Introduction

In this chapter, we examine a case study of faith activism among young Muslim men in Birmingham, UK, exploring how faith identity frames their public engagement and political activism. The chapter engages with two core concerns raised in this volume: the ways in which faith frames or orientates public action; and how we should conceptualise the public realm as a site of faith activism.

Our case study arises from a two-year qualitative study of black and minority ethnic young people's political engagement, in the course of which we worked with young members of a locally based Muslim ‘justice movement’. This movement organises around a political and social agenda that is concerned with increasing public and political participation among Muslims, as well as achieving goals of ‘social justice’. In relation to the latter, this involves both mobilising around notions of justice for Muslims, and the articulation of Muslim notions of justice more generally. We explore how faith identity and values animate these young men's political activism and the different scales (ranging from the local to the global) at which this is expressed. In particular, we see the articulation of a highly ‘glocalised’ political sensibility, which shapes both their political concerns, and the terrains on which they are active. These expressions of the ‘global in the local’ are apparent in their use of a variety of ‘grammars’ of action, ranging from mobilisation within local neighbourhood and community contexts, to engagement in global debates over the politics of Muslim identity. In exploring these intersections between the local and the global, we reflect on how identification with the umma (the global community of Muslims) forms an important dimension of young Muslims’ renegotiation of their identities in relation to familial and cultural heritage and their localised lived experiences.

We begin by highlighting some of the ways in which young British Muslims have featured in the public domain – particularly in relation to debates on political and civic participation and social and community cohesion, before setting out some observations we consider key to our consideration of political participation and notions of the public.