Civilizing attempts of Muslims  By studying significant cultural orientations in the field of Muslim performing artists, I encountered interesting civilizing attempts by high-profile Muslims to change the patterns of cultural taste and behaviors in the UK and the US. These external and internal patterns reflect the non-Muslim and Muslim social orders that British and American Muslims may cope with, deriving from the policies of national govern­ments and influences of “Muslim old-world” centers.

Criticizing non-Muslims and Muslims  Based on their criticisms regarding non-Muslims as well as Muslims themselves, various artists understand it as their role, from a sense of responsibility, to boost the development of Muslim communities by efforts to uplift, empower, liberate as well as socially engage isolated, disgruntled, ultraconservative, or benighted Muslim groups. The complaints about Muslims are less broadly shared than those concerning non-Muslims but display a large differentiation, comprising a lack of appreciation of art and music, intolerance, un-Islamic behavior, a lack of introspection, backward cul­tural ideas, and unrestrained emotions. Social critique by Muslim artists who are Black convert Muslims or from (South Asian) immigrant families, and whose interpretations can be Salafi-, Sufi–, Sunni-, or more secular-minded, may not have been categorized this way in academic literature before.

The direction of disseminating tastes  Using the (Dutch) sociological concept of civilizing offensives, the concepts of formalization and informalization from the theories of Norbert Elias and Cas Wouters, and the concept of established and outsiders from Elias, I encountered for­malizing attempts between groups; formalizing in-group attempts; informalizing in-group attempts; and informalizing attempts between groups. Together, these attempts display (top-down but also bottom-up) vertical directions and horizontal (peer-to-peer) directions toward disseminating specific tastes and behavioral manners.

Civilizing Muslims and non-Muslims  Besides religiously civilizing attempts to moral purification, the field has shown culturally civilizing efforts among Muslims to enhance the appreciation of art; make Islam culturally relevant; tackle racism; counter potential extremism; and emancipate and civically activate Muslims. In doing so, the artists often feel supported by the views of convert Muslim teachers in Islam. Besides, several artists have undertaken actions to civilize non-Muslims. Altogether, by contestations about how culture and religion are supposed to intersect, the deliberate civilizing attempts may be under­stood as endeavors to achieve group survival to succeed in the desired normal­izing and equalizing results in British and American society and the Muslim global community.

Van Tilborgh, Y. (2024). Civilising Attempts in Art and Islam: Muslim Artistic Performance Facing Social Orders in the UK. In: de Rooij, L. (eds) British Muslims and Their Discourses. Springer, Cham., pp. 141–182. Download:
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45013-6_7