Book Review: Geoffrey Bell, Hesitant Comrades: The Irish Revolution and the British Labour Movement
| Date | 01 November 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929917714959 |
| Published date | 01 November 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Book ReviewsBritain and Ireland |
658 Political Studies Review 15(4)
themselves publicly from their previous
advocacy, others remained openly unrepent-
ant and a few even reconsidered their beliefs
and renounced their earlier views.
With this book, Griffiths concludes a monu-
mental examination of the engagement of the
British far right with the Third Reich, one that
has been over four decades in the making. It is
a worthy complement to his previous volumes
and one that shatters many of the myths about
the triumph of patriotism over ideology that
have sometimes been fostered both during the
war and afterward.
This is a book that should be read by any-
one seeking to understand better the history of
the extreme right in Britain and the role that the
Second World War played in shaping its devel-
opment. While unlikely to be the final word on
the subject, like its predecessors, it will serve
as the first one for years to come.
Mark Klobas
(Scottsdale Community College, Arizona)
© The Author(s) 2017
Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1478929917717442
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Sufis, Salafis and Islamists: The Contested
Ground of British Islamic Activism by Sadek
Hamid. London: I.B. Tauris, 2016. 224pp., £56.00
(h/b), ISBN 9781784532314
Although 11 September 2001 represents a cru-
cial watershed for European Muslims, Sadek
Hamid’s research offers an important reminder
that it was actually the 1990s that mark the
defining period for British-born Islamic activ-
ists. His engaging book Sufis, Salafis and
Islamists takes the reader on a journey from the
mid-1980s to the present day in order to explore
the main Islamic trends competing for the atten-
tion of those second- and third-generation
Muslims who were raised in the UK. A group
within society that, through involvement in such
activism, was able to break away from the tradi-
tions of their migrant parents, thereby ‘acquiring
membership of a de-ethnicised supranational
identity’ (p. 59).
Hamid identifies four key trends: Young
Muslims UK (reformist Islamist), JIMAS
(Salafi), Hizb ut-Tahrir (radical pan-Islamist)
and the so-called ‘Traditional Islam network’
(neo-Sufi). The first four chapters deal with
these individual trends in detail, charting their
foundation and development over the years.
Adopting a social movement studies approach,
Hamid argues convincingly that the (re)
Islamisation of British Muslims, and their
increased visible religiosity, was largely down
to the work of these activist trends. While exist-
ing scholarship has dealt with Hizb ut-Tahrir,
the other groups have previously received only
very partial treatment, which makes this mono-
graph a welcome addition to the literature.
What is refreshing about the book is that it
is proudly written as an ‘insider account’ from
an author who can legitimately claim to have
been intimately involved in the activist scene
but yet retains the critical academic distance to
evaluate both the successes and failures of the
competing organisations and networks. The
analysis is dispassionate and the author rightly
criticises the tendency of some studies to adopt
a good Muslim/bad Muslim or moderate/
extremist binary that leads to facile conclu-
sions of what is a varied religious activist scene
with internal rivalries and competing factions.
What this work stresses is that these trends
have developed significantly over time, so much
so that an organisation such as Young Muslims
can be considered to have ‘changed beyond rec-
ognition’ (p. 136), largely as a result of the chal-
lenges posed by the advent of 9/11. Social
movement purists may lament the lack of any
extensive discussion of framing, but the absence
of a more detailed treatment of theory does have
the merit of making Hamid’s work more acces-
sible to a general audience. This book is not
merely destined to remain the purview of post-
graduate students and senior academics working
on the topic. It is, rather, essential reading for
anyone who wishes to understand Islam and
Muslims in Britain today.
Timothy Peace
(University of Glasgow)
© The Author(s) 2017
Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1478929917716894
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Hesitant Comrades: The Irish Revolution
and the British Labour Movement by
Geoffrey Bell. London: Pluto Press, 2016. 273pp.,
£18.99 (p/b), ISBN 9780745336602
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