressed – by drawing on understandings of racialisation and nationalism. Finally, I consider how we might think about the role of Muslim activists on the left, drawing on the concept of the ‘racialised outsider’ (Virdee [2014. Racism, Class and the Racialized Outsider. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan]) to argue that their experiences and analyses place them in a unique position from which to challenge Islamophobia in the current moment.

KEYWORDS:

• Islamophobia
• anti-racism
• the left
• racialisation
• nationalism
• Britain

Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to Jas Nijjar and Will Shankley for their comments on an earlier draft of this article, and to the journal’s anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback.

Disclosure statement

No conflict of interest to report.

Notes

1 In May 2017, a bomb was detonated following a concert in a large music arena in the centre of Manchester, killing 22 people. The perpetrator of the attack was a Muslim man of Libyan heritage.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by ESRC [Grant Number ES/J500136/1].