Gordon Brown, Michael Howard, Boris Johnson, David Blunkett and Trevor Phillips are just a few of the names that have dared to tackle the complex and controversial subject of British citizenship. The subject is complex, because Britain was always a convenient political identity to try to preserve an uncomfortable union between dominant England and its vanquished neighbours. It is controversial because its prominence has been brought about because one section of the British population – the Muslim community – has caused concerns. Most concerns have been dominated by allegations of a security threat by an ‘enemy within’, seemingly realised after the 7/7 bombings, but for those who had studied the issues for longer, concerns really emerged when the Muslim community in Europe had such a strong reactions to the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq. The blame was placed firmly on the policy of multiculturalism for institutionalising difference, the lack of a strong and distinct British identity and the failure of Islam to ‘reform’, meaning to secularise. 

The outbreak of rioting in Paris in late October has brought into question some of the key underpinnings of the French Republic in a way that has embarrassed the French elite.The riots also underlined the hollowness of claims that France presents a model of integration that should be emulated across Europe. Interior minister and presidential hopeful Nicholas Sarkozy, himself had to admit that exclusion and discrimination had played their role in the outpouring of rage, stating in an interview that, “I challenge the idea that we all start life on the same line. Some people start further back because they have a handicap - colour, culture or the district they come from.We have to help them.”

Immigration is a matter of serious concern for many people in Europe. In some European nations immigrants get the blame - arguably unfairly - for many of societies ills. Although immigration could help many European countries with their problems of ageing populations and the need to compete with new Asian economies, the fear of foreigners seems to be always be present amongst their publics. In this regard Europe can learn several lessons from the treatment given to immigrants by the Islamic civilisation when it existed

Up until the end of the Cold War it was true to say the nation-state was unchallenged as the primary actor in international affairs. Ever since the boundaries of political activity extended from town level to the borders of the ‘nation’ in the 18th Century the nation-state stood as the dominant body politic. The Cold War itself was testament to this and stood as a high watermark in the sovereignty of the nation-state but we now live in the late-modern, global age and the ‘realist’ view, where the nation is pre-eminent, is being challenged directly by the processes of globalisation.

Some of the discussions of civil society, especially the orientalist ones, tend to focus on the structures of civil society to the detriment of its actual functions. In so doing the existence of civil society in hitherto underestimated forms can be overlooked. The family, for example, has a much more extended and interconnected character in Muslim societies than in the west. Dr Abdullah Robin examines a new Islamic paradigm for citizenship and civil society.