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This paper compares the political mobilization of Muslims in Britain and France on two major issues: state funding of Islamic schools and the wearing of the hijab by Muslim schoolgirls in state schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to provide a comparative analysis of state-Muslim relations in Britain, France and Russia by focusing on state-sponsored efforts to engage with and institutionalise moderate forms of Islam, compatible with the secular agenda of inter-conf ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

France and Britain have the largest ethnic Islamic populations in Europe. Scholarly literature has generally focused on questions of integration, the success or failure of integrating these populations, and political reactions to their presence. This paper will focus on another, less researched question: the impact of Islamic populations on security and foreign policy. Journalists and some scholars have noted that the presence of large ethnic populations of Islamic origin has been seen by state authorities as security problem, and has had an important influence on how security is organized and pursued. The presence of these populations creates the perception of a security threat (especially in the post 9-11 world), and therefore helps to create? directly or indirectly? repressive anti-immigrant policies. On the other hand, it has also been argued that these same populations have had an important impact on foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East, in part because of their electoral clout, in part because of fear of unrest. If the first argument tends to see Islamic populations as objects of politics; the second sees them also as actors and participants. This paper will compare the process of security and foreign policy in France and Britain, and the ways that Islamic groups influence this process (a) by the ways that policy-makers understand the importance of their presence; and (b) by organized attempts to assert their presence through political institutions. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some within academic and public quarters have stated, oftentimes forcefully, that the spread of radical Islam within the correctional facilities of the United States and other states, poses an inherent and immediate threat to the security of these countreis. The goal of this paper is to examine the actual extent of the threat posed by the spread of radical Islam within the prison systems of the United States and other states. In the course of the paper we will attempt to answer the following questions: How do we define the risk? What is its nature? Is it a true threat or merely a perceived one? If an actual threat, what measures can our officials take to identify it and what can they do to mitigate and control it within our prisons? There is no denying that to some extent the threat is real. We seek to examine the true extent of this threat. Those who have investigated the rise and spread of radical Islam within our prisons consistently suggest that threat is grave. The cases of Richard Reid and Jose Padilla, both former inmates who converted to Islam and who later took up the cause of terrorism, are cited as core evidence. An al-Qaeda training manual seized by British authorities in 2003 which directs its operatives, should they be incarcerated, to actively recruit fellow inmates, is also frequently referenced. Beyond these pieces of evidence, however, the proof is limited at best. Instead, it is simply assumed that terror organizations are actively constructing a ?fifth column? composed of former inmates within our borders.To this end, we will attempt to both clinically examine and, if possible, test the threat posed by radical Islam within our prisons in an effort to determine the nature and extent of the threat. We examine a series of case studies looking at individual cases in the United States, and then place recruitment in US prison systems in a cross national comparative framework. At the individual level, we will examine cases of Padilla and Reid. We also examine the cases of other lesser-known individuals (such as Jose Emilio Suarez-Trashorras) who are known to have converted to radical Islam while in prison and who later became involved in terrorist activities. Such examinations are important insofar as they will allow us to partially address the first two questions posed above. At the international level, we will compare the US with the UK, Spain and France, three countries known to have serious problems with Islamic radicalization within their prison systems. An examination of these cases will permit us to address the remaining two questions.In addition to our case studies, we will present our preliminary descriptive and analytic statistics. It must be noted that an absence of accurate statistics is perhaps the single greatest obstacle to properly evaluating and understanding the extent of Islam radicalization within Western prisons, particularly those of the United States. Within the US, for example, prison officials do not formally survey prisoners as to their religious affiliations. Moreover, were such surveys to be conducted, the inmates are not required to respond. Further complicating the situation is the fact that the few informal surveys that have been conducted by corrections officials tend to demonstrated that many inmates simply do not know what denomination of a given religion they practice. This is a significant hurdle. That being said, we compile as thorough an examination of our Muslim prison population as possible by utilizing federal and state data, in order to at least begin to identify trends indicating the extent of conversion and subsequent radicalization of inmates. We are currently in the process of also developing a survey of Muslim prison chaplains designed to shed further light as to the percentage of radicalized Muslim inmates indoctrinated within our correctional facilities... ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is a cross-cultural investigation of the conflict styles and self-construals of Muslims and non-Muslims in Britain and France. The sample consisted of 1198 participants from both nations. The findings reveal Muslims in both nations overwhelmingly prefer to use the integrating conflict style over other conflict styles. Non-Muslims in both nations also prefer this style, but also use other styles significantly. The findings also reveal Muslims show a significantly more interdependent self-construal, while non-Muslims display an independent self-construal. Furthermore, the study concluded that religiosity and ethnic identification are all significant predictors of avoiding, compromising, integrating, and obliging conflict styles. An independent self-construal and ethnic identification significantly predicted a dominating conflict style. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]