Shaping Muslim Young People's Religious Identities: The Perspectives of Salafi Muslims in Manchester, England, on Diverse Educational Spaces

Over the past few decades, the education of Muslim children in the UK has been at the centre of political and social debate, often linked to broader concerns about integration, national identity, and security. These debates intensified following incidents such as the “Trojan Horse Affair” in 2014 and the implementation of the Prevent strategy, which has disproportionately targeted Muslim communities, fostering a climate of suspicion and surveillance. In this context, Salafi Muslims—often portrayed in policy and media as adhering to a 'hard-line' form of Islam—have been particularly stigmatised. Despite their prominence in public discourse, Salafi communities remain under-researched, especially regarding their educational experiences, perspectives, and school choices. Existing studies on European Salafism tend to focus on extremism and radicalisation; this research shifts the focus to explore the appeal of Salafi religious doctrine and its impact on how Salafi families perceive educational institutions in shaping their children’s Islamic identity. This thesis addresses this gap by exploring the educational preferences, perceptions, and experiences of Salafi Muslim families within a Salafi mosque community in Manchester. Since parental perceptions of social, political, and cultural factors within formal education significantly influence school choices, the Salafi community's educational preferences should preserve a distinct Salafi identity which resists perceived secular or liberal influences in mainstream schooling. This focuses on three key spaces—schools, mosques, and the home—to examine how Salafi parents and young people perceive the role of education in shaping Muslim personhood, a term here defined as a form of identity linked to Islamic moral and religious standards that Muslim parents often want. Given the challenges of accessing a closed and often misunderstood community, this thesis offers fresh insights into how fundamental religious minorities engage with, or resist, England’s educational landscape.