Orthodox fraternities and contingent equalities: Muslims and Jews between public (health) policy discourse and experience

This paper critiques representations of observant Muslims and Jews in Britain as constituting an ‘Orthodox fraternity’ when it comes to equality discourse by drawing on policy activism around autopsy, COVID-19 protocols, and sexuality education. The Equality Act (2010) aims to protect people with ‘protected characteristics’ from discrimination, which include (but are not limited to) religion and sexual orientation. I suggest that religious minorities are presented in policy discourse as mobilizing the Equality Act to collaboratively defend their rights to protection of difference. Similarly, anthropological and sociological attention to organised interfaith activism reifies representations of collaborations between religious minorities but obscures situated valuations of equality. I instead examine the contingent value of equality by highlighting opposition to LGBT inclusion. The trope of ‘Orthodox fraternities’ emerges as a useful tool to critique the construction of collaborations between minorities in the context of ‘multiculturalism,’ while masking everyday experiences of prejudice and xenophobia.