Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2025
British Muslims constitute a diverse group but one organization clearly stands out: the Muslim Council of Britain, mainly because of the role conferred upon the Council by the governmental sphere. Ethnic and religious mobilizations have full legitimacy in the British political landscape and Muslims have emerged as a mobilized group.
Once again, a range of primary and secondary sources serve the analysis. Polls, surveys and their reports in the media1 constitute an interesting source of data to try to understand British Muslims as a group of individuals. This data can give us an idea of Muslims’ positions but is insufficient to explore the narratives articulated on issues of foreign policy. As a consequence, the biggest share of this chapter is dedicated to a case study on the MCB's expression and mobilization on international issues. Institutional open-source data is rich and allows for a detailed exploration of archives, similarly to the UOIF's case. One press release of the MCB even explicitly notes that its stance on international issues can be established from its publications and its website2. Content analysis of the documents allows for an in-depth qualitative appreciation of the issues raised, the type of rhetoric and any potential report on or call for mobilization.
The first section gives elements of context, based on polls and surveys, about Muslim communities’ preferences. The second section explores the communication of the MCB and the forms of mobilization adopted while dissecting the issues of interest.
I. Diasporic and Transnational Dimensions of British Muslims’ Foreign Policy Interests
Foreign Policy: A Major Concern of British Muslims
The specificity of British Muslims in comparison with their European counterparts regarding general relations with Westerners and their closeness of views with Muslims in Muslim countries3 has been frequently reported in the press (The Times, June 24, 2006). If Muslim communities’ domestic concerns are similar to other religious groups’, this is not the case for foreign policy4. It is in Great Britain that foreign policy is the most important for Muslim voters5. British Muslims’ voting habits seem to be more determined by foreign issues (Palestine, Iraq and Kashmir being the examples quoted in the article) than by other social and economic issues, a conclusion corroborated by the findings of the Cantle report (The Times, April 1, 2003).
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge-org.demo.remotlog.com is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.