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Patricia Sellick, ‘The Infidel Within’: Muslims in Britain since 1800. By Humayun Ansari (London: C. Hurst, 2004), 452 pp. Price PB £16.95 ISBN 1–850–65685–1, Journal of Islamic Studies, Volume 16, Issue 3, September 2005, Pages 405–407, https://doi.org/10.1093/jis/eti171
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This book is an impressive contribution to scholarship in the field. Humayun Ansari's view is panoramic, revealing the Muslim population to be multifaceted, made up of people of different ethnic backgrounds, settled in different locations, and belonging to both Sunni and non-Sunni traditions. Most significantly, it gives these British citizens of hybrid identities a historical context that predates the global movement of labour from poor countries to rich industrialized societies that has taken place since 1945.
Identity is a core theme of the book. Ansari invites the reader to reflect on the development of colour, class, and racially based identities, and to consider the ways in which Muslim identities overlap with them. He opens his book by asking the question, ‘Is there a British Muslim identity?’ His answer is a bold attempt to describe the Muslim population of Britain in its entirety. Most other researchers have taken a case-study approach, limiting the focus of their research to one geographic location or one ethnic group. This approach is exemplified by Philip Lewis in Britain: Religion, Politics and Identity among British Muslims: Bradford in the 1990s.