Sufis, Salafis and Islamists: The Contested Ground of British Islamic Activism (Library of Modern Religion) - Softcover

Hamid, Sadek

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1788310616 ISBN 13: 9781788310611

Publisher: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, 2017

Synopsis

The terms 'Islamism', 'Salafism' and 'Jihadism' have acquired common currency in recent years, often being interchanged and applied to describe various forms of Muslim religiosity considered undesirable. But what do these terms mean? Why do Muslim religious conservatism and radicalisation appear to be on the rise in the UK? And what long-term impact could this have on British society? In this path-breaking study, Sadek Hamid explores the impact of three globally influential religious paradigms on the faith identity formation of British Muslims. The author traces the unwritten story of the evolution of Sufi, Salafi and Islamist activism in Britain, focusing on the legacies of the Young Muslims UK, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Salafi-oriented trends and the neo-Sufi 'Traditional Islam' network. Hamid explains how they participate in collective faith-based activism, develop solidarities with transnational political struggles and differentiate claims over religious authenticity, scholarly authority and group priorities. He also illustrates how these movements gained and lost support, related to foreign ideologies and developed models of British Muslim identity.
Sufis, Salafis and Islamists offers a compelling account of the complexity that underlies reductionist media narratives of Islamic activism in the UK. It is essential reading for scholars and students of Muslims in Britain, and an important point of reference for research on Islamic communities in other Western societies.

About this title

About the Author

Sadek Hamid is currently a Researcher at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, University of Oxford. He has written widely about British Muslims, young people and religious activism. He is editor of Young British Muslims: Between Rhetoric and Realities (2016) and co-editor of Youth Work and Islam: A Leap of Faith for Young People (2011).

Review

'Deeply researched and dizzying in its detail, this book will likely stand as a seminal work on British Muslims' - Dr Shadi Hamid, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution and author of Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam is Reshaping the World, 'Dr Sadek Hamid has the perfect combination of personal biography and experience, allied to academic rigour and attention to detail that makes this a nuanced, timely, well-informed contribution to debate about Islam in Britain today.' - Sophie Gilliat-Ray, Professor in Religious and Theological Studies at Cardiff University and author of Muslims in Britain: An Introduction, 'Quite simply, breathtaking' - Aftab A. Malik, Global Expert on Muslim Affairs, UN Alliance of Civilizations, 'Sadek Hamid's book is absolutely essential reading ... It rescues Islamism from the rhetoric of terrorism and highlights the essential differences between 'islamicisation' and 'radicalisation.' - Prof. Ron Geaves. Honorary Visiting Professor in the School of History, Archaeology and Religion at Cardiff University author of Islam in Victorian Britain: The Life and Times of Abdullah Quilliam, 'Sadek Hamid has offered up an excellent, panoramic study of a misunderstood community. Deeply researched and dizzying in its detail, this book will likely stand as a seminal work on British Muslims. More than that, however, Hamid has much to say on Islam's role in public life and what it means to be Muslim. The book is also about that most universal of questions: the search for meaning and identity in an increasingly confusing and uncertain political moment.' - Dr Shadi Hamid, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution and author of Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam is Reshaping the World, 'It is a pleasure to commend this book by one of the leading scholars of Islam in Britain. Dr Sadek Hamid has the perfect combination of personal biography and experience, allied to academic rigour and attention to detail that makes this a nuanced, timely, well-informed contribution to debate about Islam in Britain today.' - Prof. Sophie Gilliat-Ray, Professor in Religious and Theological Studies at Cardiff University and author of Muslims in Britain: An Introduction, 'Quite simply, breathtaking. A real tour de force in every sense of the word. Sadek Hamid painstakingly charts and navigates with precision, the landscape of British Islam by identifying the major intellectual trends competing and at times, vying with one another for authority among second-and third-generation Muslim Britons. In so doing, he also introduces the key individuals who have shaped or contributed to the religious currents in what is an engaging tale of religious activism and often inter-group rivalry across Great Britain. This surely will become a primer for understanding the richness, complexities, challenges and fault-lines of Islam in Britain today, and hence, essential reading for policy-makers, students and general readers alike.' - Aftab A. Malik, Global Expert on Muslim Affairs, UN Alliance of Civilizations, 'Sadek Hamid's book is absolutely essential reading for anyone who wishes to further their knowledge of the dynamics of Islamic activism in Britain. It rescues Islamism from the rhetoric of terrorism and highlights the essential differences between 'islamicisation' and 'radicalisation.' - Prof. Ron Geaves. Honorary Visiting Professor in the School of History, Archaeology and Religion at Cardiff University author of Islam in Victorian Britain: The Life and Times of Abdullah Quilliam, 'Dr Hamid has written an invaluable study illuminating and evaluating the changing landscape of Islamic activism in Britain over the last thirty years. He devotes a chapter each to four faces of activism: reformist Islamist, radical pan-Islamist, Salafi and neo-Sufi. Their transnational origins, history, evolution and mutual rivalries are mapped and assessed in a measured, non-sensational and accessible manner. He also explores the extent to which they are positioned to respond appropriately to the experiences and questions of a new, media savvy generation of British Muslims. Indispensable for policy makers, academics, students and the general reader.' - Dr Phil Lewis, author of Young, Muslim and British and Islamic Britain (I.B. Tauris, 2002), 'This well researched study provides an alternative, altogether insightful perspective of socio-religious trends that continue to influence and shape the landscape of Islamic activism in 21st Century Britain. It is unique in that it provides a comprehensive, insider-based account regarding movements that competed to promulgate often similar reforms but from differing standpoints.' - Dr Abdul Haqq Baker, author of Extremists in Our Midst: Confronting Terror and former Chairman of Brixton Mosque, London, 'The author of this perceptive study provides a sharp analysis of what is happening among the religiously active parts of the new generation of Muslims in Britain. He covers the spectrum from those opting out of or pushing back against the British context to those who are critically and constructively engaging with it. One would wish that people in the media and political debates would read this study before pronouncing.' - Jorgen S. Nielsen, Professor in Contemporary European Islam. University of Birmingham, 'Sadek Hamid in his authoritative and enlightening new book pinpoints how currents in Britain's Islamic reform movement found themselves vulnerable to changes by becoming irrelevant to the majority of young, generally working class, Muslims, effectively abandoning them to face deep-root social and economic problems within their communities and intensifying Islamophobic discourses without.' - Hassan Mahamdallie, Deputy Editor of Critical Muslim

Edition details

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1788310616
• ISBN 13: 9781788310611
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 224