Session 61: Muslim students and the paradox of in(visibility)

Abstract

At nearly 4 million (6.5%) of the population, Muslims are considered one of the largest minority groups in England and Wales. Still yet, there appears to be both a lack of recognition and understanding about Muslims as a community - in education and society as a whole. Why are they, compared to other religious groups, the least likely to go to university, the worst performing at university, and the least likely to go on to graduate level employment / further study?

Building on Nabi’s work on institutional islamophobia (Nabi, 2011), this paper examines the way institutional islamophobia operates within higher education to orchestrate what she terms the Paradox of (In)visibility. It explores the way in which Muslims are simultaneously invisible and hyper-visible, through the existence - and non-existence - of equality initiatives and policy apparatus concerning them on campus. Muslim hypervisibility within higher education policy can, in one way, be illustrated today through the industrialised, regulator-enforced surveillance of Muslims on campus (ie. the Prevent Strategy), where more religiously observing or politically active Muslims are deemed suspect, troublesome or problematic. Muslim invisibility however, can be illustrated by the way that the regulator (and the institutions it regulates) monitor - or fail to monitor – religious inequity, where we find an overall absence of recognition and action toward the Muslim ‘gaps’ aforementioned.

This presentation therefore explores the unmattering of Muslims in higher education discourse; how Muslims often feel ignored, with their needs circumvented through a smokescreen of ‘neutral’ secularism. I argue that this paradox of non/recognition is a symptom of systemic and institutional islamophobia, contributing to a harmful environment for Muslims on campus. I propose that by positively recognising Muslims on campus, through institutional data monitoring, equality initiatives and provision-making, we can work to better facilitate and support Muslim students to succeed.

Muslim students and the paradox of in(visibility) document.  Only LJMU staff and students have access to this resource.