The Echo Chamber of the Street: Young Muslims and Arguments Over Belonging and Belief

In this paper I offer reflections from fieldwork conducted on a street in Birmingham, UK that has featured in media and security services’ concerns with radicalisation. The street hosts an extensive Islamic infrastructure that makes it an intense site of activity for various young Muslims (although not exclusively) who attend mosques, lectures and social events where competing narratives about belief and belonging can be witnessed. Drawing on interviews and observations carried out in informal spaces such as restaurants, cafes and on pavements, I shed light on the ‘street’ as a unique site of encounters and exchanges where considerable discussion, deliberation and argumentation occur among young Muslim men who are variously invested in learning and spreading ideas about religion, society and politics. The paper will draw on ethnographic vignettes featuring exchanges between young people with different opinions and propensities toward radical ideas and agents. I observe the emergence of a deliberative discourse and styles of reasoning - played out through refutations and rebuttals – that result in occasional moments of violence. I suggest that the resultant sociality of the street shapes different modalities of radical thinking and behaviour. In doing so, it highlights the importance of informal and unstructured street encounters in helping to engage people who would not otherwise attend formal spaces of religion or political deliberation. I will demonstrate how these occur outside the boundaries of prescribed authority or official attention. This means that there is less rigour in navigating religious and political doctrines, because the street has its own order, authority or ‘code’ around which ideas of virtuous behaviour are concocted. I consider the potentiality of such encounters and spaces in affecting ‘non-radicalisation’, as well as the challenges presented for policy makers to engage these.