British Muslims, British soldiers: cultural citizenship in the new imperialism

The discursive positioning of Muslims as a ‘security threat’ or ‘enemy within’, in government policies and the media, has cast young Muslim men in particular as criminalized anti-citizens. Meanwhile, since the inception of the Afghanistan campaign, the soldier has become increasingly prominent as a figure of militarized citizenship in the public sphere. This article juxtaposes accounts from Pakistani Muslim youth in the West Midlands with those of soldiers and family members involved with the Hero Net online community, attending to the notion of cultural citizenship – namely, the everyday subjective experience of national belonging beyond its legal–political aspects. Our research suggests that, for both groups, mindful critique or dissent are central to the process through which individuals are brought into being in relation to the nation-state. However, we demonstrate that formations of cultural citizenship in Britain continue to be informed by the logics of race and orientalism. The article offers insights into how gendered and racialized formations of citizenship conjoin with imperialism and militarization.