Muslims in Scotland: Integrationism, State Racism and the ‘Scottish Dream’

Historically, Scotland has sustained a remarkable level of avoidance in regards to discussions of race and racism, and analysis of Islamophobia in Scotland has been very limited. A recent book (one of only a few) which takes the Scottish Muslim community as its focus is Stefano Bonino’s Muslims in Scotland: the making of community in a post-9/11 world. But, the author argues, it obscures institutional racism and leads to dangerous conclusions. By relying on a number of assumptions and misunderstandings about ‘integration’, racism and ‘Scottishness’, Bonino ignores structural factors of institutional racism. The author sets Muslims in Scotland against more trenchant critiques of Scottish racism, arguing its conclusions are symptomatic of wider framed narratives that circulate within Scotland, situating the book in a broader discussion of questions relating to the reality of racism and anti-racism in Scotland.