The National Youth Agency: Comment - Changing perspectives

Britain today is a multi-faceted society in the sense of it being pluralist in beliefs and values. Religious diversity is a key feature and for many young people faith is an increasingly influential aspect of their identity, particularly so for young Muslims. Central to this melting pot of diversity is the role that faith-based youth work can play.

For Muslim young people their faith as an identity has increasingly become a positive yet painful terrain to negotiate. The binding and single most effective form of connection for many is the impact of disconnection from some elements of mainstream services and civic society; this is further perpetuated by a sense of anti-Islamic sentiments in some sections of British life and the media. This is often exacerbated by knee-jerk policy responses that disproportionately affect the Muslim community and the constant barrage of Islamaphobic narratives.