Secularism and the Accommodation of Muslims in Western Europe

I shall complete a book on 'Secularism and the Accommodation of Muslims in Western Europe'. Of the various objections to extending accommodation to Muslims I focus on the one that says the state should not be accommodating religions but simply ensuring freedom of belief. In so far as states like Britain already do more (eg. have 'established' churches) they should cease to do so not extend those arrangements to include Muslims. This is the radical secularist objection and I argue that it is based on a misunderstanding of the nature of political secularism in general and of specifically of the kind that exists in W. Europe, where the challenge of Muslim accommodation is most acute. I explore the different arrangements that constitute religion-state relations in key countries of western Europe (to date I have mostly focused on Britain) to identify the underlying norms and values and show that they constitute (a) distinctive form(s) of secularism and are reasonable. I elaborate the new multi-faith challenge to these arrangements, especially in relation to the accommodation of Muslims, including by scrutinising the claims that Muslims are making, and the ways in which governments, churches and publics are responding; and evaluate the normative and practical strengths and weaknesses of such accommodation and consider how they may be improved within a general perspective of civic multiculturalism. I aim to show that secularisms in the West are diverse and that this reasonable diversity is greater than that captured in much theorising. My purpose is to establish that some of the fear and conflict in relation to the claims-making of some Muslims in W. Europe is lessened as we realise that the political accommodation of Muslims in the W. Europe is not inconsistent with the 'really-existing-secularism' and does not require abandoning 'really-existing-secularism' in favour of 'post-secularism' or 'religious states'. More positively, it opens the way for new multiculturalist forms of secularism based on pluralized forms of accommodation rather than the privatisation of religion and the outlawing of state-religion interdependencies. This is then a project in contextualised political philosophy and I shall include a justification of this methodology. I shall use my leading public intellectual engagement profile in Britain in relation to issues of multiculturalism to use the work of this project in civil society and policy relevant arenas.

I have about a quarter of a book in early draft and believe I can get a good draft of most of the rest done in a 12 months period working at 75% of time. I am seeking support from the AHRC for 9 months beginning 1 September, 2009 but will be able to continue for the subsequent three months (June - August, 2010) as it is a period with no teaching and light admin.

I have applied for a fellowship at the Institute of Advanced Studies, Princeton but even if successful funding is not guaranteed and so I am applying to the AHRC, the Leverhulme Research Fellowships and the University of Bristol Fellowships in order to fund the book writing at Princeton or Bristol. I appreciate that I can only hold one of these and that is my goal.

Professor David Miller, the Director of Centre for the Study of Social Justice, a research cluster of political philosophers and theorists at the University of Oxford, has agreed to propose me as a Visiting Fellow for 2010-11. There is no stipend with this post and will only entail a limited number of visits to Oxford, primarily so I can discuss my ideas with a group of political philosophers I am familiar with.

It is difficult to achieve impact even with the best of intentions and plans. One of the best indicators of impact is past record; and one of the best, indeed unsubstitutable bases of public impact is a high public intellectual engagement profile. On both these counts my ability to make public impact with this project/book is considerable.

I am one of - probably amongst the top three - publicly engaged academics in Britain in relation to policy and political controversies on issues to do with racial equality, multiculturalism and the accommodation of Muslims. I have always maintained some critical distance from policy-makers, preferring to work through public debate and Commissions rather than as an adviser in or secondee to Whitehall. In this way I have played a critical role in helping academics and non-academics understand the transformations in minority-majority relations from 'race' to 'multiculturalism' to 'religion' in relation to sociological developments, the emergence of Muslim identity politics, and their normative and policy implications. I have for example done many presentations to seminars organised by racial egalitarians, think-tanks and Ministers on the need to extend legislation to cover religious discrimination and religious hatred and have engaged in media and civil society debates on topics such as the Rushdie Affair, the Danish Cartoons, the Archbishop of Canterbury's speech on incorporating 'sharia' into English law and so on.

I have already presented some of my initial ideas from this book to The Fabian Society, to a conference where the Archbishop of Canterbury was present, to seminars organised by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Policy Research Centre of the Islamic Foundation (who are publishing one of my essays, together with a response by me to prominent policy critics) and debated it on television (France 24 - available on the web). I have had the gratification to see my ideas referred to by non-academics, some of whom are explicitly using them to promote a sympathetic approach to religion in the public square. The Institute of Public Policy Research (ippr), the largest British thinktank, have appointed me to their Advisory Council, so I am input my work into their strategic thinking. I am a regular contributor to The Guardian, to Radio 4 and the website OpenDemocracy and shall use these fora as well as all the invitations I regularly get from various governmental and civil society organisations to present my work and to debate the issues.

I shall also approach some religion-specific NGOs to discuss dissemination. I have a relationship of many years' with the Inter-Faith Network for the UK and am working with Churches' Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME), Brussels on an EU project involving 15 countries on Toleration and Diversity. I have extensive contacts with Muslim organisations and will also draw on those.

Engagement, then, consists of thinking through and publicly engaging on difficult political questions, using the opportunity of controversies and crises to intervene and present my views in an accessible language and above all to raise the level of the debate so that it is better informed and addresses what I think are the key questions.