This Thesis Has Been Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for a Postgraduate Degree (E.G
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Muslim Councils in Britain and Russia Challenges of cooperation and representation in contrasting institutional contexts Ekaterina Braginskaia PhD – The University of Edinburgh – 2014 The candidate declares – (a) that the thesis has been composed by the candidate alone, and (b) that the work is the candidate’s own, and (c) that the work has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification. Signed (the candidate) Ekaterina Braginskaia Date i Abstract Over the past two decades, both the British and Russian states have sought to institutionalise relations with their Muslim communities through Muslim councils. However, such attempts at institutionalisation raise challenges for these organisations, which need to balance state demands for incorporation into religious governance and Muslim community expectations for more inclusive representation. Challenges of integration and representation have received considerable coverage in Western and Russian studies. However, little comparative research has focused on the behaviour of Muslim councils and how this is affected by different institutional settings. In particular, theories of social movements and interest groups suggest that strategies for dealing with this tension between integration and representation vary between more corporatist and pluralist state-religion relations. Russia and Britain are taken as exemplars of the two traditions, and thus help us to understand how these tensions manifest themselves and are responded to in the two different contexts. The project provides a comparative analysis of the strategies and discourses used by the Muslim Council of Britain and the Russia Council of Muftis in 1997-2013. It explores the conditions under which the councils engage with or disengage from the state. It also examines how the two organisations respond to criticisms from Muslim communities and undertake internal reforms to improve their legitimacy. A detailed analysis of the councils’ engagement with state authorities and Muslim communities is used to unpack the challenges of Muslim collective representation. The thesis contributes to research by providing new empirical data and theoretical insights on Muslim national organisations. It offers an innovative analytical framework by revisiting the concepts of pluralism and corporatism and applying them to the institutional context of state-religion relations in Britain and Russia. It draws on social movement theories and institutionalist approaches to understand how Muslim organisations deal with the dual pressure of co-optation and representation. It examines how Muslim councils behave like interest group organisations and offers theoretical insights that can be extrapolated to other kinds of institutions. Finally, the thesis integrates Western and Russian scholarship on the role of interest groups in general and religious institutions in particular. ii Contents List of Figures ........................................................................................................... vii List of Abbreviations and Acronyms .................................................................... viii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... ix Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1 The Empirical puzzle of Muslim collective representation ......................................... 1 Why study Muslim councils? ........................................................................................ 2 Why study Muslim councils in Britain and Russia? ..................................................... 4 A tale of two councils .................................................................................................. 6 The Muslim Council of Britain ..................................................................................... 6 The Russia Council of Muftis ..................................................................................... 11 Research questions and the structure of the thesis ..................................................... 20 Thesis contributions ................................................................................................... 24 Empirical contribution ............................................................................................... 25 Contribution to comparative research ....................................................................... 29 A more nuanced theoretical framework ..................................................................... 33 Chapter outline ........................................................................................................... 34 Chapter 1 .................................................................................................................. 38 Institutionalist framework of interest mediation .................................................. 38 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 38 Muslim councils: between mobilisation and institutionalisation ............................... 40 Political opportunity structures and contentious politics ........................................... 45 Political opportunities and constraints of state-religion relations .............................. 49 Formal institutional structures .................................................................................. 50 National cleavages ..................................................................................................... 52 Informal institutional structures ................................................................................ 54 Alliance structures ..................................................................................................... 56 Integrating approaches: discursive framing and structural opportunities .................. 58 Historical institutionalism and gradual change .......................................................... 62 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 67 iii Chapter 2 .................................................................................................................. 69 Research design and methodology .......................................................................... 69 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 69 Case studies, comparative framework and qualitative approach ............................... 69 Data collection: interviews, documents and observation ........................................... 77 Elite interviews and selection of participants ............................................................ 78 Documentary analysis and non-participant observation ........................................... 84 Data analysis: themes, discourses and process tracing .............................................. 87 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 89 Chapter 3 .................................................................................................................. 91 The MCB’s relations with the British State ........................................................... 91 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 91 Britain’s pluralist context: past legacies and recent shifts ......................................... 93 The MCB’s engagement with New Labour: mainstreaming faith ............................. 99 The corporatist spirit of civic religion ....................................................................... 99 A case for cooperation ............................................................................................. 103 The 2001 Census: creating a new faith constituency ............................................... 106 Labour’s disengagement from the MCB: securitising Muslim faith ....................... 109 A case for contention ................................................................................................ 111 Mobilising rhetoric and opportunities for new alliances ......................................... 116 The MCB and the Coalition: pluralising faith ......................................................... 120 The MCB’s efforts to re-engage with civil society ................................................... 122 Fighting Islamophobia