Making a presence: Images of polity and constituency in British Muslim representative politics

Abstract

In its current shape, British Muslim politics has been described as following a ‘democratic constellation’. The idea challenges conventional understandings of post-immigrant agency, especially assumptions underpinning political representation. Recent contributions to the study of representation draw attention to assertions of ‘presence’ or highlight ‘acts of representation’. Both of these perspectives struggle to capture the self-conscious calibration of representative claims that is characteristic for Muslim representative politics today. Developing an alternative account of representation, the paper draws attention to the making of images of Muslim constituencies in correspondence with an image of the British polity. It considers evidence from three cases: (i) the mobilization of Muslim constituents by the advocacy group Mend; (ii) Sadiq Khan’s campaign for the London Mayoralty; and (iii) educational guidance issued by the Muslim Council of Britain.