Parallel Policies and Contradictory Practices : The Case of Social Cohesion and Counter-Terrorism in the United Kingdom

This paper explores the intersection between the construction of a growing Islamophobic framing of Muslim communities in Britain, as self-segregated and alien to ‘British life and culture; and as a potential source of a terrorist threat to the security of all British citizens. It tracks the development of two independent central government policies, community cohesion and counter-terrorism, and demonstrates the damaging contradictions that result from implementing these two policies in parallel within local communities