ABSTRACT
The record of Muslim individuals and community organisations participating in British political life and elections begins with the earliest days of settlement at the turn of the nineteenth century. Deeper engagement began in the post-World War II period when there was an increase in the population of Britain’s ethnic minorities. The Union of Muslim Organisations (UMO) presented the Muslim communities’ concerns at the time of the 1979 general election, a role taken up in a more extensive manner by successor bodies such as the UK Action Committee for Islamic Affairs (UKACIA) and the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) in general elections held in the late 1990s and subsequent decade. In addition to national-level activity, the number of Muslims participating in local government politics as elected councillors has steadily increased since the 1970s. The first part of this chapter traces the progress of Muslim participation in mainstream politics, focussing on the activities of UMO, UKACIA and MCB in the run-up to general elections. Drawing on archival sources, the chapter seeks to convey the changes of style and sub-stance in the way representative bodies have prepared for general elections and the responses, from within the community and the political establishment. The second part of this chapter describes the YouElect project, established by a network of community organisers to mobilise Muslim voters for the 2010 general election. While building on past experiences of Muslim representative bodies and advocacy groups, it also broke new ground in providing campaigning know how and electoral information to local activists. It made use of 2001 Census data, promoted hustings and conducted polls on voting intentions. The chapter concludes with some of the lessons from the YouElect project pertinent to the 2015 General Election.
