Final Copy 2019 01 23 Sealy

This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from Explore Bristol Research, http://research-information.bristol.ac.uk Author: Sealy, Thomas Title: Identity, Difference, Religion Multiculturalism and British Converts to Islam General rights Access to the thesis is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International Public License. A copy of this may be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode This license sets out your rights and the restrictions that apply to your access to the thesis so it is important you read this before proceeding. Take down policy Some pages of this thesis may have been removed for copyright restrictions prior to having it been deposited in Explore Bristol Research. 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Identity, Difference, Religion: Multiculturalism and British Converts to Islam Thomas Sealy University of Bristol School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies September 2018 A dissertation submitted to the University of Bristol in accordance with the requirements for award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law. Word Count: 80 309 Abstract This thesis is concerned with British converts to Islam and multiculturalism. It argues that the conceptual tools for thinking about identity and belonging in the literature in these areas fall short. To address this, it develops discussions of two central problematics: the dynamics between continuity and change, and between religion and culture. Doing so, it makes three interrelated contributions to existing scholarship. The first is to multiculturalism. It is argued that multiculturalism has not taken sufficient account of religious identities with regard to its central concepts of difference and recognition, conceiving these based on ethnic difference, which resultantly fall short of being able to include converts. However, addressing religiosity provides a fruitful perspective to the goals of multiculturalism. Furthermore, this has implications for how belonging and the position of converts to Islam are conceived in British society. This is explored through a discussion based on an analytical framework that draws on Simmel’s stranger and his distinction between religiosity and religion. The second contribution is to the sociological literature on religious identities, notably that of conversion to Islam. It is argued that concepts in this literature unnecessarily mischaracterise these identities but that through Simmel’s notion of religiosity, a theoretical shift can open up space for religious subject positions. It does so alongside developing a theoretically informed methodological approach to studying religious identity based on narrative. The third contribution is to the representations of Muslim converts in the West, based on a problematic understanding of the religious and cultural. It is argued a sociological account enriched through a conversation with theological principles provides a different perspective on conceiving the relation between the religious and the cultural as well as the religious and the secular. This, furthermore, has implications for thinking through Islamophobia and the necessity of a multi-level analysis. Acknowledgements I am first and foremost indebted to my participants, who shared their stories, including their joys and struggles, hopes and frustrations, thoughts and feelings. Not only would this thesis not have happened or been as rich without their interest, willingness and generosity in this regard, these stories have also enriched my own perspectives and modes of thought and feeling. For this I am indebted indeed. I am extremely grateful to my supervisors, Professor Tariq Modood and Dr Therese O’Toole, for their support, encouragement, probing, prodding, and not least patience. Their guidance has undoubtedly meant that what is contained here is far better than it could otherwise have been, and I hope that it is of a standard that reflects their input. I owe a large debt of gratitude (and a grill – I haven’t forgotten!) to Rashid Ansari, without whose help and generosity this would have been a far more difficult project to get going. I am also indebted to those who let me explain my research to groups they run, put me in touch with people, and disseminated my information, and hope I am forgiven for not naming names in the interest of preserving the confidentiality of those who subsequently responded and whose words appear throughout. Special thanks is also due to Yasmin Soysal and Mike Roper. Without their encouragement and enthusiasm for my ideas at their earliest stage, this may never have happened. Finally, my family, whose support has come in a very different guise, but one just as important. It is grounding and reassuring to have the support of those with whom we don’t have discussions about what I read, write and think and how well the arguments and contents of this thesis fit and follow, but rather are just interested in how I’m doing. Author’s Declaration I declare that the work in this dissertation was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the University's Regulations and Code of Practice for Research Degree Programmes and that it has not been submitted for any other academic award. Except where indicated by specific reference in the text, the work is the candidate's own work. Work done in collaboration with, or with the assistance of, others, is indicated as such. Any views expressed in the dissertation are those of the author. SIGNED: ....Thomas Sealy............ DATE:......14th September 2018......... Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... v Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................... 1 British converts to Islam: historical overview ................................................................ 3 The contemporary picture ........................................................................................... 6 Contextualising conversion ........................................................................................ 10 Chapter 2: The Multicultural Challenge ........................................................................ 14 Mapping Multiculturalism .......................................................................................... 14 The Multicultural challenged ..................................................................................... 20 Chapter 3: Accounting for conversion in context ........................................................... 33 Sociological reflections ............................................................................................. 33 Theological reflections .............................................................................................. 39 Simmel: religion and religiosity.................................................................................. 41 Chapter 4: Binds and boundaries of belonging............................................................ 44 The religious and the secular .................................................................................... 44 A conceptual wilderness: stuck in the middle (with who?) .......................................... 48 Emerging from the conceptual wilderness: Simmel’s stranger.................................... 51 Chapter 5: Methodology .............................................................................................. 56 Methodological agnosticism ...................................................................................... 56 Narrative .................................................................................................................. 58 Sampling ................................................................................................................... 70 Reflexivity ................................................................................................................. 72 Chapter 6: Dynamics of religious identity..................................................................... 75 Recontextualising continuity ...................................................................................... 77 Continuity and change: Congruity as reconciling ...................................................... 88 Mixing Motifs ............................................................................................................ 98 Chapter Summary: Reassessing religious identity ..................................................... 99 Chapter 7: Patterns of belonging I: The strangeness of the doubly strange............... 102 On being positioned ..............................................................................................

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