Islam in the United Kingdom

History

In the 16th century, Muslims from North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia were present in London, working in a range of roles including as diplomats, translators, merchants, servants, prostitutes and musicians. The first group of Muslims to migrate to the UK in significant numbers, in the 18th century, were lascars (sailors) recruited from the Indian subcontinent (largely from the Bengal region) to work for the British East India Company. Due to the majority being lascars, the earliest Muslim communities were found in port towns. Naval cooks also came, many of them from the Sylhet Division of British India (now in Bangladesh). In 1932, the Indian National Congress survery of 'all Indians outside India' (which included modern Pakistani and Bangladeshi territories) estimated that there were 7,128 Indians living in the United Kingdom One of the most famous early Asian Muslim immigrants to England was the Bengali Sake Dean Mahomet, a captain of the British East India Company who in 1810 founded London's first Indian restaurant, the Hindoostanee Coffee House. He is also reputed for introducing shampoo and therapeutic massage to the United Kingdom.

The Shah Jahan Mosque in Woking was the first purpose built mosque, built in 1889. In the same year Abdullah Quilliam installed a mosque in a terrace in Liverpool, which became the Liverpool Muslim Institute. The first mosque in London was the Fazl Mosque established in 1924, commonly called the London mosque. The growing number of Muslims resulted in the establishment of more than 1,500 mosques by 2007.

The publication of Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses in 1988 caused major controversy. Muslims in Britain condemned the book for blasphemy. On 2 December 1988 the book was publicly burned at a demonstration in Bolton attended by 7,000 Muslims, followed by a similar demonstration and book-burning in Bradford on 14 January 1989.

Demographics

The Muslim population of England and Wales has grown consistently since the 1950s. Sophie Gilliat-Ray attributes the recent growth to "recent immigration, the growing birth rate, some conversion to Islam, and perhaps also an increased willingness to self-identify as 'Muslim' on account of the 'war on terror'."

The settlements with large number of Muslims are Bradford, Luton, Blackburn, Birmingham, London and Dewsbury. There are also high numbers in High Wycombe, Slough, Leicester, Derby, Manchester, Leeds and the mill towns of Northern England. There are also relatively large concentrations in the Scottish cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The top 20 local authorities in England and Wales with the highest percent of Muslims in 2011 were:

Several large cities have one area that is a majority Muslim even if the rest of the city has a fairly small Muslim population. In addition, it is possible to find small areas that are almost entirely Muslim: for example, Savile Town in Dewsbury.

In 2015 Muhammad was the most commonly given name for baby boys in England and Wales, if variant spellings are considered.

Initial limited mosque availability meant that prayers were conducted in small rooms of council flats until the 1980s when more and larger facilities became available. Some synagogues and community buildings were turned into mosques and existing mosques began to expand their buildings. This process has continued down to the present day with the East London Mosque recently expanding into a large former car park where the London Muslim Centre is now used for prayers, recreational facilities and housing. Most people regard themselves as part of the ummah, and their identity is based on their religion rather than their ethnic group. Cultural aspects of a 'Bengali Islam' are seen as superstition and as un-Islamic.

The 2001 census recorded that there were 179,733 Muslims who described themselves as 'white'. 65% of white Muslims described themselves as "other white", and would likely have originated from locations such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Adygea, Chechnya, Albania, Turkey, Bulgaria, the region of East Macedonia and Thrace in Northern Greece, and the Republic of Macedonia. The remainder of white Muslims are converts and mostly identified themselves as White British and White Irish.

Islam is the third-largest religious group of British Indian people, after Hinduism and Sikhism. 8% of UK Muslims are of Indian descent, principally those whose origins are in Gujarat, West Bengal, Telangana and Kerala. Gujarati Muslims from the Surat and Bharuch districts started to arrive from the 1940s when India was under British colonial rule, settling in the towns of Dewsbury and Batley in Yorkshire and in parts of Lancashire.

Pakistani Muslims

The single largest group of Muslims in the United Kingdom are of Pakistani descent. Pakistanis from Mirpur District were one of the first South Asian Muslim communities to permanently settle in the United Kingdom, arriving in Birmingham and Bradford in the late 1940s. Immigration from Mirpur grew from the late 1950s, accompanied by immigration from other parts of Pakistan especially from Punjab which included cities like Sialkot, Jhelum, Gujar Khan and Gujrat and also from the north-west Punjab including the chhachhi Pathans and Pashtuns from Attock District, and some from villages of Ghazi, Nowshera and Peshwar. There is also a fairly large Pakistani community from Kenya and Uganda found in London. People of Pakistani extraction are particularly notable in West Midlands (Birmingham), West Yorkshire (Bradford), London (Waltham Forest, Newham), Lancashire/Greater Manchester, East Midlands/Nottingham and several industrial towns like Luton, Slough, High Wycombe and Oxford.

Bangladeshi Muslims

People of Bangladeshi descent are the second largest Muslim community (after Pakistanis), 15% of Muslims in England and Wales are of Bangladeshi descent, one of the ethnic groups in the UK with the largest proportion of people following a single religion, being 92% Muslim. The majority of these Muslims come from the Sylhet region of Bangladesh, mainly concentrated in London (Tower Hamlets and Newham), Luton, Birmingham and Oldham. The Bangladeshi Muslim community in London forms 24% of the Muslim population, larger than any other ethnic group. There are groups which are active throughout Bangladeshi communities such as The Young Muslim Organization. It is connected to the Islamic Forum Europe, associated with the East London Mosque and the London Muslim Centre – all of which have connections with the Bangladesh Islamic party, the Jamaat-e-Islami. Other groups also attract a few people, the Hizb ut-Tahrir – which calls for the Khilafah (caliphate) and influences by publishing annual magazines, and lectures through mainly political concepts, and the other which is a movement within Sunni Islam is the Salafi – who view the teachings of the first generations as the correct one, and appeals to younger Muslims as a way to differentiate themselves towards their elders. Other large groups include another Sunni movement, the Barelwi – mainly of a Fultoli movement (led by Abdul Latif Chowdhury in Bangladesh), and the Tablighi Jamaat – which is a missionary and revival movement, and avoids political attention. All these groups work to stimulate Islamic identity among local Bengalis or Muslims and particularly focus on the younger members of the communities.

Somali Muslims

The United Kingdom, with 43,532 Somalia-born residents in 2001, and an estimated 101,000 in 2008, is home to the largest Somali community in Europe. A 2009 estimate by Somali community organisations puts the Somali population figure at 90,000 residents. The first Somali immigrants were seamen and traders who arrived in small numbers in port cities in the late 19th century, although most Somalis in the UK are recent arrivals. Established Somali communities are found in Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool and London, and newer ones have formed in Leicester, Manchester and Sheffield. It has been estimated that between 7,000 and 9,000 Somalis live in Liverpool.

Gujarati Muslims

There are large numbers of Gujarati Muslims in Dewsbury, Blackburn (including Darwen), Bolton, Preston, Nottingham, Leicester, Nuneaton, Gloucester and London (Newham, Waltham Forest and Hackney).

Turkish Muslims

Turks first began to emigrate in large numbers from the island of Cyprus for work and then again when Turkish Cypriots were forced to leave their homes during the Cyprus conflict. Turks then began to come from Turkey for economic reasons. Recently, smaller groups of Turks have begun to immigrate to the United Kingdom from other European countries. In 2011, there was a total of about 500,000 people of Turkish origin in the UK, made up of approximately 150,000 Turkish nationals and about 300,000 Turkish Cypriots. Furthermore, in recent years, there has been a growing number of ethnic Turks with German, or Dutch citizenship immigrating to Britain. Turkish-speaking Muslims have also come to Britain from parts of the Balkans where they make up a large, indigenous ethnic and religious minority dating to the period of Ottoman rule, particularly Bulgaria, the province of East Macedonia and Thrace in Northern Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, and Romania. Although some of these Balkan Turks, like the Pomaks of southern Bulgaria and Northern Greece, are actually the descendants of Ottoman-era converts to Islam, and are therefore sometimes defined as (e.g) Bulgarian Muslims and Greek Muslims, the vast majority are the descendants of Turkish settlers dating to the early Ottoman period. Even many of those of non-Turkish origin have adopted the Turkish language and identity, through a combination of educational links with Turkey, intermarriage with Turkish Muslims, and assimilation into mainstream Turkish culture. The majority of Turks live in the greater London area.

Arab Muslims

Aside from North African Arabs, often referred to as Maghrebis (mentioned below), people of Arab origin in Britain are the descendants of Arab immigrants to Britain from a variety of Arab states, including Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine. Most British Arabs are Sunni Muslim, although some – such as those of southern Iraqi and southern Lebanese origin – are Shi'ite. A smaller number belong to one of the Eastern Christian denominations, such as Coptic Orthodox Egyptians and Maronite or Syrian Orthodox Arabs from the Levant. The main Arab Muslim communities in the UK live in the Greater London area, with smaller numbers living in Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham. There are also sizable and very long-established communities of Muslim Yemenis in the United Kingdom in among other places Cardiff and the South Shields area near Newcastle.

North African both Berbers & Arabs from the Maghreb (English: western) Although data is scarce, Maghrebis make up a substantial community in Europe and the United Kingdom. Britain has far fewer of Maghrebis than France, The Netherlands or Spain, where the majority of Muslims are Maghrebi.

Nigerian Muslims

A 2009 government paper estimated the Nigerian Muslim community as 12,000 to 14,000. The community is concentrated in London.

Nigerian Muslims in the UK are represented by several community organizations including the Nigeria Muslim Forum.

Sunni

There are 2.3 million Sunnis in the UK.

The majority of British mosques are Sunni, including Deobandi, Barelvis and Salafi. In 2010 the affiliation of the mosques was: 44.6% Deobandi, 28.2% Barelvi and other Sufi, 5.8% Salafi, 2.8% Maudoodi-inspired; of the remainder many were part of other Sunni traditions or unaffiliated, while 4.2% were Shi'a (4%). The majority of mosque managers are of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin, with many Gujarati, and fewer Arab, Turkish and Somali managed entities.

Shia

Shia mosques are usually Twelvers but also cater for Zaydis and the 50,000-strong Ismaili community; they usually include facilities for women. Various Shia mosques include the Husseini Islamic Centre in Stanmore, Harrow which acts as one of the main Shia Muslim mosques in Britain. Others include Al Masjid ul Husseini in Northolt, Ealing, and Imam Khoei Islamic Centre in Queens Park, Brent.

Ahmadiyya

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (AMC) established itself in the UK in 1912 and is thus the longest standing Muslim community in the UK. The UK and worldwide headquarters of the AMC are currently situated on the grounds of 'The London Mosque' (Masjid Fazl), London's first Mosque (1926), in the Southfields area of South-West London. The AMC also has the largest Muslim youth organisation, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association (Majlis Khuddamul Ahmadiyya) in the UK (membership of 7,500) and the largest Muslim women's organisation, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Women's Association (Lajna Imaila), in the UK (membership of 10,000).

Associations

Poverty

According to analysis based on the 2011 census, Muslims in the United Kingdom face poor standards of housing, poorer levels of education and are more vulnerable to long-term illness, and that Muslims in the UK had the highest rate of unemployment, the poorest health, the most disability and fewest educational qualifications among religious groups. The figures were, to some extent, explained by the fact that Muslims were the least well-established group, having the youngest age profile.

Conversely, it was estimated in 2008 that there were approximately 10,000 Muslim millionaires in the UK.

Education

In 2011, 24.0 per cent of British Muslims had degree level qualifications, compared to 27.2 per cent of the population as a whole. 25.6 per cent of Muslims had no qualifications, compared to the national average of 22.7 per cent. In 2006, it was found that approximately 53% of British Muslim youth chose to attend university. This was higher than the figure for Christians (45%) and the non-religious (32%) but lower than for Hindus (77%) and Sikhs (63%).

There are around 140 Muslim faith schools in the UK, twelve of them being state-funded. These schools regularly outperform those of other faiths. For example, in 2008, 86.5% of pupils attending Muslim schools achieved five GCSEs, compared to a figure of 72.8% of Roman Catholic schools and 64.5% of secular schools.

In 2016, Tauheedul Islam Girls' High School in Blackburn with Darwen was ranked first in the Government's new Progress 8 league table, with Tauheedul Islam Boys' High School coming in second place.

Islamic scholars and leaders

Several notable Muslim religious leaders and scholars are based in the UK, including:

Politics

Muslims are playing an increasingly prominent role in political life. There are currently thirteen Muslim MPs and twelve Muslim Peers (there have historically been about fourteen, starting with Lord Stanley, a peer that lived in the 19th century). The majority of British Muslims vote for the Labour Party, however there are some high-profile Conservative Muslims, including former Minister for Faith and Communities and former Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party Sayeeda Warsi and Economic Secretary to the Treasury Sajid Javid, described by The Guardian as a 'rising star' in the Tory party. The Guardian stated that "The treasury minister is highly regarded on the right and would be the Tories' first Muslim leader." Salma Yaqoob is the former leader of the left-wing Respect Party. Sayeeda Warsi, who was the first Muslim to serve in a British cabinet, was appointed by David Cameron in 2010 as a minister without portfolio. She was made a senior minister of state in 2012. In August 2014 she resigned over the government's approach to the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict.

Media

British Muslims are well represented in various media positions across different organisations. Notable examples include Mehdi Hasan, the political editor of the UK version of The Huffington Post and the presenter of Al Jazeera English shows The Café and Head to Head, Mishal Husain, a British news presenter for the BBC, currently appearing on BBC World News and BBC Weekend News, Rageh Omaar, special correspondent with ITV and formerly Senior Foreign Correspondent with the BBC and a reporter/presenter for Al Jazeera English, and Faisal Islam, economics editor and correspondent for Channel 4 News.

There are several Islamic television channels operating in the UK, including British Muslim TV, Muslim Television Ahmadiyya International (MTA International), Ummah Channel, Ahlebait TV, and Fadak.

Identity

According to one survey from 2006, around 81% of Muslims think of themselves as Muslim first. Muslims living in Muslim-majority countries also tend to think of themselves as Muslim first rather than identifying with nation states (for example 87% of Pakistanis identify themselves as Muslim first rather than Pakistani). However around 83% of Muslims are proud to be a British citizen, compared to 79% of the general public, 77% of Muslims strongly identify with Britain while only 50% of the wider population do, 86.4% of Muslims feel they belong in Britain, slightly more than the 85.9% of Christians, 82% of Muslims want to live in diverse and mixed neighbourhoods compared to 63% of non-Muslim Britons. In polls taken across Europe 2006, British Muslims hold the most negative view of westerners out of all Muslims in Europe, whilst overall in Britain 63% of British hold the most favourable view of Muslims out of all the European countries (down from 67% the year before).

On religious issues a poll reported that 36% of 16- to 24-year-olds believe if a Muslim converts to another religion they should be punished by death, compared to 19% of 55+ year old Muslims. A poll reported that 59% of Muslims would prefer to live under British law, compared to 28% who would prefer to live under sharia law. 61% of respondents agreed with the statement that homosexuality is wrong and should be illegal. This appeared to be borne out by a Gallup poll in 2009 of 500 British Muslims, none of whom believed that homosexuality was morally acceptable. Such polls suggest that British Muslims have strongly conservative views on issues relating to extra-marital and/or homosexual sexual acts compared with their European Muslim counterparts – who are markedly more liberal. However, a poll conducted by Demos in 2011 reported that a greater proportion of Muslims (47% – slightly higher than the 46.5% of Christians who agreed with the statement) than other religions agreed with the statement "I am proud of how Britain treats gay people", with less than 11% disagreeing. On 18 May 2013, just as the bill to legalize same-sex marriages was being prepared to pass into law, over 400 leading Muslims including head teachers and senior representatives of mosques across the country, published an open letter opposing the bill on the grounds that "Muslim parents will be robbed of their right to raise their children according to their beliefs, as homosexual relationships are taught as something normal to their primary-aged children". A recent 2016 poll has shown an increasing accepts of homosexuality from 61 to 52

A 2013 survey indicated that immigrants from Muslim countries were perceived as integrating less well into British society than immigrants from other countries were. Another poll revealed that 28% of British Muslims hoped that Britain would one day become an Islamic state, while 52% disagreed, and 20% did not venture an opinion either way.

Sharia

Although sharia is not part of the British legal system, several British establishment figures have supported its use in areas of dispute resolution in Islamic communities. For example, in February 2008 Rowan Williams the Archbishop of Canterbury (the head of the Church of England) lectured at the Royal Courts of Justice on Islam and English Law. In this lecture he spoke of the possibility of using sharia in some circumstances.

[...] it might be possible to think in terms of [...] a scheme in which individuals retain the liberty to choose the jurisdiction under which they will seek to resolve certain carefully specified matters, so that 'power-holders are forced to compete for the loyalty of their shared constituents'

Several months later, Lord Phillips, then Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales supported the idea that sharia could be reasonably employed as a basis for "mediation or other forms of alternative dispute resolution", and explained that "It is not very radical to advocate embracing sharia law in the context of family disputes, for example, and our system already goes a long way towards accommodating the archbishop's suggestion."

In March 2014, The Law Society issued guidance on how to draft sharia-compliant wills for the network of sharia courts which been established to deal with disputes between Muslim families. The guidance was withdrawn later in 2014 following criticism by solicitors and by Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary.

During recent years Sharia councils have been used increasingly in the UK and there are claims some of them act unfairly to women including legitimizing forced marriages and issuing discriminatory divorces to women. There are claims that some women were victims of inequitable decisions. According to Home Secretary, Theresa May, there is only one rule of law in the UK providing security for all citizens. There is an independent review due to be completed in 2017. The review investigates whether Sharia discriminates against women, also "whether, and to what extent, the application of Sharia law may be incompatible with the law in England and Wales".

Discrimination

The British media has been criticised for propagating negative stereotypes of Muslims and fueling anti-Muslim prejudice. In 2006, British cabinet ministers were criticised for helping to "unleash a public anti-Muslim backlash" by blaming the Muslim community over issues of integration despite a study commissioned by the Home Office on white and Asian-Muslim youths demonstrating otherwise: that Asian-Muslim youths "are in fact the most tolerant of all" and that white British youths "have far more intolerant attitudes," concluding that intolerance from the white British community was a greater "barrier to integration." Another survey by Gallup in 2009 also found that the Muslim community feels more patriotic about Britain than the general British population, while another survey found that Muslims assert that they support the role of Christianity in British life more so than Christians themselves. A survery by ICM Research found that 52% of the Muslims said they believe homosexuality should be illegal which contrasted with the non-Muslim public at 22%. In January 2010, the British Social Attitudes Survey found that the general British public "is far more likely to hold negative views of Muslims than of any other religious group," with "just one in four" feeling "positively about Islam," and a "majority of the country would be concerned if a mosque was built in their area, while only 15 per cent expressed similar qualms about the opening of a church." The "scapegoating" of Muslims by the media and politicians in the 21st century has been compared in the media to the rise of antisemitism in the early 20th century.

There has also been discrimination by orthodox Sunni Muslims against Ahmadiyya Muslims. In 2014, on the 125 anniversary of the establishment of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, the Community published an advertisement in the Luton on Sunday. Following a written complaint from Dr Fiaz Hussain, co-ordinator of the Preservation of Finality of Prophethood Forum (PFPF), stating that the Ahmadiyya community should not be called "Muslim" because it rejected some of the basic principles of Islam, the paper received a delegation of 'Community Leaders' and shortly afterwards printed an apology disassociating itself from the Ahmadiyya advertisement. Tell MAMA responded by identifying attempts to intimidate or discriminate against Ahmadiyya Muslims "as anti-Muslim in nature". The newspaper received a lot of criticism for this apology, to some oberservers it appeared that it had taken the stance of Islamic extremists.

Islamophobia

There have been cases of threats, one alleged fatal attack, and non-fatal attacks on Muslims and on Muslim targets, including attacks on Muslim graves and mosques. In January 2010, a report from the University of Exeter's European Muslim Research Centre noted that the number of anti-Muslim hate crimes has increased, ranging from "death threats and murder to persistent low-level assaults, such as spitting and name-calling," for which the media and politicians have been blamed with fueling anti-Muslim hatred. However, Met Police figures showed an 8.5 per cent fall in anti-Muslim crimes between 2009 and 2012, with a spike in 2013 due to the murder of Lee Rigby.

Organisations

The emergence of the English Defence League has resulted in demonstrations in English cities with large Muslim populations. The EDL is a far-right, anti-Muslim street protest movement which opposes what it considers to be a spread of Islamism, Sharia law and Islamic extremism in the United Kingdom. The EDL has been described by The Jewish Chronicle as Islamophobic. The group has faced confrontations with various groups, including supporters of Unite Against Fascism (UAF) and Anonymous.

Notable Mosques