Halfway through this subtle, sophisticated attempt to diagnose the state of the nation, Jason Cowley is given a tour of the East London Mosque in Whitechapel – the largest and oldest in Britain. He is there to talk to Imam Mohammed Mahmoud, who became famous for his calm wisdom during the Finsbury Park mosque attack, when he protected a white terrorist from an angry crowd of worshippers. But he also meets Sufia Alam, manager of the Maryam centre at the mosque, where Muslim women can gather and pray. A British Bangladeshi, Alam takes her leave of Cowley with a friendly but pointed reference to the legacy of empire, delivered in a strong east London accent: “We are here because you were there. You will have to learn to live with us – because we aren’t going anywhere. England is our home.”
But what is England? The complex, ever-changing nature of our shared national home is the central theme of Who Are We Now? This is a book that Cowley began to write at the height of the political polarisation that followed the Brexit referendum, and completed as the country emerged from the Covid pandemic. It is, in part, a reflection on what these crises have taught us, for better and for worse. But it is also a book about home: specifically, what might a “common home” look like in the future for the citizens of a diverse and at times bitterly divided country?
