Interfaith activity and the governance of religious diversity in the United Kingdom

Abstract

This article analyses the governance of religious diversity in the United Kingdom by focussing upon a number of faith-based organisations undertaking interreligious and multireligious activities in and around the northern English city of Leeds. The piece opens by delineating the ‘UK religion policy window’ which has existed for a number of decades and comprises a range of changing political priorities and programmatic approaches that inform the governance of religious diversity in the United Kingdom. A subsequent section provides a detailed engagement with selected examples of multifaith activities and interfaith organisations in and around the city of Leeds. This grounded reading of exemplar organisations is then developed by a concluding section that reflects upon the mutually constitutive dynamics of contemporary governance mechanisms as they play out through the partnerships embodied by the interfaith sector and framed by the UK religion policy window.