The Political Participation of British Muslims

Abstract

This thesis investigates the political participation of British Muslims. I proposed three questions as follows: Paper 1) To what extent does the political participation of British Muslims vary across time and space (Chapter 2)? Paper 2) To what extent does the religious institution ‘mosque’ impact the political participation of British Muslims (chapter 3)? Paper 3) How the political environment associated with key institutions, such as the two major political parties, impact British Muslim political participation (Chapter 4).

Methods: I explore the political participation of British Muslims across time and space using the British Elections Panel Study (BEPS) between 2014 to 2020, the Euro-Islam dataset and Pippa Norris’s Westminster constituency dataset. I investigate the impact of mosque attendance on electoral and protest participation by using the British Election Study Ethnic Minority Booster sample 2010 (EMBES). I explore the impact of the two major parties of government on participation by British Muslims by drawing on evidence from various sources, including biographical accounts of Muslims and reports in the media.

Findings: British Muslims are very similar to other religious groups in their response to political events. There is no difference between them and other groups in terms of political integration. At aggregate level constituencies with higher proportions of Muslim constituencies have a higher rate of turnout compared to otherwise identical constituencies. Mosques play a significant role in their participation, whether electoral or other forms of participation. These institutions encouraged protest activities such as boycotts, petitions, and demonstrations. This may be because British Muslims receive less attention, especially in tackling Islamophobia and discrimination from the mainstream political parties “Conservative and Labour”. This creates a negative political environment, this may a tendency to protest activities were among British Muslims in 2010.