Institutionalising diasporic Islam: multiculturalism, secularism and the integration of Muslim immigrants in Britain

The integration of Muslim immigrants in Western countries especially Britain has attracted wider attention both from academia, policymakers and public in general. Their different religion (i.e. Islam) has been regarded as the crucial factors in the process contextualised by the socio-political circumstances of the host society and the existence transnational link to the home country encouraging them to reproduce and transplant their ethno-religious tradition in diaspora. The article addresses the interplay between, on the one hand, the strong and weakness of the politics of multiculturalism and the secularisation and desecularisation of British society, and on the other, the institutionalisation of Islam in Britain amidst the persistent internal divisions and fragmentations of minority Muslim immigrant communities. As the result, Muslim immigrants have set up an ethno-religious integration trajectory through their own established socio-religious institutions and associations in parallel with the host country social and political ones. Integrasi imigran Muslim di negara-negara Barat khususnya Inggris telah memeroleh perhatian luas baik dari kalangan akademisi, pembuat kebijakan dan


Introduction
The study of the integration of immigrants with different religious backgrounds in Britain has focused on several ethno-religious groups such as the Sikhs, Hindus and, of concern in this study, Muslims. The integration of Muslim immigrants has attracted the interest of policymakers and researchers as they comprise the largest minority (immigrant) ethno-religious group in the country and because of the recently escalated global tension between the West and Islam. To note, though the presence of Muslim immigrants in Britain dates back to the seventeenth century, 1 their number has begun to reach a 'critical mass' since the Second World War with the arrival of economic immigrants, refugees and asylum-seekers from ex-British colonies in the Indian subcontinent, East Africa and the Middle East. 2 According to the 2011 1 N. I. Matar, Islam in Britain 1558-1685, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998 H. Ansari, The Infidel Within: Muslim in Britain since 1800, London, Hurst and Company, 2004; S.Hussain, Muslims on the Map: A National Survey of Social Trends in Britain, London: Tauris Academic Studies, 2008. census, the number of Muslims in Britain has reached more than 2,7 millions or about 4,8% of the whole population. Their relatively higher birth rate and closely grouped under their similarity of Islamic faith despite the internal ethnic-racial differentiations have made them worthy enough for a further study.
The integration trajectory of Muslim immigrants in Britain constrained or enabled, on the one hand, by the politics of multiculturalism and secularisation of British society, and on the other, by their intention to pursue, adapt and reproduce their ethno-religious cultural traditions imported from and transnationally influenced by developments in the home country. I argue that integration is not a one way process in which immigrants adapt to the socio-cultural environment of the host society but that integration also involves the reproduction and adaptation of ethno-religious traditions brought from the home country into the diasporas. As a result, there exist multiple integration paths for immigrants who follow either the mainstream trajectory by incorporating into and adopting the secularised culture of British society or the ethno-religious one by reproducing their ethno-religious traditions and forming minority ethno-religious communities.
Importantly, the integration of Muslim immigrants in Britain has been contextualised, on the one hand, by transnational religious networks spawned in the home countries that bring in various ethno-religious traditions thus diversifying and fragmenting these minority religious communities. 3 Recently, those transnational religious networks have also paved the way for more or less radical Islamist ideas that encourage disintegration and anti-Western sentiments within the Muslim immigrant 3 P. Lewis, Islamic Britain: Religion, Politics andIdentity among British Muslim: Bradford in the 1990s, London: I.B. Taurus, 1994;S.Gilliat-Ray, Muslims in Britain: An Introduction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. communities, especially among the youth. 4 On the other hand, Muslim immigrants' integration has been also influenced by the prevalence of anti-Muslim hate sentiments or Islamophobia from the wider British soci-

British multiculturalism
Multiculturalism has been inextricably linked to the public demands of immigrants (and ethnic or indigenous minorities) for the recognition of racial, cultural and religious differences and to the policy of democratic states to accommodate their peculiarities, grant them minority group rights and exempt them from certain legal or societal rules. 9 The rubric of multiculturalism, though varied in terms of form and contents across different countries, has entailed a number of policies and legislation such as the inclusion of racial, ethnic or religious representation in public bodies and media, the adoption of multiculturalism in school curricula, exemption from dress codes, funding of ethnic or religious communal organisations and permission for the construction of places of worships for their different religion. 10 In Britain, the politics of multiculturalism had begun to take to the fore with the arrival of non-White immigrants from former colonies (e.g. the Caribbean, the Indian subcontinent and East and West Africa) specifically to fill the labour shortage after the war and/or to seek asylum, avoiding prosecutions and conflict in their newly independent home countries. 11 As Joppke (1996) Britons. 12 The colonial legacy of the British Empire -with its lack of effort to assimilate its subjects -was reconstituted in terms of the ways in which the British government treated and approached immigrants especially regarding their racial, ethnic and religious differences.
As stated by the Home Secretary Roy Jenkins in his speech in May 1966, integration of immigrants is defined "not as a flattening process of assimilation but as equal opportunity, accompanied by cultural diversity, in an atmosphere of mutual tolerance".
Official British multiculturalism espouses legislation to recognise racial, ethnic, cultural and religious differences of immigrants and their offspring by granting them special treatment, exemptions, legal protection and by allowing them to make claims in the name of minority group rights. 13 In short, British multiculturalism construes society not only as 'a community of citizens' but also as 'a community of communities'; 14 such civic assimilation with an emphasis on recognising (minor- Nevertheless, British multiculturalism has not been free from criticism and crisis from the outset. As Hesse (2000) points out, the policy is un-theorised, implying gaps between its normative ideas and empirical implementation in diverse social contexts with resultant 'unsettling' of established societal rules in British society (e.g. British national identity). Multiculturalism is accused of replacing the politics of anti-racism and racial discrimination that were traditionally regarded as the main challenges that non-White immigrants faced in terms of socio-economic and political marginalisation upon arrival in Britain. 16 The emphasis on cultures (in plural) -informed by cultural pluralism or relativism and used as a justification for group rights to pursue different cultural traditions even if illiberal ones such as oppressing women 17 -is considered to contradict the liberal philosophy of individual rights. 18 Ultimately, the policy of multiculturalism was accused of limiting socio-economic integration of immigrants, creating social isolation or segregation in society and fostering radicalism, extremism and terrorism especially among Muslim youths. These conditions have ultimately discouraged the social cohesion of British society. 19 This crisis led the British government (and other Western European governments too) to move away from using the term multiculturalism Modood, T. (eds.). The Construction of Minority Identity in France and Britain, Basingstoke, Hampshire and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. 16 F. Anthias & Yuval-Davis, N. Racialized Boundaries: Race, Nation, Gender, Colour and Class and the Anti-racist Struggle, London, Routledge, 1993;Kundnani, A., "The Death of Multiculturalism", Race and Class, 43 (2002): 67-72. 17 F. Anthias, "Beyond Feminism and Multiculturalism: Locating Difference and the Politics of Location", Women 's Studies International Forum, 25, (2002): 275-286.

Secularisation and desecularisation in British society
Britain is currently perceived as a secular country, though its cultures and social institutions have been founded under the auspices of Christianity. 26 It is believed that Christianity shaped the popular cultural understanding of 'Britishness' over several centuries. Informed by the secularisation thesis, however, the rapid phase of industrialisation in the nineteenth century then followed by modernisation and social differentiation have turned British people away from religion in the twentieth century. The declining role of religion, specifically the Christian church in British politics and the public sphere -as its societal and political functions were replaced by state apparatuses -has also impacted on the decreasing religious commitments of the masses (e.g. church membership, churchgoing). 27 In a nutshell, religion has had a relatively lim- East, East Africa, the Indian subcontinent and the Malay Peninsula had been settling around port cities like South Shields, Cardiff and Liverpool. 45 The Muslim population, however, began to grow after the Second World War with the influx of labour immigrants, refugees, asylum-seekers and professionals from diverse Muslim countries. 46  The crucial socio-demographic profile of the Muslim population, particularly the majority with South Asian origins, revolves around general deprivation contingent upon economic disadvantages, lower educational attainment, limited skills and lack of prospects for professional employment. 53 Deprivation among Muslims is linked to the relative lateness of their arrival -especially Bangladeshis -at times when the British economy has been declining and the prevalence of Islamophobia has hindered their job prospects. 54 Another factor includes the strong patriarchal ethno-Islamic tradition of (South Asian) Muslim families (e.g. the family honour of Purdah) that prevents women taking public roles particularly in formal employment and other economic activities (Brown, 2000).  'colour' in the 1950s-1960s, 'race' in the 1960s-1980s, 'ethnicity' in 1990s;to 'religion' (especially Islam) in the present time. 71 Islamophobia denotes a 'closed view' on Islam -similar to the classic orientalist viewpoint -as a monolithic and static religious value system, aggressive towards the West and presenting a real threat to society (Allen, 2010)  The tendency within the British media to portray Islam/Muslims as a threat to Western secular/liberal democracy has also supported this xenophobia in/directly. 72 Allen (2010) argues that the authoritative Runnymede Trust's definition of 'Islamophobia' has influenced discourse by examining anti-Islam/Muslim attitudes through the varied criticisms from different groups in society including from Muslim groups and by failing to differentiate it from other similar forms of discrimination and xenophobia based on race, ethnicity and so on. See C. Allen, Islamophobia. Surrey, Burlington, Ashgate, 2010; Allen, C., "From Race to Religion: the New Face of Discrimination", in abbas, T.  Hunter, (ed.), Islam, Europe's Second Religion: The New Social, Cultural and Political Landscapes, Westport: Prager, 2002;Nielsen, J. S. Muslims in western Europe,Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004' Knippenberg, H. (ed.) grants while at the same time becoming an object of change, modification and innovation. In the context of Muslims, as Asad (1986) argued, ethno-religious traditions defined as 'discursive traditions' have been continuously forged by the dialectical interaction between sacred texts and social contexts. tivities (e.g. Al-Masoom in Manchester, ibid) and/or various civic-political engagements combating gender discrimination within and without Muslim communities (e.g. An-Nisa Society in London). 98 As noted by Ansari,99  The problem, nonetheless, is derived from the prevalence of secularism in British society. The predominance of the secular worldview with its strict division between public and private spheres has shaped the preference of state officials and policy makers in this country to disregard religious issues as an important matter in the public sphere. 104  Allen, C. Islamophobia. Surrey, Burlington, Ashgate, 2010.