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.).