Religious Identity, Citizenship, and Welfare: The Case of Muslims in Britain
- Published in Sociology and Anthropology
In addressing the situation of Muslim communities in Britain, it is apparent that one of the major frameworks for understanding their situation has been the notion of "Citizenship," for citizenship is a means of identifying critical aspects of the relationship between the individual and the state. Following Bottomore (1992), we may make a useful distinction between "formal" and "substantive" citizenship: the former being simply defined as "membership in a nation state" and the latter as "an array of civil, political, and especially social rights, involving also some kind of participation in the business of government'' (ibid.).