Religious Parents, ‘Whiteness’, Secularism and Modern English Values: Dis/assembling ‘Progressive’ Relationships and Sex Education

Current scholarship has drawn on Jasbir Puar’s notion of homonationalism to condemn the racialised securitisation discourse that has emerged around Muslim communities associated with the 2019 school gate protests. These protests focused on the introduction of Statutory Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) in Birmingham’s primary schools. However, commentary has not addressed how debates over RSE and British values are informed by notions of unmarked ‘whiteness’ that differentiate between Muslim and Christian parental protest. We demonstrate how faith-based schooling in England and mainstream media reporting interlinks with imaginings of Christianity and whiteness. In doing so, we offer a novel perspective on how the securitisation of the Muslim community became intertwined with debates about national identity, sexuality, religious parents and race. By critically engaging with this issue, we show that the concerns expressed by Muslim and Christian parents share important similarities but not equal status. Our analysis serves the purpose of ‘de-securitising’ religious minority dissent to promote a more inclusive national imaginary.