ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the British Muslims' statement and explores what strategic accommodation liberals can give them and other nonliberal communities that are similarly concerned about preserving their identities in liberal societies. It describes that identity liberals offer false hope; their proposals turn on the value of autonomy in ways and to a degree that scarcely meet the concerns of nonliberal communities. The chapter also describes that, while political liberalism also fails to produce precisely the relief it promises at the level of individual personality, it does offer some at the level of law and policy. It highlights the apparent contradiction between the British Muslim authors' words and their own situation, and considers the liberal conception of the liberal self. The chapter examines the assumption in current liberal theory that understanding one's rational agency is essential to being a liberal citizen, and then describes that the assumption is both unwarranted and potentially illiberal.
