Official UK integration strategy framed Muslims as a threat to national cohesion

Evidence

Alongside these practical developments of incorporating Muslim interests in certain policy areas, there has been an increased public visibility of Muslims in both the discursive and the everyday life of the nation. Where the Labour governments (1997–2010) were more active, the following coalition government (2010–2015) was slower, and its longawaited strategy on integration was not published until February 2012. In Creating the Conditions for Integration, then-Communities Secretary Eric Pickles defined integration as an antidote to extremism and intolerance (DCLG 2012). In this, there was no shift in the discourse about Muslims as a fifth column established by talk about parallel lives over the preceding decade. Indeed, the long-awaited integration strategy folded Muslims into a general national unease that had been suggested by Sayeeda Warsi a year earlier in her assertion that Islamophobia had ‘passed the dinner-table test’ (Batty 2011). What has come to define integration talk since has been a focus on creeping change and fear as dangers to the cohesiveness (and existence) of the nation. — A. Hussain, N. Meer, Framing Muslim Integration, 451

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s core ‘parallel lives’ and securitization-of-Islam literature; also pairs with the broader argument that definition of hostility is a political act — the state’s own framing treats Muslims as internal enemy. — connects to: UK integration discourse framed Muslims as demographic threats to national existence — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia: Still a Challenge for Us…, 447; UK integration policy redefined Muslim integration as an antidote to extremism — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia: Still a Challenge for Us…, 446; The Muslim threat was framed as infesting Britain’s body and values — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 237 (+6 more)

Related

• UK integration policy redefined Muslim integration as an antidote to extremism (similarity 0.90)
• UK integration discourse framed Muslims as demographic threats to national existence (similarity 0.89)
• British official dossier linked its own foreign policy to Muslim radicalization (similarity 0.87)
• UK integration discourse shifted from organic integration toward a muscular clash-of-values stance (similarity 0.86)
• British integration policy elites recycled assimilationist rhetoric against Muslims decades after it failed (similarity 0.86)
• Integration policy must be decoupled from counter-terrorism aims. (similarity 0.85)
• Radicalization anxieties drive integration discourse despite Muslims being integrated. (similarity 0.84)
• The Muslim threat was framed as infesting Britain’s body and values (similarity 0.84)
• Integration rhetoric predates anti-terror policy and lacks an evidence base (similarity 0.83)
• UK counter-terror funding redirected civic support away from Islamophobia work. (similarity 0.82)
• UK ministers used coercive funding measures against Muslim organizations (similarity 0.81)
• British post-riot reports framed Muslim communities as self-segregating parallel lives (similarity 0.81)
• Integration discourse is deployed as state control over Muslims without evidence (similarity 0.81)
• Islamophobia is one of several challenges British Muslims confront. (similarity 0.81)
• UK state intervention shaped and rivalized Muslim political representation. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• UK integration discourse framed Muslims as demographic threats to national existence #corroborates (0.95) — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia, 447
• The Muslim threat was framed as infesting Britain’s body and values #expands (0.85) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 237
• UK integration discourse shifted from organic integration toward a muscular clash-of-values stance #expands (0.80) — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia, 452
• A worldwide Muslim threat narrative came to frame British perceptions #expands (0.75)
• Integration discourse is deployed as state control over Muslims without evidence #expands (0.75) — A. Hussain, N. Meer, Framing Muslim Integration, 430
• UK integration policy redefined Muslim integration as an antidote to extremism #expands (0.70) — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia, 446
• British colonial ideology consolidated the essentialized idea of Islam as a homogeneous threat #expands (0.70)
• UK ministers used coercive funding measures against Muslim organizations #expands (0.70) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 482