Ecologies of Hope, Love and Care Among British Muslims in Turbulent Times

Britain’s Muslim population has come to occupy an increasingly salient role in public discourse. While there is significant research on what might be described as negative aspects of citizenship - derived from patterns of inhabitation such as socio-economic deprivation and institutional discrimination - there has been less focus on dynamics internal to Muslim communities that are also important aspects of this growing population’s identity and citizenship potential. Contemporary events such as the war in Gaza and the imbrication of Muslims in debates on Islamophobia and representation within mainstream politics, are recent examples of their precarity but also potential to affect public discourse on emergent planetary issues. This paper draws on ethnographic research conducted with collectives of people and place that become an affective resource to help communities navigate precarity in the wake of Islamophobia and ensuing disenfranchisement with formal political processes. Through presentation of participatory research conducted with urban Muslims during the height of the so-called war on terror, and associated technologies of governance and control targeting Muslim communities, I describe itineraries of operation and resistance that help people navigate turbulent times.