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PALGRAVE POLITICS OF
IDENTITY AND CITIZENSHIP
Religiosity and
Recognition
Multiculturalism and
British Converts to Islam
Thomas Sealy
Palgrave Politics of Identity and Citizenship Series
Series Editors
Varun Uberoi, Brunel University London, London, UK
Nasar Meer, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
Tariq Modood, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
The politics of identity and citizenship has assumed increasing impor-
tance as our polities have become significantly more culturally, ethnically
and religiously diverse. Different types of scholars, including philoso-
phers, sociologists, political scientists and historians make contributions
to this field and this series showcases a variety of innovative contribu-
tions to it. Focusing on a range of different countries, and utilizing the
insights of different disciplines, the series helps to illuminate an increas-
ingly controversial area of research and titles in it will be of interest to
a number of audiences including scholars, students and other interested
individuals.
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Thomas Sealy
Religiosity
and Recognition
Multiculturalism and British Converts
to Islam
Thomas Sealy
University of Bristol
Bristol, UK
Palgrave Politics of Identity and Citizenship Series

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Acknowledgements
I am first and foremost indebted to the people who shared their stories,
including their joys and struggles, hopes and frustrations. Not only
would this book not have happened or been as rich without their interest,
willingness and generosity, these stories have also enriched my own
perspectives and modes of thought and feeling. For this, I am indebted
indeed.
I am extremely grateful to Professor Tariq Modood and Professor
Therese O’Toole for their support, encouragement, probing, prodding
and not least patience as my Ph.D. supervisors when the research that
forms the basis of this book was done. I am especially grateful to Tariq
Modood, who I have continued to learn a great deal from as a Research
Associate during the time I was developing the arguments for and writing
this book.
I owe a large debt of gratitude to Rashid Ansari, without whose help
and generosity this would have been a far more difficult project to get
going. I am also indebted to those who let me explain my research
to groups they run, put me in touch with people, and disseminated
my information, and hope I am forgiven for not naming names in
v
vi Acknowledgements
the interest of preserving the confidentiality of those who subsequently

responded and whose words appear throughout.
I am grateful to colleagues who provided a friendly, supportive and
enjoyable working environment. Also to those who have in different
capacities and ways and at different times read, discussed, grilled me on,
or simply listened to the ideas and issues explored in these chapters. In
this, I owe special thanks to Magda Mogilnicka, Kieran Flanagan, Jon
Fox, Kim Knott, Katya Braginskaia, Zoe Sanderson and Rosie Nelson.
Special thanks are also due to Yasmin Soysal and Mike Roper. Without
their encouragement and enthusiasm for my ideas at their earliest stage,
this may never have happened.
Finally, my family, whose support has come in a very different guise,
but one just as important. It is grounding and reassuring to have the
support of those with whom I don’t have discussions about what I read,
write and think and how well the arguments and contents of this book
fit and follow, but rather are just interested in how I’m doing. In this vein
Sophie, and in his own way George, deserve a special mention.
Contents
1 Introduction: Multiculturalism and Religion 1

Secular Britain 4
Christian Britain 6
Plural Britain 7
Multiculturalism and Religion 8
Multiculturalism and Secular Sociology 10
Methodology 13
Methodology and Identity 14
The Study 18
Reflexivity 18
References 21
2 Converts in Multicultural Context 27
Converts to Islam in Britain: Historical Overview 28
The Contemporary Picture 31
Born Muslims in Multifaith Britain 36
Born Muslims and Converts in Contemporary Britain 38
References 45
vii
viii Contents
3 Multiculturalism and the Multi-Religious Challenge 49

Multiculturalism’s Challenge: Difference
and Recognition 50
Multiculturalism Challenged 53
‘Everyday’ Multicultural Identities 53
Multiculturalism as a Theological Principle 57
Difference: Substantive and Liberative 58
Hospitality 61
Hospitality in Islam 64
Hospitality and Recognition: Common and Uncommon
Ground 66
References 70
4 Resituating Religiosity 75
Theological Reflections 79
Religiosity and Religion 84
The Heart of the Matter 85
A Fusion Between Horizons of Past and Present 88
Of Eggs and Atheism 90
Religiosity Past and Future: Being and Becoming 94
Ontological Responsibility 96
References 97
5 Religion, Culture and the Stranger 101
The Religion-Culture Divide: Deculturation:
A Problematic 102
Reculturaltion: Assimilation and Exclusion 103
Euro-Islam, European Islam 107
The Stranger 116
The Stranger (Re)considered 117
Simmel’s Stranger 119
References 121
6 Being Made Strange: Dislocated, Functionalised
and Refused 125
On Estrangement 127
A Continuum of Estrangement 130
Contents ix
Estrangement and Islamophobia 132

The ‘Immigrant’ Experience 134
From Stranger Functionalised to Stranger Refused 139
References 144
7 Unusual Multicultural Subjects: On Being British,
on Being Muslim 147
The Religiosity of the Stranger 149
Religiosity and Belonging in Britain 151
Religiosity and Born Muslims 156
Religion: Elastic and Tactical 165
References 167
8 Islamophobia and Religiosity: Religion, ‘Race’
and Ethnicity 169
Islamophobia and Convert Identities 174
Decategorisation in Relation to Non-Muslims 178
Decategorisation in Relation to Muslims 181
Five tests for Islamophobia 187
References 190
9 Hospitable Multiculturalism 195
When is Recognition not Recognition? 198
Whither Multiculturalism? 205
Hospitality and Recognition: Judgement 207
Hospitality and Recognition: Dialogue 209
Secularity and Pluralism 211
Dialogue and the Challenges of Translation 214
References 217
10 Conclusion 221
References 229
Index 231
1
Introduction: Multiculturalism and Religion
A few years ago I was at a workshop to mark the launch of a secularism-

religion study group. Senior academic staff gave presentations and we
were all encouraged to think about where we saw overlaps and comple-
mentarity between our thinking and that of other participants. Only one
presentation took an explicitly religious or theological angle, an expo-
sition of Rowan Williams’s article ‘Beyond Liberalism’ (2001). In this
article, Williams sets out a critique of both the politics of liberalism and
the politics of identity for being politics that disconnect people from
one another through a too heavy emphasis on individualism, in the case
of the former, and on groupism, in the case of the latter. Moreover,
he suggests that emerging from the impasse created by the two butting
heads, ‘the theological question begins to come into focus’ as a way of
conceiving of common life (Williams, 2001: 70). For multiculturalists
and secularists alike in the room, including those who do not overly
subscribe to either position in a strong sense, the presentation was greeted
not with any hostility but with the mild indifference of ‘so what?’ ‘Why
is it necessary to speak in such terms?’; something, in other words, had
been lost in translation.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

Switzerland AG 2021
T. Sealy, Religiosity and Recognition, Palgrave Politics of Identity and Citizenship Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75127-2_1
2 T. Sealy
In a way, this book is a response to this moment. Despite its fleet-

ingness, it has remained with me and has led to the ‘conversation’ that
this book seeks to engage, namely a creative encounter between multi-
culturalism and political theology. This is the theoretical substance of
the book. One reason this instance stuck with me was that it resonated
with empirical work I had recently finished and was analysing. I had
been interviewing converts to Islam and increasingly discovering that the
literature I was reading was inadequate to the task of understanding the
stories I was hearing because of a lack of ‘musicality’ when it came to reli-
gion. A particular issue in this sense was that religion was often collapsed
into culture or ethnicity such that it lost any distinctness, and vitality, of
its own.
The central theme of this book is thus multiculturalism and religious
identities, and a key issue is a tension between the cultural and the reli-
gious. Looking in-depth at the case of converts to Islam shines an acute
light on these issues. Empirically this stems from a discursive divide
between culture and religion in their narratives as they grapple with
issues around identity and belonging in relation to ‘majority society’,
their family and friends, and born Muslim communities, although such
a discursive religion-culture divide is by no means exclusive to converts.
Conceptually it stems from relating this to multiculturalism’s core iden-
tity conceptualisation of ethno-religious, from which multiculturalism’s
other key terms of difference and recognition hinge. The question that
arises out of the engagement of these conceptual and empirical positions
becomes ‘what is missing?’ Arising from the narratives I was listening
to, and present also in the instance I opened this introduction with, the
answer, it turned out, was in fact religion and religious faith.
To address the question of what is missing, and how and why this
is significant, the discussion in the book is principally oriented towards
multiculturalism and the multiculturalist thinking of what has been
called the ‘Bristol School’ of multiculturalism (Levey, 2019), which has
become the dominant theoretical form of multiculturalism in Britain.
Multiculturalism in Britain, in this theoretical variant, has been centrally
concerned with Muslims in Britain for some three decades, yet consid-
eration of the identities and belonging of converts provokes questions
which do not so obviously square with some of its core concepts. One
of the reasons for this relates to religion, or more specifically what will
be referred to throughout this book as religiosity (Chapter 4). One of
the central lines of argument pursued in this book is that multicultur-
alism, despite much talk of religion and a religion-friendly orientation,
neglects the religious qua religious and this has important implications
for its theorising and conceptual tools. The book, therefore, is principally
concerned with analytically foregrounding religion, or more precisely
religiosity (as a mode of being) in order to address the issues that begin
to arise.
To think religiosity ‘into’ multiculturalism is an important endeavour
but one that requires serious theoretical engagement—it can’t be added
as simply as ‘and that too’. This may sound a strange argument, multi-
culturalism in Britain has, after all, been centrally concerned with
religious and ethnic minorities, most obviously and expansively Islam
and Muslims. Yet here, as will be outlined in Chapter 3, religion has
served as a proxy for ethnicity and is conflated with it in such a way as
to render it analytically subordinate (see also Mitchell, 2006). This book
poses the question of what happens if we, not reverse this, for good soci-
ological reasons this would be the wrong way to go about things, but
rather foreground religiosity in line with multiculturalism’s own terms of
reference.
This is not to say that the book rejects many of multiculturalism’s
positions as a result; it does not. It is to say that by foregrounding the
religious, things look importantly different and that, on its own terms,
multiculturalism requires opening up in this regard. This is where polit-
ical theology comes into the picture. It is, in this sense, an exercise in
shifting a multiculturalists’ indifference to the religious towards a form
of multicultural listening, to appropriate the basis of Luke Bretherton’s
political theology, and who forms the main interlocutor in this regard
for the book.
This book then is about reading the religious into multiculturalism
and draws on the case of converts to Islam in Britain in order to begin
this task. This is particularly salient as it appears that numbers of people
converting to Islam in a political and social climate that appears uncon-
ducive to such a phenomenon are rising. The increasing presence of
Muslims and Islam, whether actual (that is, in demographic terms),
4 T. Sealy
cultural (in terms of significance in the social and cultural life of Britain),
or imagined (often with undertones of fear) makes such a phenomenon
something of a puzzle.
At this stage, it will be an important first step to flesh out some contex-
tual details in order to situate a number of the currents that will move in
and out of the chapters that follow and that will lap against each other.
The following sections of this introduction present ‘Britain three ways’
and elaborate on three dimensions of the religious landscape of Britain:
Britain as secular, as Christian, and as plural (Weller, 2009). In so doing,
overlaps between the three will be highlighted, sociological implications
raised and the picture of multiculturalism central to the book begin to
emerge.
Secular Britain
In what ways is Britain secular, and with what implications for the
concerns of this book? We can begin an answer to this question along
the lines of seeing secularity in two ways: namely, as the decline of reli-
gious beliefs and practice in modern societies and as the privatisation of
religion (see, for example, Casanova, 1994; Taylor, 2009, who produce
distinct but overlapping schemas).
The first dimension, the decline of religious beliefs and practices, is a
complex and contested area in which the definition of religion, religious
and beliefs (amongst others) are contested, but it is fair to say that on a
variety of significant measures religious belief and belonging appear to be
declining; a British Social Attitudes survey found that as of 2018 52%
of people in Britain said they did not belong to a religion and reflected
increasingly secularist attitudes (BSA 36, 2019; see also census figures;
Brierley, 2017; Bruce, 2013; Davie, 2015; CofE, 2018; for a couple of
important examples of the contested concepts, see Heelas & Woodhead,
2005; Lee, 2014; Voas & Bruce, 2007). Religious belief and belonging
are then becoming an increasingly minority position in general.
Under the privatisation of religion, we can notice two related aspects
(Casanova treats these as distinct dimensions). The first is that reli-
gious belief and practice is seen as something subjective and personal.
It is privatised and individualised and increasingly reflects what Charles

Taylor has referred to as a post-Durkheimian dispensation, where the
idea of adhering to a religious path that does not move or inspire you is
seen as increasingly wrong and even absurd (2007a: 489).
The second points to how religion is increasingly confined to the
private sphere, to the individual, the home, or a religious place of
worship. It is, as a result, largely contained in these private spaces and
more absent in the public sphere. That is to say, secular authorities
and institutions—political, cultural, educational, economic and so on—
provide the norms and principles in which we act and interact. This
social and political ‘order’ has a profound effect on a further sense
of secularity that Charles Taylor refers to as ‘the conditions of belief ’
(Taylor, 2007a: 3), or elsewhere as our ‘social imaginary’ (Taylor, 2007b).
Taylor suggests that we live in a ‘secular age’, distinct from previous eras
in being characterised by a situation where belief in God, rather than
being ‘unchallenged and indeed, unproblematic’ is now but ‘one option
among others, and frequently not the easiest to embrace’ (ibid.). Along
these lines we might turn again to the British Social Attitudes survey
(BSA 36, 2019), which found that attitudes towards public religion are
largely and increasingly negative; for example, over a third of people
(35%) say they think religious organisations have too much power and
almost two-thirds (63%) say they agree that religion brings more conflict
than peace. Social hostilities involving religion have also been increasing
in recent years.1 Not only then is so-called non-belief, and certainly non-
belonging, increasing but attitudes to religion, at least in a public sense,
are largely negative.
A further point as a result of these combined privatisation processes
of individualisation and differentiation that is relevant for the argu-
ments of this book is that religion becomes depoliticised; that is, religion
becomes increasingly shorn of its political content and public polit-
ical role. When it comes to political secularism, two types are often
distinguished. One is a less generous secularism that represents a partic-
ular political and ideological programme where the public sphere and
1 http://www.globalreligiousfutures.org/countries/united-kingdom/religious_restrictions#/?region_
name=Europe&restrictions_year=2016.
6 T. Sealy
even public space more generally are denuded of religion. The other is
a more generous secularism, where religion and state are separate but
where connections between the state and religious organisations are not
precluded. This basic difference in modes of secularism have been vari-
ously conceived and rendered but we can find these kinds of ideas in,
for example, Williams’ (2006) programmatic secularism and procedural
secularism or Modood’s (2010) distinction between radical secularism,
of which France provides an example, and moderate secularism, of which
Britain provides an example. While Britain’s model of secularism is very
much of the moderate kind, in the responses to the BSA survey above
there are hints of the other kind in general attitudes towards religion and
publicly religious people. Grace Davie has commented of Britain that in
a largely secularised society: ‘Taking faith seriously is becoming, increas-
ingly, the exception rather than the norm’ (2015: 63). There is, thus, a
way in which religious identities and religiosity in a public sense is an
increasingly difficult position to be understood or gain a hearing.
Christian Britain
If these ways in which Britain is secular paint a dim picture for Chris-
tianity in Britain, and especially for the large churches, in what ways
is Britain still Christian? Our lives are in many ways patterned by
Christianity: the calendar, holidays and so on. The Church still plays
a significant role, even if increasingly symbolic and ‘vicarious’ (Davie,
2015). It has also been argued, more profoundly, that Christianity, even
if shorn of religious language and meaning, also provides our moral and
ethical frameworks. It has been suggested, for instance, that secularism
is but ‘the latest expression of the Christian religion… [it is] Christian
ethics shorn of its doctrine’ (Smith, 2008: 2) and remains so even if
the churches are emptying and connections largely forgotten (Holland,
2019). In this reading, even as Christianity has declined, culture, morals
and values are suffused with a Christian outlook. This dimension of
Britain will become important in Chapters 5 to 8, which will explore an
argument that converts ‘protestantise’ Islam, and, in so doing, necessarily
exclude born Muslims, something which points as much to Britain’s

colonial past and current racialised society as to its Christian heritage.
Plural Britain
As much as Britain might or might not be Christian, it is also plural,
multicultural and multireligious. Of course, Britain has always been reli-
giously plural, although historically this has generally referred to plurality
within Christianity as well as Jews. The rise of so-called ‘nones’, ‘fresh
expressions’ and alternative, ‘unchurched’ spiritualities are contemporary
features of this plurality, yet it is perhaps partly because of Christianity
becoming to a certain extent ‘invisible’ in the ways just mentioned that it
is the plurality of non-Christian faiths that have in recent decades forced
debates about religion back onto the agenda, of politicians and scholars
alike. Owing to Britain’s former empire, there has been a long history of
people of different faiths coming to Britain and more settled communi-
ties can be traced back to late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Yet, prior to the Second World War and post-war migration patterns,
these religious minorities were largely absent from public awareness. This
was to change from the 1950s, since when Britain has seen a growth in
extra-Christian religious diversity, notably Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs,
with the Muslim population being the largest of these (5%+ of the total
UK population). As well as openings and the ease of contact with and
learning from born Muslims, Britain as multireligious provides its own
contextual challenges for converts (Chapters 2 and 5).
Although Hindus, Sikhs, Jews and Christians have all been the subject
of notable legal cases and debates about public religion, the accommo-
dation of Muslims has come to be the dominant issue in relation to
multiculturalism. The key event here was the Rushdie affair of 1989.2
It has in fact been remarked that multiculturalism in Britain ‘properly
2 We might also note that coming the same year as the initial l ’affaire du foulard in France,
and of course the issue of the inclusion of Muslims and Islam has become a wider European
concern.
8 T. Sealy
t[ook] off with the Rushdie affair’ (Modood, 2016: 483), and, more-
over, that this also marked ‘the beginning of the end of [the] illusion of
religion’s insignificance’ (Knott, 2012). Groups and controversies previ-
ously defined in terms of ‘race’ or foreignness came to be redefined as
well as self-define in terms of religion. Whereas Britain’s Muslim popu-
lation had initially been seen through the lens of ‘race’ in the 1950s and
1960s, this increasingly moved to ‘ethnicity’ in the 1980s and 1990s,
and since the turn of the twenty-first century a further discursive and
policy shift has gradually come to increasingly define them through
‘religion’ (Grillo, 2010). Multiculturalism then is bound up with the
relationship between religion and politics. Furthermore, since the first
few years of the twenty-first century, and in particular beginning with
the 9/11 New York and 7/7 London terrorist attacks, religion seen
as a problem has become highly politicised and emerged through the
securitisation of Islam as a result of concerns over violent (and more
recently non-violent) extremism. Thus, the politicisation of religion is
directly related to its perceived predilection for intolerance and violence,
in this case something that is levied at Islam in particular. Historical
processes are complex, but this is one related aspect of how we can see
the professed need for depoliticised religion as a supposed lesson from
history (although see Cavanaugh, 2009; Martin, 2006 [1997]).
Against this background of Britain three ways, the convert emerges as
a controversial public and political figure, his or her conversion is often
portrayed as a kind of cultural or political betrayal (for media representa-
tions see Sealy, 2017; Spoliar & van den Brandt, 2020). This can further
be seen in issues converts face in acceptance from Muslim communities,
where their motivations and identities may also be questioned.
Multiculturalism and Religion

If the above sketched something of the broader picture with regard to
attitudes to religion and politics, for the more theoretical concerns of
this book, we can point to how religion is depoliticised conceptually
by multiculturalism. On this, we can draw attention to its basis in a
socio-political conception of identity, captured in multiculturalism’s core
identity concept of ethno-religious. This will be outlined in more detail

in Chapter 3, and echo through subsequent chapters, but here we can
briefly note that religion in this formulation elides the religious, which
becomes something of a proxy for ethnicity. The purpose of this book is
not to challenge this as such but rather to point to its effects for religious
qua religious identities. This is something that converts to Islam provide a
particularly stark example of, and can thus shine an acute light on multi-
culturalism’s limitations and blind spots in this regard when it comes to
public religion and religious minorities. It is this lack of capacity that this
book seeks to address.
A further aspect of religion’s depoliticisation relates to another of
multiculturalism’s core concepts, that of recognition. Again, this will be
discussed in further detail in the chapters of the book (beginning in
Chapter 3), but we can note here something of this which also expands
our contextual sketch begun above. In policy terms, the way in which
religion is ‘recognised’ is through partnerships with the state on various
aspects of welfare and service provision. Since the 1980s, faith-based
organisations have played an increasing role as part of the growing
plurality and competition among service providers in the ‘third sector’.
This gained prominence in the 2000s under New Labour and then
the so-called ‘Big Society’ under the Coalition government. Yet, despite
these state-religion connections, questions remain about what is being
recognised. Conditions and choices that revolve around such partner-
ships can dilute anything specifically religious and constrain more critical
engagement on religious grounds from the faith group ‘partners’ (a point
expanded in Chapter 9). This is not, however, to argue for a ‘religionisa-
tion of politics’ (Ivanescu, 2010), as some staunch secularists might fear,
but rather to allow for the ‘fullness’ (Taylor, 2007a) of people in polit-
ical life. This book is concerned with how multiculturalism, despite its
religion-friendliness, fails to account for this kind of depoliticisation and
how it too limits this ‘fullness’. This book, therefore, takes up multicul-
turalism’s own secularist lens and concepts in order to ask questions of
it: what does it miss? With what effects for understanding identity and
social relations? In response to these questions it introduces the notion of
10 T. Sealy
hospitality from political theology as a way of interrogating multicultur-

alism’s concepts of ethno-religious, difference and recognition (initially
in Chapter 3).
Multiculturalism and Secular Sociology

In many ways this secular lens is perhaps unsurprising and reflects some-
thing resonant more widely in the literature around multiculturalism and
religious minorities, along also with that of religious conversion, and
something that permeates through sociology (even it might be noted the
sociology of religion): sociology is a thoroughly secular discipline.
Religion and religious issues are usually framed as ‘a problem’ in
academic as well as political frames (Davie, 2015: 228) and theology is
likewise most often ‘mentioned in a pejorative sense’ and set in an oppo-
sitional binary to everyday or lived religion (Helmer, 2012: 230), or more
commonly is simply ignored by social and political theorists (Billingham
& Chaplin, 2020). Linda Woodhead makes the point that ‘the origins
of secularisation theory are coterminous with sociology itself ’3 and in
the introduction to an edited collection exploring what sociology might
have to say about spirituality in the twenty-first century, one of the
editors noted that while ‘spirituality signifies an indispensable dimen-
sion of what it is to be human …[,] sociology tends to hunt for religion
as a dead entity not as a living enterprise’ (Flanagan,4 2007: 1). More-
over, where religion is approached as living, it is as a more purely social
phenomenon, where religious identity is seen in material and performa-
tive terms, as practice, and where faith or belief are generally eschewed
unless they align neatly with practice, an approach common among
‘everyday’ approaches (Day, 2011; McGuire, 2008). The theologian John
Milbank (2006 [1990]), in a wide-ranging work engaging theology and
3 See: https://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/podcast/podcast-linda-woodhead-on-the-secularis
ation-thesis/.
4 Flanagan is a rare example of a sociologist bridging with theology throughout his work.
social theory, has in fact excoriated sociology for its theories about reli-
gion, accusing it, not without some justification, of ‘policing the sublime’
and rightly pointing to sociology’s own ideologies. It is perhaps indica-
tive that while making a splash in theological circles, Milbank’s work has
been all but ignored in social and political theory.
Yet, there are enough clues of something else that warrants atten-
tion, and many speak specifically to the themes of this book. Muslims
have long been making claims on the basis of a religious identity, not
wishing and not able to be circumscribed within the confines of ‘race’ or
even ethnicity, and Muslims themselves have thus been at the forefront
of this shift as part of a struggle for recognition (Modood, 2007). For
Muslims, their religion became increasingly important as they settled in
Britain and either brought their families over to join them or started to
begin new families, and so Muslim communities began to institute Islam
through organisations and mosques and to provide for religious worship
and education, and later politics (Nielsen, 2009). In the 1990s two-thirds
of claims made by migrants in Britain were based on a religious collective
identity, and the vast majority of these came from Muslims5 (Koopmans
et al., 2005: 153).
For Muslims, earlier conceptualisations of racism and consequently
anti-racism were unable to capture forms of discrimination they faced
based on their being an ethno-religious minority. Both of these aspects
are captured in how in 2001 a religion question was included in the
England and Wales census largely as a result of lobbying on the part
of British Muslim organisations, ‘concerned that their religious identity
should be regarded as a defining characteristic of their self-understanding
and a meaningful category of difference affecting their socio-economic
situation’ (Gilliat-Ray, 2012: 113; Sherif, 2011). Also, in 2003 legisla-
tion was enacted protecting against religious discrimination, in no small
part owing to work by the Muslim Council of Britain. While the nega-
tive side turns around the issue of Islamophobia, an issue that will be
discussed in detail in Chapter 8, the positive side turns on the salience
of religious identity. It would be wrong then to assume that the shift
5 Figureswere also high in two other countries analysed, 60% in the Netherlands and over half
in France
12 T. Sealy
towards a definitional basis of religion was simply the instrument of a

top-down discourse.
While this book addresses this negative side of religious identity
(Chapters 6 and 8), perceptions and discrimination against an ‘other’
on cultural and specifically religious grounds, it is primarily concerned
with establishing a positive basis for thinking about religious identity
qua religious (Chapters 4 and 7)—the engagement with multicultur-
alism that orients the concerns of the book rests on just this point. A
fundamental secularist orientation to understanding social phenomena
and people as social, cultural and political creatures stands in contrast to
what I was hearing when listening to the narratives of converts to Islam in
Britain. This discrepancy in orientations is further captured by Bender’s
realisation that when she was investigating ‘daily religious experiences’,
she found that the people she was speaking to were in fact emphasising
‘religious experience’ (2007: 203, emphases in original).
Studies on young Muslims have frequently found that for many their
religious identity is more important than their ethno-cultural identity
as a Muslim (DeHanas, 2016; Jacobson, 1997). A similar elevation of
religious identity is also found in the narratives of converts to Islam,
where a common feature of converts’ narratives is that of a distinction
and division between culture and religion. One of the important features
of the dynamic of this religion-culture divide is the centralising of the
religious in these narratives, and this will form the pivot of the argu-
ments presented in relation to multiculturalism. Chapter 4 takes up the
religious identity of converts and its elevation, or we might say under-
pinning, in relation to other identity aspects. The religion-culture divide
then forms the main current that runs through Chapters 5 to 8.
This discursive phenomenon hints at parallels between young
Muslims’ and converts’ struggles to reconcile their identities as both
Muslim and British. So, in a sense, some of the discussion relates to
these common findings and debates around them. Yet, in a more specific
sense, there are important sociological differences between converts and
born Muslims that require these cases to be treated separately. Some of
the reasons for this will be the subject of Chapter 2, which sketches
the history of converts to Islam in Britain. It draws some parallels but
also notes important differences between the contemporary context and

the context in the Victorian period in the nineteenth century and up
to the First World War, when there several notable figures who still
resonate today. Thus, while some connections can be made between the
religion-culture divide negotiated by born Muslims and converts, there
are important differences too, and for this book, converts are taken as
a concrete empirical case through which to explore some of the issues
that this gives rise to and is a core feature of the discussions around
religion/‘race’/ethnicity and processes of racialisation.
For converts, the dynamic between religion and culture or ethnicity
presents one of the key sites of struggle and negotiation as they find their
way, both within themselves as well as in the social world they inhabit. It
is this dynamic process that the book is foremost concerned with. Rather
than trying to actually distinguish between the two terms ‘religion’ and
‘culture’ and what is one or the other, the focus of the book is looking at
how and why this is done in the narratives, under what conditions, and
to what effects.
Methodology
Stemming from the above, much sociological enquiry has been oriented
by methodological atheism (Berger, 1973). As one commentator has
critically noted, methodological atheism has been a ‘virtually taken for
granted presupposition of the sociological study of religion’ (Porpora,
2006: 57). In relation to religious conversion more directly, it has previ-
ously been asserted that the ‘sociologist must leave out the divine half of
the equation’ (Bainbridge, 1992: 78).
To address the methodological issue for the purposes of the study
underpinning this book, an approach characterised by a methodolog-
ical agnosticism is necessary. A methodological agnosticism is one where
the religious is not bracketed off in such a way that it is in effect brack-
eted away, but rather is one which recognises the uncertainty in studying
belief as epistemologically constructive (Bell & Taylor, 2014). Guided
by methodological agnosticism, with ‘the principle of the bracket we
neither affirm nor deny the existence of the gods’ but recognise God as
14 T. Sealy
part of the believers’ phenomenological environment (Smart, 1973: 54;

also Cantrell, 2016). Rather than what Linda Woodhead has described
as ‘baked in’ secularism which necessarily puts the divine off the table,6
from this position the divine can be both explanandum and at the
same time explanans (Woodhead, 2012), which can therefore posit an
alternative analysis.
This approach is based on the position that to not open this epistemo-
logical door risks deeply mischaracterising and therefore misrecognising
those we are studying. In this sense, it bears on a complaint of converts
that they would like to have their conversion read ‘from the inside out
rather than from the outside in’ (Suleiman, 2013: 3). While we must
attend to both, I address this issue by taking a stance through which
‘pushing sociology into theology permits it to ask questions of those for
whom a leap of faith is acceptable for the sense of the ultimate it can
realize, when everything else in culture seems senseless’ (Flanagan, 2008:
258). This is not to argue for a normative replacement but rather for
a legitimate normative alternative. The significance of a methodological
agnosticism lies in its capacity and openness towards religious experience.
Methodology and Identity

The study underpinning this book is based on a series of narrative inter-
views conducted with converts to Islam in the first half of 2017, where
interviewees were invited to relate what we might call ‘conversion stories’
or ‘journeys to Islam’. The choice of narrative interviews can be exempli-
fied through a remark Richard made at the end of the interview about
how he thought I was the right person to be doing this research. Probing
why he said this is revealing. We had had no extended discussion of the
issues under consideration and other than the basic information from
my pre-interview information sheet and our introductions he knew little
about me other than what he had surmised during the course of our
two hours together. What this referred to can then be seen in relation
to a point he had also made earlier in our conversation about his so
6 In
an interview on The Sacred podcast. Available at https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/com
ment/2019/10/24/the-sacred-51-linda-woodhead.
often being a story interrupted. I was not the first person to ask him to
relate his story, but I was the first to let him tell it. As he commented,
most people ask for something they want and then walk away when they
either have it or if it seems they are not going to get it. A similar point
was also made by Saoirse who said it was good to be able to ‘talk about
what’s in [her] heart’. Similarly, towards the end of her interview, Kate
was talking about why she hasn’t yet told some friends about her conver-
sion and had been explaining about the lack of understanding and at
times explicit hostility she faced when she did so. She remarked: ‘I don’t
like telling people that I’ve converted… I just don’t like saying that I’ve
converted, getting into that conversation… And I don’t want people to
interrogate me. I don’t wanna do that. So that’s why I didn’t say it: I
don’t want people to ask me questions’. As much as it might be nice
to believe that these comments suggest something glowing about my
personality for why they did tell me their stories, the answer is rather
more methodological. A narrative interview created a space where they
could tell their stories, on the understanding that they would not be
‘interrogated’ nor constantly dragged into the stories and frames of the
listener (or questioner).
It is the strength of narrative interviews that they create and allow just
this space, a space for telling and listening to stories. Yet, this is not all
narrative interviewing is, as much as a methodology, that is a practical
matter, this approach is also theoretically informed when it comes to
thinking about identity. It will, therefore, be instructive to say something
more about this aspect of narrative interviews here.
The narrative approach used here is not focussed on uncovering or
investigating the formal structure of conversion narratives in order to
identify something that we can call, and thereby use to identify, a ‘conver-
sion narrative’. This book is interested in how through narrative British
converts to Islam develop senses of identity and belonging. On this
approach, narrative’s significance lies in the fact that stories abound in
all aspects of life. As Barbara Hardy (1975: 4) has eloquently remarked:
It is hard to take more than a step without narrating. Before we sleep

each night we tell over to ourselves what we may also have told to others,
the story of the past day. We mingle truths and falsehoods, not always
16 T. Sealy
quite knowing where one blends into the other… We begin the day by
narrating to ourselves and probably to others our expectations, plans,
desires, fantasies and intentions. The action in which the day is passed
coexists with a reverie composed of the narrative revision and rehearsals
of past and future… We meet our colleagues, family, friends, intimates,
acquaintances, strangers, and exchange stories, overtly and covertly… The
stories of our days and the stories in our days are joined in that autobi-
ography we are all engaged in making and remaking, as long as we live,
which we never complete, though we all know how it is going to end.
From this quotation a number of important aspects emerge: the temporal

orientations to the past, present and future; their quasi-historical and
quasi-fictive character (Ricoeur,1990); the role of reflection, memory and
emotion and how these blend to make the stories we tell each other and
ourselves, and by so doing, how we in important ways make ourselves
and our contexts.
It has been widely argued that narrative is a fundamental form of
meaning-making in our lives as we navigate our way between the
personal and the social and cultural. Drawing on Hardy, Ken Plummer
suggests that ‘for many the telling of a tale comes as a major way of
‘discovering who one really is’. It is a voyage to explore the self ’ (1995: 4)
and Mark Freeman argues that ‘owing to the essential openness (the not-
quiteness or not-yetness) of ongoing life, narrative emerges as a vehicle
precisely for putting one’s life – and oneself – in perspective’ (2013: 229).
It is through narrative forms, in their variety, that experiences are organ-
ised. As such, narrative is at the core of self-formation and understanding
human meaning and experience.
Freeman suggests that ‘narrative identity emerges in and through the
interplay of past, present, and future in the form of remembering, acting,
and imagining’ (2013: 223). That is, the meaning of past actions and
experiences is attained, and reattained, through reflection and narrative
from the perspective of the present. As well as the reconstruction of the
past, the future is also reimagined as the ‘developmental teloi’ of who we
strive to become (Freeman, 2013: 231; also Brockheimer, 2000). Funda-
mental for understanding narratives is how what Ricouer (1980) has
called emplotment is constructed in relation to narrative time as opposed
to clock time. Elaborating this point, Mishler argues ‘the act of narra-
tivizing reassigns meaning to events in terms of their consequences, that
is, how the story develops and ends, rather than to their temporal place
in the sequence of events’ (2006: 38) and thus there is an emotional as
well as cognitive logic to the narrative. A personal narrative is then a
form of relating oneself to oneself, or to memories or future imaginings
of oneself. It is through a process of narrative that people ‘impose order
on the flow of experience to make sense of events and actions in their
lives’ (Riessman, 1993: 2; also Plummer, 1995, 2001).
The process of narrative also allows the negotiation between the
personal and the social as part of identity work. A narrative hermeneu-
tics recognises that subjects and their narratives exist in historical time,
embedded in a context of ‘cultural webs of narratives [that] affect the
way in which we experience things in the first place’ (Meretoja, 2017:
9, italics in original; also Bruner, 1990; Day Sclater, 2003; Riessman,
1993). Therefore, central questions revolve around contextualising narra-
tives, asking how these stories are emerging in contemporary Britain,
how they are emerging in public discourse, how are they being inter-
preted and what those interpretations are doing.
As an example of this, a comparative study of converts in Flanders
and Andalusia by Leman et al. (2010) found that Andalusian converts
were able to develop narratives with a common reference to an Islamic
past in a way which Flemish converts were not owing to the different
geographical histories. For British converts to Islam this is highly salient
as the process of conversion itself necessitates a negotiation of appar-
ently competing social and cultural scripts and consequently, personal,
biographical stories can reveal much about the social world they inhabit.
This can also challenge the existing restrictions on narrative space and
understanding of and for their stories and serve to open up space for
emergent subject positions and how subjects relate to, adapt and modify
positions they are put into by others can be revealing about social
relations.
18 T. Sealy
The Study
Participants were recruited through several networks of convert groups
and organisations. Sampling was self-selective with initial contact being
made through gatekeepers who disseminated my information through
their networks, some more formal and systematic, some less so. People
who were interested then contacted me directly via email, phone and
text message. The majority of participants replied directly to emails they
received through these networks. A few came through New Muslim
groups where I attended a meeting to address the group to introduce
my research. All names have been anonymised and changed to match in
origin the name they use now.
In all, the study consisted of narrative interviews with 25 participants,
as well as two further interviews, one with a New Muslim group organ-
iser and one with the head of a national organisation for converts. These
latter two interviewees reflected on the work of the organisation or group
they run, how this has changed over time, and what the main issues
are from their perspective. The book also draws on six similar inter-
views that had been conducted a few years earlier. My sample is broadly
reflective of the demographic background sketched in previous studies
(Brice, 2010; Zebiri, 2008). Just over half the participants were white
British/European, a quarter British Asian, three were Black British and
three mixed race; three quarters were female and a quarter male; just
under half had previously been practising Catholic, Protestant or Hindu,
while the rest were mostly nominally Protestant, Catholic, Hindu, Sikh
or Christian, with two describing themselves formerly as spiritual and
three as atheist. They were aged between 18 and 69 and had been Muslim
between 10 months and 24 years at the time of the interview.
Reflexivity
Interviews are social events ‘influenced by not only the identity of
those who participate in it, but also the social, temporal and historical
context in which it takes place’ (Carter, 2004: 353). The social, temporal
and historical context can be found throughout the chapters, but the
interview event itself bears some comments.
Brice (2008) has argued that converts distrust researchers, especially
those who are not Muslim and Poston (1992) switched to documentary
research following recruitment difficulties for his study in the United
States. This would seem to suggest a difficulty for ‘outsider’, i.e. non-
Muslim, researchers. There were undoubtedly people who chose not to
speak to me. In fact, one of my most loquacious participants later told
me about how she had spoken to other female converts she knows at
a New Muslim circle to ask if anyone else was willing to participate.
They were not, however, giving the reason of not being sure how my
work could potentially be used, not even necessarily by me but by others.
This fear itself reflects aspects of the wider social context in which these
individuals are trying to negotiate themselves as new Muslims. However,
there are people who do want to tell their stories and are happy to do so
to an ‘outsider’. A couple of gatekeepers even expressed to me that they
were pleased that non-Muslim voices were addressing the issues and it
was not therefore something that was happening only from ‘within’ and
contained in a bubble.
This raises the need to consider issues surrounding the ideas of what
has been referred to as insider and outsider research and researchers, with
consideration of this dynamic a central concern when studying religion
(Knott, 2010). It is necessary to recognise as a starting point that, ‘the
whole value of the insider researcher is not that his [sic] data or insights
into the actual social situation are better – but that they are different’
(Delmos Jones, quoted in Twine, 2000: 13, emphasis in original) or as
Anderson puts it ‘no less true’ (quoted in Gunaratnam, 2003: 92).
In her study of British converts to Islam Kate Zebiri (2008) noted
how some themes in the material gathered by her, a non-Muslim, and
her research assistant, a young Muslim woman, were different. In this
study, I have no such counterpoint, but this points to the relation to the
researcher as a presence that in important ways mediates the account;
narrators ‘edit’ and are constantly narratively reflective as a result of both
the human and material and environmental interactions (Holstein &
Gubrium, 2000).
20 T. Sealy
The insider–outsider dynamics at play in the interviews were complex

and intersecting. We can begin by distinguishing between on-paper
insider/outsider-ness, and processual in-action insider/outsider-ness;
or between commonality and connectivity (see Beoku-Betts, 1994;
Edwards,1990; Gunaratnam, 2003). By the first is meant those identity
categories around which much social science work orients such as age,
class, gender, race, ethnicity, religion. In relation to these my position as
a single, white, middle-class, university educated man in his late thirties
with no religious affiliation, although it could be said that I have a nomi-
nally Christian background, placed me in relation to my participants in
various and varying ways. The only one common factor here in relation
to all participants is religious affiliation, as I do not affiliate or identify
with any religious tradition.
This, however, is not quite sufficient or straightforward. Firstly, is the
issue that none of these, or even all of these, categories are of themselves
‘enough’ (Beoku-Betts, 1994; Islam, 2000). This leads into in-action
insider/outsider-ness, by which I mean that identity in relation to partic-
ipants is (co)constructed, develops and shifts in the interviews (Kanuha,
2000; Leigh, 2013; Turgo, 2012). Consequently, the very concepts of
‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ are extremely complex and not always readily
predictable, cutting across a number of identifications, each subject to
historical and contextual conditions that combine and shift to construct
knowledge of one another in these circumstances as well as the ‘micro-
social interactions’ (Gunaratnam, 2003: 85) in the (social) event of a
research process and interview itself.
Following this, it is interesting to note, and I have to admit to my
own surprise, that many people did not ask me many, if any, questions
about my background, even when I explicitly asked them at different
points if they had any. What they surmised (rightly or wrongly) about
me from my emails, name, voice, appearance I could only guess. In fact,
only a few addressed these sorts of questions at any point throughout
the process of the interview. This suggests that I was perceived in profes-
sional terms as a researcher. In some interviews, this kind of perception
certainly seemed to characterise the rapport, while in others a more
relaxed rapport developed. This is evident, for example, in how some
interviews became more emotive as they developed and as Vidya, for
instance, became progressively more sweary! This in turn may reflect the
methodologically agnostic approach as its own part of the rapport.
In terms of the environment, the majority of the interviews took
place in coffee shops at various points of the day and surrounded by
varying levels of hustle and bustle. Some took place in more private,
quiet settings, such as a meeting room in the workplace, mosque or
community centre, or at the participant’s home, depending on what was
most comfortable and convenient for the interviewee. These settings had
a palpable impact on the narrative. It certainly seems no coincidence that
in general the more developed and more relaxed (in terms of their more
apparent openness rather than the nature of their content) were those
in quieter surroundings, although I also caught myself on a number of
occasions surprised (pleasantly for the researcher in me) at the openness
of some stories when eavesdropping strangers were a higher danger.
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2
Converts in Multicultural Context
The introduction began to set the scene of multicultural and multire-

ligious Britain. This chapter now turns to expand this picture more
specifically in relation to converts to Islam, and as such begins to develop
some themes that will permeate the rest of the book. The discussion is
structured around building a picture of converts to Islam in Britain and
why, as Franks (2000) commented, they can be hard to locate in rela-
tion to majority and minorities. To do this, the first part of the chapter
discusses converts in historical perspective before then turning to the
contemporary picture. This allows points of contrast and similarity to
be highlighted which in turn both help understand the contemporary
picture, which will be extremely important for the arguments as they
develop in the later chapters of the book, as well as begin to highlight
some of the main themes that will orient the discussion as a whole and
those of the individual chapters.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 27

Switzerland AG 2021
T. Sealy, Religiosity and Recognition, Palgrave Politics of Identity and Citizenship Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75127-2_2
28 T. Sealy
Converts to Islam in Britain: Historical

Overview
Evidence suggests there were English soldiers who converted to Islam
as far back as at least the twelfth century and the time of the crusades
(Jawad, 2012). The earliest named English convert in an English source,
John Nelson, dates to 1583—a son of a yeoman of the Queen’s Guard
(Matar, 1998). Numbers of converts in overseas territories increased
during the Elizabethan era (1558–1603), especially in Ottoman lands
(Jawad, 2012; Matar, 1998) and in India (Gilham, 2014). Britons who
converted to Islam and remained in Britain during this period, however,
remain a ‘possibility’ but little evidence exists to shed light on who they
might have been or what their lives might have been like (Matar, 1998).
That Britons were converting to Islam at all at this time was met with
great disbelief and concern. In fact, early attempts by English Christian
travel writers to understand such conversions were motivated by attempts
to find out how to better protect their countrymen from Muslims and
Islam (Matar, 1998). It is from these early conversions, mostly a result of
contact between the British and Ottoman empires, that two derogatory
terms stem: to ‘turn Turke’ and ‘renegade’. More accurately this latter
term was used in its Spanish form renegado, reflecting an emphasis that
‘apostasy was typified by the Papist enemies of England’ (Matar, 1998:
23). Conversion to Islam it seems was an affliction of foreigners and not
something for the English of the time. It has been suggested that the
patterns of conversion in this period were largely a result of force and
coercion (Gilham, 2014), although the historical picture is more complex
(Bulliet, 1979; Levtzion, 1979; Matar, 1998).
Much more is known about British converts to Islam from the Victo-
rian era of the latter half of the nineteenth century and the Edwardian
period leading up to the First World War in the early twentieth century,
from which period far more in the way of writings survive (Geaves,
2010; Gilham, 2014); not least in part because a number of converts
were from the middle and upper classes. Hermansen, for instance, traces
a number of dominant themes in pilgrimage narratives that ‘reflect the
new mobility, in terms of resources and travel to exotic locations, of the
Western middle classes’ (1999: 84).
Notable in this regard was Henry Stanley, the first in ‘a new trend
of the free conversion of Britons who remained Muslims by convic-
tion in Britain’ (Gilham, 2014: 243). Henry, who converted in 1859,
later became the first Muslim member of the House of Lords (Lord
Stanley of Alderley). Another prominent convert was Abdullah Quil-
liam, a Liverpool solicitor who converted in 1888, and who had the title
Sheikh al-Islam of Britain bestowed on him by the Ottoman Sultan and
Caliph (Geaves, 2010). Quilliam founded the Liverpool Muslim Insti-
tute (LMI), ‘the first attempt to promote Islam publicly from within a
mosque and an Islamic centre in Britain’ (ibid.: 3), and which was to be
an important centre for converts, conversions and other rites of passage,
and worship. It also published the weekly newspaper The Crescent and
quarterly journal The Islamic World (Geaves, 2010). The first purpose-
built mosque, the Woking Mosque, wasn’t built until two years later.
Female converts were also prominent. Lady Evelyn Cobbold is prob-
ably the most well-known female convert and reportedly the first British
Muslim woman to complete the hajj. At both LMI and Woking women
converts held prominent positions and at this time were ‘at the centre of
the establishment of Islam in Britain’ (Cheruvallil-Contractor, 2020: 9).
Converts during this time were typically Christian by birth, predomi-
nantly male and middle-aged (although numbers of women grew in the
post-war years), came from all classes in society, and were chiefly conser-
vative in social and political outlook (Geaves, 2010; Gilham 2014).
Gilham finds that affectional, experimental and intellectual motivations
and orientations were the most common during the period (Gilham,
2014). Indeed, part of the appeal for Quilliam was the rationality of
Islam, which ‘met the intellectual challenges of the period but also kept
him in touch with the monotheistic deity’, ardent belief in which had
formed in his childhood (Geaves, 2010: 39).
The reactions to these converts from the wider population, media
and politicians were by and large negatively prejudicial and oppositional,
entailing mockery, disdain, social ostracism, and misunderstanding, at
times manifesting in violence and intimidation. Muslims attending
services at the LMI, for example, were pelted with stones and eggs
and the building vandalised. Such animosity would be particularly
pronounced at times of political heat between Britain and various parts
30 T. Sealy
of the Muslim world (Geaves, 2010; Gilham, 2014). The converts were
also construed as transgressing ethnic and imperial hierarchies and as a
threat to the moral fabric and racial purity of the nation (Geaves, 2010;
Gilham, 2014). Other tropes included accusations of flaunting their new
religion through dress (although converts at this time, especially female
converts, were far less likely to wear distinguishing items of clothing than
converts today), and Islam as backward and oppressive to women. Those
few who were vocal, politically active and critical of British foreign policy
were routinely monitored by authorities and treated with distrust and
suspicion (Geaves, 2010; Gilham, 2014).
The criticism of Britain and its foreign policy from these converts
was rarely, however, criticism of Britain and Imperial Britain per se. It
was rather in relation to Britain’s changing relations with the Ottoman
Empire and growing closeness to Russia, and therefore the future of
Britain’s alignment in the global polity. Indeed, many maintained a belief
in the British Empire. Geaves comments on Quilliam that he showed ‘it
was possible to be a Muslim who was highly critical of some aspects of
British foreign policy, yet still remain intensely patriotic to one’s country
of birth’ (2010: 189). Converts themselves stressed that being Muslim
did not entail disloyalty to Britain and many of those who left Britain
and spent time living abroad in Muslim majority lands returned later in
life to the land of their birth.
On a more everyday level, many were eager to stress commonalities
between Islam and Christianity and their ability to coexist in Britain.
In efforts at familiarity and translation, institutions such as the LMI
and Woking Muslim Mission used terms such as ‘Muslim Church’ and
‘Muslim Bible’ to refer to the mosque and Qur’an (Gilham, 2014).
Furthermore, many of the activities at the LMI were adapted and tailored
to fit in with and appeal to the working lives and traditions of the local
population (Geaves, 2010; Gilham, 2015). Many, following Stanley,
adopted a practical, pragmatic approach to being Muslim in Britain,
negotiating adaptations of practices such as salat (the daily prayers) to
fit in with British life patterns more easily (Gilham, 2014). Lady Evelyn
(Zainab) Cobbold even continued to drink a little sherry (Gilham, 2014;
Jawad, 2012).
On a more personal and religious level there is deep commitment and

religious faith. Stanley, in a letter to his brother, remarked, ‘you know I
have always been a Mussulman [sic] at heart’ (Gilham, 2014: 30), and
Cobbold likewise said, ‘It seems that I have always been a Moslem [sic]’
(Jawad, 2012: 46; see also Hermansen, 1999). For many, the appeal of
Islam lay in its theology, in its simplicity and common sense in compar-
ison to the doctrine of the Trinity in Christianity, and in its orientation
towards society—its classlessness, egalitarianism and concern with social
justice (Geaves, 2010; Gilham, 2014; Hermansen, 1999).
These converts were to leave a significant intellectual legacy and histor-
ical reference point for future generations, which has been furthered in
the notable contributions of more recent converts such as Martin Lings,
Charles le Gai Eaton and Abdal Hakim Murad (Tim Winter) (Jawad,
2012).
The significance of this historical overview lies in part in how this
legacy and some of the themes that have begun to emerge provide
context for understanding conversion to Islam in Britain today. There
are numerous similarities as well as significant differences, both of which
help us understand the contemporary picture, and which will re-emerge
throughout subsequent chapters. The following section turns to develop
the contemporary picture and highlight these themes.
The Contemporary Picture

Over the last ten to fifteen years, interest in conversion to Islam in Britain
has increasingly become a subject of scholarly interest as well as a news-
worthy topic. Demographics of converts in Britain today are difficult to
determine with any accuracy and certainty. There is no ‘convert commu-
nity’ as such to speak of (Brice, 2008), although support networks have
been developing in more recent years through groups in various cities,
usually affiliated with a mosque but including a couple with national
reach, as well as online and through social media. The process and act
of conversion itself is a fairly simple and informal rite; all that is needed
is to sincerely pronounce the shahada, the declaration of faith that there
is no God but God and Muhammad is His Prophet, in front of at least
32 T. Sealy
two witnesses. There are no public records of conversions and mosques

or community groups also do not typically keep records of conversions;
there is no official religious or civic documentation involved, although
converts can obtain certificates of conversion from certain organisations
which can help obtain entry to Mecca for hajj.
The census for England and Wales, while now including a question
on religious affiliation, does not also include one for religion at birth,
unlike the Scottish census. The best approximations are, therefore, based
on extrapolations from the Scottish census and informal reporting from
mosques. Within these limitations, estimates vary at between approxi-
mately 15,000 (Birt, 2002) and 100,000, with up to 5000 new converts
each year (although this figure doesn’t allow for de-conversions) (Brice,
2007, 2010). Of these, it is estimated that more than half are white
British and between two thirds and three quarters are female (Brice,
2010). In contrast to the period outlined above, and reflecting wider
social changes in Britain, they are largely from the now broader middle-
class, with a substantial number of working-class background; their
educational level is generally high; the average age seems to be below
30, and previous religious socialisation is diverse but often low (Gilham,
2015; Jawad, 2012; Köse, 1996; Zebiri, 2008). Similar trends are also
generally observed in other European countries (Özyürek, 2015; Roald,
2004; van Nieuwkerk, 2004; Wohlrab-Sahr, 2006).
When we look at the contemporary picture many of the themes of
the historical sketch still have relevance. While a more detailed discus-
sion of these will take place in later chapters, some general points can
be highlighted here. Many of the reasons given for converting in the
historical narratives are also found in contemporary convert narratives.
Converts today likewise stress the conviction of the heart and of being
Muslim, a deep spirituality and the idea of having always been Muslim,
albeit unknowingly until conversion. This is reflected, for example, in
a comment made to me by Hannah, who was 52 and had converted
to Islam 4 years before the time of interview and had previously been
nominally Christian. She remarked in her narrative that she had come
to realise that ‘I was Muslim all along and nobody told me’. The intel-
lectual and affectional are similarly underlined as part of the appeal of
Islam and its consistency with life in modern Britain. We see too the
theological and the sociological present in their decisions to convert,

highlighting the significance of a bridging approach to these. A further
parallel is that to greater or lesser extents present-day converts might
also look for practical, pragmatic solutions to reconcile their faith with
their life and with the social context in Britain. Perhaps at least in
part for these reasons it has been argued that historical figures such as
Quilliam remain important examples of negotiating identity and place
for a British Islam and Muslims (Geaves, 2010; Gilham, 2014; Jawad,
2012). These are features that converts in Britain share with other Euro-
pean converts. Roald (2004), for example, has noted how converts in
Scandinavia can transpose aspects of traditional Christmas celebrations
to their Eid celebrations or Ramadan, bringing some of them into an
Islamic framework—such as a Ramadan ‘advent’ calendar for children,
the doors of which are not opened until after the daily fast is broken.
If these more practical challenges of combining two traditions can
result in creative hybridisations, negotiating an Islamic identity and life
in Britain continues to be a challenge. Certain patterns in discrimina-
tion bear resemblance to those of over a hundred years ago, such as
negativised perceptions and characterisations of Islam and the trope of
‘betrayal’. We thus find a parallel in the negative reactions that many face,
who, as Quilliam, ‘f[ind] out very painfully’ that ‘conversion to Islam [i]s
not simply an act of personal belief ’ (Geaves, 2010: 215). That is, even if
conversions are first and foremost personal (Özyürek, 2015), conversion
becomes, whether converts want it to or not or like it or not, a decidedly
political act.
Contemporary examples of discriminatory reactions are evident and
many of the same negativising tropes are still held up to converts in
Britain now, at least in parallel form. Whereas earlier conversions may
have been explained as being results of force, contemporary equiva-
lents emphasise brainwashing, mental health issues or conversions of
convenience in order to marry. What they are not in these perspectives
are genuine religious conversions of conviction. The incompatibility of
Islam and Britain also continues to plague converts through the trope of
‘betrayal’ of culture and values, despite converts arguing the contrary.
The image of the convert in the media and public imagination
has arisen as one associated with radicalisation and terrorism. This in
34 T. Sealy
part reflects the wider frames that Muslims find themselves being seen
through in the post 9/11 and 7/7 context, and several high-profile attacks
in Britain have been by converts, adding fuel to the fire. Notable among
these was the murder of a British Army soldier, Fusilier Lee Rigby, in
May 2013 by two converts to Islam (Michael Adebolajo and Michael
Adebowale), who first ran him over and then attacked him with meat
cleavers and knives. Another occurred in 2017, when Khalid Masood
drove his car onto the pavement on Westminster bridge, killing four
pedestrians and injuring more than 50, including also fatally stabbing a
police officer, before being shot by another. The ‘zealotry’ of the convert
thus takes on its fullest and most violent definition, shifting away from
a more benign ‘in love’ stage (Roald, 2004, 2012).
Following the discussion so far in this chapter along with that of
Britain as secular in the introduction, we can briefly pause to outline
how the genuineness of the conversion and of converts’ intentions and
motivations come to be questioned in further detail. There are four
ways in which this occurs. First, they are seen as not a genuine religious
conversion, they are a ‘conversion of convenience’, for instance, where
the conversion is an instrumental, secondary and strategic act in order
to achieve a different aim, such as marrying. These undoubtedly occur;
I spoke to one person who had converted for this reason and a couple
of my participants referred to instances they knew of, critically it must
be said. They are, nevertheless, very much a minority of conversions and
do not reflect the majority of British converts to Islam in contempo-
rary Britain, or at least those that remain Muslim for any length of time
(Brice, 2010). Even when there is a Muslim partner involved, charac-
terising them as conversions of convenience is grossly reductive of the
deeply held religious feelings, commitments and convictions. It was in
fact remarked to me by one of my participants that her husband was
now more pious and practising following her influence, a point also
related by a leader of a New Muslim Circle as being a not infrequent
occurrence, and which at times can lead to problems or divorce (see also
Roald, 2004).
Secondly, conversions are questioned precisely because they are reli-
gious conversions in a context that can be suspicious of public religion,
where religion is supposedly fading away or at least restricted to the
private sphere. In this case, we can see the absence of the religious
aspect more broadly. Moreover, they are converting to a religion already
perceived as inclined to violence and oppression, which can give this view
a dangerous edge. In this context, converts are converting to a ‘foreign’
religion attached to a specific ethnic and cultural group, itself already
negativised, and this heightens the levels of suspicion and questioning.
Thirdly, even if the physical threat is not so direct, they are dismissed
as a result of falling in love or of personal instability; that is, a phase that
will pass, that is functional as a coping mechanism or perhaps merely
a subordinate (although undesirable) aspect of something else. Personal
‘crisis’ has been a dominant explanatory trope in the academic literature
on religious conversion for decades, conversion being interpreted as a
‘phase’ by family members to cope with this reoccurred continually across
the narratives of my participants. Fourthly, they might suggest processes
of brainwashing, especially at the hands of ‘extremist preachers’.
These negative reactions question the genuineness of both the conver-
sion and of the convert’s intentions and motivations, whether by seeing
them instrumentally as deliberate strategies or by psychologising and
therefore reducing them to individual anomalies (see also Krotofil,
2011). It is against this background, and in these frames, that the convert
emerges as a controversial public figure. This generates issues around the
good or bad faith of the convert’s religious identity, which can further be
seen in issues they face in acceptance from Muslim communities, where
the genuineness of their motivations and identities, and their right to
belong, might also be questioned (see Chapter 6).
As well as the historical and contemporary parallels and similari-
ties there are also, however, significant differences and these are just as
significant for locating and understanding converts and features of their
narratives.
Britain and Britain’s place in the world, indeed the world itself, is
markedly different. The place of religion in public life has also become
notably different, both more pluralised and arguably more suspect
as the modern Elizabethan era has progressed. Britain is now more
tangibly multifaith, yet secular understandings of the place of religion
and religious identities provide the dominant frames. This aspect of the
difference has already begun to be discussed in the introduction and
Another random document with
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Steamships
and their story
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and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
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you are located before using this eBook.
Title: Steamships and their story
Author: E. Keble Chatterton
Release date: November 5, 2023 [eBook #72045]
Language: English
Original publication: London: Cassell and company, ltd, 1910
Credits: Peter Becker, Charlie Howard, and the Online Distributed

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK

STEAMSHIPS AND THEIR STORY ***
Transcriber’s Note
Larger versions of most illustrations may be seen by right-
clicking them and selecting an option to view them separately, or
by double-tapping and/or stretching them.
Additional notes will be found near the end of this ebook.
STEAMSHIPS AND THEIR
STORY
THE WHITE STAR LINER “OLYMPIC”
(Drawn by Charles Dixon, R.I.)
STEAMSHIPS
AND THEIR STORY
BY
E. KEBLE CHATTERTON
Author of “Sailing Ships and Their Story”
WITH 153 ILLUSTRATIONS
CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD.

London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne
1910
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PREFACE
The exceptionally kind reception on the part of both Press and
public which greeted the appearance of my history of the sailing ship
last year, and the numerous expressions of appreciation that have
reached me from so many parts of the world, have encouraged me
to attempt in a similar manner to set out the story of the steamship
from the earliest times to the present day.
I am by no means unaware that between the sailing ship and the
steamship there is a wide difference, as well in character as in their
respective development. But that is no reason for supposing that the
steamship is less interesting in her history or less deserving of
admiration in her final presentation. Around the sailing ship there
hovers eternally a halo of romance; that is undeniable even by the
most modern enthusiast. But, on the other hand, the sailing ship in
the whole of her career has not done more for the good of humanity
than the steamship within a century or less. It requires but a moment
of thought to realise the truth of this statement; and for that reason
alone, the history of the steamship makes its appeal not to a special
class of reader, but to all who interest themselves in progress, in the
development of their own country and empire, in the welfare of the
world generally, and the evolution from stagnation to beneficial
activity and prosperity. There are but few civilised people nowadays
who have not been brought into contact with the steamship in one
way or another. Perhaps sometimes it has been unwillingly, though
at other times to their great gain. In some of those moments which
have seemed to drag on wearily during the enforced idleness of a
voyage, the inquiring mind has over and over again exhibited a
desire to know something of the nature of the fine creature which is
carrying him from one distant country to another. He has desired to
know in plain, non-technical language, how the steamship idea
began; how it developed; how its progress was modified, and what
were the influences at work that moulded its character as we know it
to-day. Further, he has felt the desire to show an intelligent interest in
her various characteristics and to obtain a fair grasp of the principles
which underlay the building and working of the steamship. As a
normal being himself, with mind and sympathy, he has wished to be
able to enter into the difficulties that have been overcome so
splendidly by the skill and enterprise of others, both past and
present. If he talks to the professional sailor or marine engineer, they
may not, even if they have the inclination to unbend, be able easily
to separate their explanation from the vesture of technicality, and the
inquirer is scarcely less satisfied than before. It is, then, with a view
of supplying this want that I have aimed to write such a book as will
interest without, I trust, wearying, the general reader.
The plan on which I have worked has been to give the historical
continuity of the steamship from the most reliable and authoritative
material obtainable, and to supplement and correct a number of false
statements by comparison with the latest researches. At the same
time, my object has been not merely to ensure absolute historical
accuracy, but to show how in a special manner and peculiar to itself
the steamship is every bit as romantic, and equally deserving of our
affectionate regard, as her predecessor the sailing ship, whose
sphere of utility she has succeeded so materially in limiting. After
having been brought safe and sound through gales of wind, across
many thousands of miles of ocean, past cruel coast, and through
treacherous channels, until at last the fairway and the harbour of
safety have been reached, no one who has any heart at all can step
ashore without feeling that he is parting from one of the noblest and
best friends that a man ever had. True, there are some people, as an
officer on one of the crack liners once remarked to me, who, as soon
as ever the big ship is tied up alongside the landing-stage, hurry
ashore from her as if she were a plague-ship. But such, let us hope,
are the few rather than representative of the majority who have been
brought into intimate relationship with the steamship.
Nor only to the history and the glamour of the great steam-driven
vessel have I confined myself. The sea is not merely a wide ocean,
but contains within its mighty bosom many smaller areas such as
channels and bays wherein the steamboat is able to ply as well for
pleasure as for profit; and besides the big, brave sisters with their
enormous displacement and their powerful engines, there are other
children which run across smaller sea-ways, and these, too, are not
to be passed over lightly. Then there are fleets of special steamships
which in a quiet, unostentatious manner do their noble work, and are
none the less efficient, even if they escape the limelight of general
publicity. I shall seek to show in the following pages not merely the
conditions which in the past have hindered or helped the ship-maker,
but to indicate the modern problems which have still to be faced and
overcome.
The difficulty that awaits an author who writes on a technical
subject for the benefit of the non-technical, average reader, is always
to make himself intelligible without being allowed the full use of the
customary but technical terms. In order that, as far as possible, the
present volume may be both a full and accurate account of the
steamship, in all times and in all the phases of her development,
whilst yet being capable of appreciation by those to whom
technicalities do not usually appeal, I have endeavoured whensoever
possible to explain the terms employed.
The story of the steamship may at the first mention seem to be
bereft of any interest beyond that which appeals to an expert in
marine engineering. Pipes and boilers and engines, you are told, are
not suggestive of romance. To this one might reply that neither were
sails and spars during the first stages of their history; and I shall
hope that after he has been so kind as to read the following pages,
the reader may feel disposed to withdraw the suggestion that the
steamship is a mere inanimate mass of metal. On the contrary, she
is as nearly human as it is possible to made a steel shell, actuated
by ingenious machinery; and, after all, it is the human mind and hand
which have brought her into being, and under which she is kept
continuously in control. It would be surprising, therefore, since she
has been and continues to be related so closely to humanity, if she
should not exhibit some of the characteristics which a human
possesses.
It is fitting that the history of the steamship should be written at
this time, for if final perfection has not yet arrived, it cannot be very
far distant. It is but three or four years since the Lusitania and
Mauretania came into being, and only during the present year have
they shown themselves to possess such exceptional speed for
merchant ships. On the 20th of October, 1910, will be launched the
Olympic, whose size will dominate even the Mauretania. Much
further than a 45,000-ton ship, surely, it cannot be possible to go;
and the likelihood is that with the commercial steamship’s
manifested ability to steam at the rate of over thirty-one land miles
per hour, we are in sight of the limitations which encompass her. As
to the future of transport, changes happen so quickly, and possess
so revolutionary a character, that it is hardly safe to prophesy; but it
is significant that the week before this preface was written, an
aeroplane succeeded in flying, in perfect ease and safety, the 150
miles which separate Albany from New York; and thus, just a century
after Fulton had convinced the incredulous by traversing the same
course through water in his steamship, the latest means of travelling
from one place to another has caused to look insignificant the
wonderful record which Fulton, in his Clermont, was the first to set
up. If, then, as will be seen from this volume, the steamship has
done so much within a hundred years, what, we may legitimately
ask, will be accomplished by the airship or aeroplane before another
century has come to an end? Those who have the temerity to give
expression to their opinions, suggest that the steamship will
ultimately be made obsolete by the flying craft. If that be a true
forecast, it is perhaps as well that the steamship’s story should be
told here and now whilst yet she is at her prime.
Of the matter contained within this volume, much has been
obtained at first hand, but much has also been derived from the
labours of others, and herewith I desire to acknowledge my
indebtedness. I would especially wish to mention in this connection:
“A Chronological History of the Origin and Development of Steam
Navigation, 1543–1882,” by Geo. Henry Preble, Rear-Admiral U.S.N.
(1883); certain articles in the “Dictionary of National Biography”;
“Ancient and Modern Ships: Part II., The Era of Steam, Iron and
Steel,” by Sir George C. V. Holmes, K.C.V.O., C.B. (1906); “The
Clyde Passenger Steamer: Its Rise and Progress,” by Captain
James Williamson (1904); “The History of American Steam
Navigation,” by John H. Morrison (1903); “The History of North
Atlantic Steam Navigation,” by Henry Fry (1896); “The American
Merchant Marine,” by W. L. Martin (1902); “The Atlantic Ferry: Its
Ships, Men, and Working,” by Arthur J. Maginnis (London, 1893);
“Ocean Liners of the World,” by W. Bellows (1896); “Life of Robert
Napier,” by James Napier (1904); “Handbook on Marine Engines and
Boilers,” by Sir G. C. V. Holmes (1889); “The Royal Yacht Squadron,”
by Montague Guest and W. B. Boulton (1903); “The Rise and
Progress of Steam Navigation,” by W. J. Millar (1881); “Practical
Shipbuilding,” by A. Campbell Holms; “The Boy’s Book of
Steamships,” by J. R. Howden (1908); “The Steam Turbine,” by
R. M. Neilson (1903); “Our Ocean Railways, or Ocean Steam
Navigation,” by A. Macdonald (1893); “Life of R. Fulton and a History
of Steam Navigation,” by T. Wallace Knox (1887); “Life on the
Mississippi,” by Mark Twain; “American Notes,” by Charles Dickens;
“The Orient Line Guide,” by W. J. Loftie (1901); “The History of the
Holyhead Railway Boat Service,” by Clement E. Stretton (1901); the
“Catalogue of the Naval and Marine Engineering Collection in the
Science Division of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South
Kensington” (1899); “Catalogue of the Mechanical Engineering
Collection in the Science Division” of the above (1907); “The
Progress of German Shipbuilding” (1909); “Leibnizens und Huygens
Briefwechsel mit Papin,” by G. W. Von Leibnitz (1881); “British
Shipbuilding,” by A. L. Ayre (1910); “Lloyd’s Calendar.” In addition to
the above, I have laid myself under obligation to a number of articles
which have appeared at one time and another in the newspapers
and periodicals within the last century, and especially to certain
contributions in the Century Magazine, the Yachting Monthly, the
Engineer and in Engineering. For the rest, I have relied on material
which I have myself collected, as well as on much valuable matter
which has been courteously supplied to me by the various
shipbuilding firms and steamship lines.
My thanks are also due for the courteous permission which has
been given to reproduce photographs of many of the steamships
seen within these pages. To the authorities at South Kensington I am
indebted for the privilege of reproducing a number of the exhibits in
the Victoria and Albert Museum. I wish also to thank the City of
Dublin Steam Packet Company for permission to reproduce the
Royal William; Mr. James Napier for the illustration of the British
Queen; the Cunard Steamship Company for the various photographs
of many of their fleet; also the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company,
the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, Messrs.
Ismay, Imrie and Co., Messrs. Anderson, Anderson and Co., the
American Line, the Norddeutscher Lloyd Company, the Liverpool
Steam Towing and Lighterage Company, Messrs. L. Smit and Co.,
the Ymuiden Tug Company, Messrs. Lobnitz and Co., Renfrew, the
Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, Liverpool, Sir W. G. Armstrong,
Whitworth and Co., Messrs. William Doxford and Sons, Sir Raylton
Dixon and Co., Messrs. Cochrane and Sons, Selby, the Fall River
Line, Messrs. A. and J. Inglis, Messrs. Thos. Rhodes and Co., the
Caledon Shipbuilding and Engineering Co., Messrs. Camper and
Nicholson, Messrs. Cammell, Laird and Co., the Great Western
Railway Company, the London and North Western Railway
Company, the London and South Western Railway Company, the
South Eastern and Chatham Railway Company, Messrs. Harland
and Wolff, and Messrs. C. A. Parsons and Co. To the Right Hon. the
Earl of Stanhope, to the New Jersey Historical Society, and also to
the proprietors of the Century Magazine I wish to return thanks for
being allowed to reproduce certain illustrations connected with
Fulton’s early experiments in steam navigation, and to the Yachting
Monthly for permission to reproduce the diagrams of steam yachts
and lifeboats.
Finally, I have to apologise if through any cause it should be
found that in spite of extreme carefulness errrors should have found
their way into this narrative. The nature of the subject is necessarily
such that to have erred herein would have been easy, but I have
been at great pains to prevent such a possibility occurring.
E. Keble Chatterton.
June, 1910.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
1. Introduction 1
2. The Evolution of Mechanically-Propelled
Craft 12
3. The Early Passenger Steamships 63
4. The Inauguration of the Liner 104
5. The Liner in her Transition State 145
6. The Coming of the Twin-Screw Steamship 165
7. The Modern Mammoth Steamship 183
8. Smaller Ocean Carriers and Cross-Channel
Steamers 215
9. Steamships for Special Purposes 233
10. The Steam Yacht 266
11. The Building of the Steamship 282
12. The Safety and Luxury of the Passenger 297
13. Some Steamship Problems 309
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
The “Olympic” Frontispiece
Hero’s Steam Apparatus 18
Jonathan Hulls’ Steam Tug Boat 30
The Marquis de Jouffroy’s Steamboat 40
Patrick Miller’s Double-hulled Paddle-boat 42
Symington’s First Marine Engine 42
Outline of Fitch’s First Boat 45
The “Charlotte Dundas” 46
The “Clermont” in 1807 46
Fulton’s design for a Steamboat submitted to the
Commission appointed by Napoleon in 1803 51
Fulton’s First Plans for Steam Navigation 57
Fulton’s design of Original Apparatus for determining
the Resistance of Paddles for the propulsion of the
“Clermont,” dated 1806 64
The Reconstructed “Clermont” at the Hudson-Fulton
Celebrations, 1909 70
Paddle-wheel of the Reconstructed “Clermont” 70
Fulton’s Preliminary Study for the Engine of the
“Clermont” 75
Fulton’s plans of a later Steamboat than the “Clermont-
North-River,” showing application of the square side
connecting rod Engine 77
The “Comet” 78
Engine of the “Comet” 78
S.S. “Elizabeth” (1815) 84
Russian Passenger Steamer (1817) 84
The “Prinzessin Charlotte” (1816) 90
The “Savannah” (1819) 90
The “James Watt” (1821) 94
Side-Lever Engines of the “Ruby” (1836) 94
The “Sirius” (1838) 96
The “Royal William” (1838) 96
The “Great Western” (1838) 100
Paddle-wheel of the “Great Western” 100
The “British Queen” (1839) 102
The “Britannia,” the First Atlantic Liner (1840) 102
The “Teviot” and “Clyde” (1841) 110
Side-lever Engine 110
Launch of the “Forth” (1841) 112
The “William Fawcett” and H.M.S. “Queen” (1829) 112
Designs for Screw Propellers prior to 1850 118
The “Robert F. Stockton” (1838) 120
The “Archimedes” (1839) 120
Stern of the “Archimedes” 122
The “Novelty” (1839) 122
The “Great Britain” (1843) 126
Propeller of the “Great Britain” 126
Engines of the “Great Britain” 128
Engines of the “Helen McGregor” 128
The “Scotia” (1862) 130
The “Pacific” (1853) 130
Maudslay’s Oscillating Engine. 132
Engines of the “Candia” 132
The “Victoria” (1852) 134
The “Himalaya” (1853) 134
Coasting Cargo Steamer (1855) 134
The “Great Eastern” (1858) 138
Paddle Engines of the “Great Eastern” 140
Screw Engines of the “Great Eastern” 140
The “City of Paris” (1866) 148
The “Russia” (1867) 148
The “Oceanic” (1870) 152
The “Britannic” (1874) 154
The “Servia” (1881) 154
The “Umbria” (1884) 158
The “Orient” (1879) 158
The “Austral” (1881) 162
The “Victoria” (1887) 162
The “Majestic” (1889) 162
The “City of Paris” (1893) (now the “Philadelphia”) 166
The “Ophir” (1891) 166
The “Lucania” (1893) 170
The “Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse” (1897) 174
The “Oceanic” (1899) 176
The “Cedric” 176
The “Celtic” 178
The “Kaiser Wilhelm II.” 180
Giovanni Branca’s Steam Engine (1629) 184
The Blades of a Parsons Turbine 185
The Parsons Turbine 186
The “Carmania” (1905) 188
Lower half of the fixed portion of one of the
“Carmania’s” Turbines 188
A Study in Comparisons: the “Magnetic” and “Baltic” 192
The “Mauretania” when completing at Wallsend-on-
Tyne 198
Stern of the “Mauretania” 200
The “Lusitania” 202
The “Adriatic” 206
The “George Washington” 208
The “Berlin” 208
The “Laurentic” on the Stocks 210
The “Mooltan” 216
The Starting Platform in the Engine Room of the
“Mooltan” 218

Religiosity and Recognition Multiculturalism and British Converts To Islam Thomas Sealy All Chapter

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Religiosity and Recognition:

Multiculturalism and British Converts to

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Palgrave Politics of Identity and Citizenship Series

Cover illustration: Yon Marsh/Alamy Stock Photo

the interest of preserving the confidentiality of those who subsequently

1 Introduction: Multiculturalism and Religion 1

3 Multiculturalism and the Multi-Religious Challenge 49

Estrangement and Islamophobia 132

A few years ago I was at a workshop to mark the launch of a secularism-

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

In a way, this book is a response to this moment. Despite its fleet-

It is privatised and individualised and increasingly reflects what Charles

exclude born Muslims, something which points as much to Britain’s

Multiculturalism and Religion

identity concept of ethno-religious. This will be outlined in more detail

hospitality from political theology as a way of interrogating multicultur-

Multiculturalism and Secular Sociology

towards a definitional basis of religion was simply the instrument of a

also notes important differences between the contemporary context and

part of the believers’ phenomenological environment (Smart, 1973: 54;

Methodology and Identity

It is hard to take more than a step without narrating. Before we sleep

From this quotation a number of important aspects emerge: the temporal

The insider–outsider dynamics at play in the interviews were complex

English_Muslim_in_Search_of_an_Identity, last accessed 2 September

Flanagan, K. (2008). Sociology into theology: The unacceptable leap. Theory,

Porpora, D. V. (2006). Methodological atheism, methodological agnosticism

The introduction began to set the scene of multicultural and multire-

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 27

Converts to Islam in Britain: Historical

On a more personal and religious level there is deep commitment and

The Contemporary Picture

two witnesses. There are no public records of conversions and mosques

theological and the sociological present in their decisions to convert,

Title: Steamships and their story

Author: E. Keble Chatterton

Release date: November 5, 2023 [eBook #72045]

Original publication: London: Cassell and company, ltd, 1910

Credits: Peter Becker, Charlie Howard, and the Online Distributed

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