Islam is the second largest religion in the United Kingdom with a total of 1,591,000, (or 2.8% of the total population) Muslims.^[1] Most Muslims in Britain are immigrants from South Asia (in particular Pakistan, Bangladesh and India), or are descendants of immigrants from that region. Many others come from Somalia, Malaysia, and Indonesia.^[2]

The East London mosque in Whitechapel.

History

Early history

Although Islam is generally thought of as being a recent arrival in the United Kingdom, there has been contact between Britons and Muslims for many centuries. An early example would be the decision of Offa, the eighth-century King of Mercia (one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms existing at that time), to have coins minted with an Islamic inscription on them - copies of coins issued by the near-contemporary Muslim ruler Al-Mansur. It is thought that they were minted to facilitate trade with the expanding Islamic empire in Spain.^[3]

Muslim scholarship, especially early Islamic philosophy and Islamic science, was well-known among the learned in England by 1386, when Chaucer was writing. In the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, there is among the pilgrims wending their way to Canterbury, a 'Doctour of Phisyk' whose learning included Rhazes (al-Razi), Avicenna (Ibn Sina, Arabic ابن سينا) and Averroes (Ibn Rushd, Arabic ابن رشد). Ibn Sina's The Canon of Medicine was a standard text for medical students well into the 17th century.

The first English convert to Islam mentioned by name is John Nelson, a 16th century sailor.^[4] 16th century writer Richard Hakluyt claimed he was forced to convert, though he mentions in the same story other Englishmen who had converted willingly.

This king had a son which was a ruler in an island called Gerbi, whereunto arrived an English ship called the Green Dragon, of the which was master one M. Blonket, who, having a very unhappy boy on that ship, and understanding that whosoever would turn Turk should be well entertained of the king's son, this boy did run ashore and voluntarily turned Turk. The king had there before in his house a son of a yeoman of our Queen's guard, whom the king's son had enforced to turn Turk; his name was John Nelson.^[5]

Captain John Ward of Kent was one of a number of British sailors who became pirates based in the Maghreb who also converted to Islam (see also Barbary pirates). Later, some Unitarians became interested in the faith, and Henry Stubbes wrote so favourably about Islam that it is thought he too had converted to the faith.

In 1625 it was reported that Lundy, an island in the Bristol Channel which had been a pirate lair for much of the previous half century, had been occupied by three Turkish pirates who were threatening to burn Ilfracombe; Algerine rovers were using the island as a base in 1635, although the island had itself been attacked and plundered by a Spanish raid in 1633.^[6]

The Muslim Moors had a noticeable influence on the works of George Peele and William Shakespeare. Some of their works featured Moorish characters, such as Peele's The Battle of Alcazar and Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, Titus Andronicus and Othello, which featured a Moorish Othello as its title character. These works are said to have been inspired by several Moorish delegations from Morocco to Elizabethan England at the beginning of the 17th century.^[7]

Besides scientific and philosophical works, a number of Arabic fictional works were also translated into Latin and English during the 17th and 18th centuries. The most famous one was the One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights). Other examples include Abubacer's Philosophus Autodidactus (Latin translation by Edward Pococke the Younger in 1671; English translation by Simon Ockley in 1708), Ibn al-Nafis' Theologus Autodidactus, and Layla and Majnun.

The practice of Islam in Britain was legalized by the Trinitarian Act 1812.

Jamia Masjid, example of a typical small mosque in East Ham

Immigration

The first large group of Muslims in Britain arrived about 300 years ago. They were sailors recruited in India to work for the East India Company, so it's not surprising that the earliest Muslim communities were found in port towns. Naval cooks also came, many of them from Sylhet in what is now Bangladesh. There are records of Sylhetis working in London restaurants as early as 1873.

The first Muslim community to permanently settle in the United Kingdom consisted of Yemeni sailors who arrived in ports such as Swansea, Liverpool and South Shields shortly after 1900. Later, some of them migrated to inland cities like Birmingham and Sheffield, where there are 23,819 Muslims.

Mosques also appeared in British seaports at this time; the first mosque in Britain is recorded as having been at 2 Glyn Rhondda Street, Cardiff, in 1860. ^[8] Second mosque is the Shah Jahan Mosque, Woking in 1889. The Woking Muslim Mission was established in 1913 by islamic missionaries. From the 1950s onwards, with considerable immigration to Britain from its former colonies (especially the Indian subcontinent and East Africa), large Muslim populations developed in many British towns and cities.

Demography and ethnic background

According to the 2001 census 1,536,015 Muslims are living in England and Wales^[9], where they form 3% of the population; in Scotland they number 42,557 and represent 0.84% of the population^[10]; and the Northern Ireland census indicated that 1,943 Muslims lived in the province^[11].

In England 40% of Muslims live in London, where they make up 8.5% of the population. There are also large numbers of Muslims in Birmingham, Manchester, Bradford, Luton, Slough, Leicester and the mill towns of Northern England. In Scotland there are significant Muslim populations in Glasgow (17667, 3.1%), East Renfrewshire (1897, 2.1%), Dundee (2846, 2.0%) and Edinburgh (6801, 1.5%). In Wales most Muslims live in Cardiff (11261, 3,7%), but there are also significant numbers in Newport (3492, 2.6%) and Swansea (2167, 1.0%). Muslims are concentrated in urban areas, where they make up 3.3% of the population; In rural areas the proportion of the population is less than 0.1%.

Muslim population in English local authority areas.

The local authorities with a Muslim population greater than 10% are:

• London Borough of Tower Hamlets 36.4% 71,389
• London Borough of Newham 24.3% 59,293
• Blackburn with Darwen 19.4% 26,674
• City of Bradford 16.1% 75,188
• London Borough of Waltham Forest 15.1% 32,902
• Luton 14.6% 26,963
• Birmingham 14.3% 139,771
• London Borough of Hackney 13.8% 27,908
• Pendle 13.4% 11,988
• Slough 13.4% 15,897
• London Borough of Brent 12.3% 32,290
• London Borough of Redbridge 11.9% 28,487
• City of Westminster 11.8% 21,346
• London Borough of Camden 11.6% 22,906
• London Borough of Haringey 11.3% 24,371
• Metropolitan Borough of Oldham 11.1% 24,039
• Leicester 11.0% 30,885
• London Borough of Ealing 10.3% 31,033
• Kirklees 10.1% 39,312

Most large cities have one area that is a majority Muslim even if the rest of the city has a fairly small Muslims population; see, for example, Harehills in Leeds.

Pakistanis

Pakistanis from Mirpur district were one of the first South Asian Muslim communities to permanently settle in Britain. The first of them arrived in Birmingham and Bradford in the late 1930s. Immigration from Mirpur grew from the late 1950s onwards. It was accompanied by immigration from other parts of Pakistan, mainly from the north of the Punjab province and the area around Attock. Another important community that started to arrive from the 1930s onwards were the Gujarati Muslims from Surat and Bharuch districts in India. They first settled in the towns of Dewsbury and Batley in Yorkshire and parts of Lancashire. People of Pakistani extraction are particularly notable in West Midlands, West Yorkshire, Lancashire/Greater Manchester, and industrial towns in South East England like Luton, Slough and Oxford.

Bangladeshis

There are also many Muslims from the Sylhet region of Bangladesh. The Sylhetis, who speak a dialect of Bengali, are concentrated in Tower Hamlets, London. However, there are also significant communities in the London borough of Newham, as well as Luton, Birmingham, Manchester, Oldham, Hyde, Bradford, Keighley and Sunderland. There are large numbers of Gujarati Muslims in Dewsbury, Blackburn, Bolton, Preston and in the London Boroughs of Newham, Waltham Forest and Hackney. The Bangladeshi Muslim community in London form 24% of the Muslim population, larger than any other ethnic group. Islamic organizations are also present at the East London Mosque, where the community is largely present. These include the Youth Muslim Organization which operates there. Also others include, the Hizb ut-Tahir and the Salafi.

During the arrival of Bangladeshis to the country, there were limited mosque availability for the communities, therefore prayers were conducted in council flats in small rooms. Until the 1980s, more larger facilities became available in areas where the Bangladeshi diaspora are at large. Many synagogues and some community buildings were turned into mosques for the people, and present mosques began to expand the area's of the buildings into larger facilities. 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.^[13][14]

Further information: British_Bangladeshi#Religion

Others

Apart from these peoples, a considerable portion of South Asian Muslims trace their origins back to South Asian communities in East Africa that either simply moved or were forced out due to anti-Indian activities of African revolutionaries in countries such as Uganda and Zanzibar.

Concentrated in the London area are communities of Nigerians, some of whom are Muslim, and Bosnian and Albanian Muslims from Kosovo. Since the Iraq War and the civil war in Somalia respectively, Britain has also seen an increase in the number of Kurdish, Somalian and Afghan muslim immigrants. Kurds are concentrated in the Ravensthorpe area of Dewsbury while Somalis tend to be focused in the London and Sheffield areas.

Religious currents and organisations

Islamic organizations have been growing in the UK, due to the high numbers of settlers from Muslim countries. These organizations have spread and are based throughout the country, and the main aim of these organizations is to provide a Muslim voice available in the local area's and the communities, present mainly in the London borough of Tower Hamlets including others, and other cities in Britain, such as Oldham and Birmingham. There are many associations which have been established ever since their arrivals, for example, the 'Council of Mosques', 'UK and Eire and the 'Union of Muslim' organizations. Other high profiled are also present, this is the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) which is currently chaired by a Bangladeshi, Muhammad Abdul Bari. It is regarded to be the most accomplished influence at national level, particularly by the government where it has received many approbation's and by many other Muslim groups.^[13][14]

The East London Mosque organises an annual programme to attract people to its services which include ICT training, English classes, a Junior Muslim Circle, Saturday Halaqa (Islamic talks) and Madrasahs. According to the mosque, involvement in its activities has increased and it notes that: the five daily prayers have increased. Especially during Friday Jummah prayers, where it was difficult to accommodate the increasing number of people. During Ramadan, the prayer facilities attracted between 4,000 to 5,000 people every day. Much of these works by the people, show Islamic identity among the Muslims is increasingly rising due to many Islamic groups and facilities available throughout the communities in the UK.^[15]

A large number of British Muslims are of South Asian descent, following many different movements within Islam. Many British Asian Muslims follow the Barelwi sect. The most influential movement of the Barelwi group is the World Islamic Mission ^[16]. Many also follow the Deobandi movement as well. The Tablighi Jamaat is an important subgroup of the Deobandis; its center is located in Dewsbury. The Ahl-i Hadith is another trend, which in general is opposed to Sufism. Islamic Mission is the counterpart of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami which follows the ideology of Abu l-Ala Mawdudi.

South Asian Shias are predominantly from Pakistan or Gujarat (the Khoja, who are usually found under the umbrella organisation "The World Federation"). There are also Shias from Lebanon, Iran, and Iraq. The al-Khoei foundation, belonging to one of the most important Iraqi Shia families, is located in London. Among the Gujarati Ismaili Muslims, both branches of Ismailism - the Dawoodi Bohras, Alavi Bohras and the Nizaris - are represented. The Ahmadiyya, who are considered heretical by mainstream Muslims, have relocated their centre to Tilford near Farnham in Surrey from Pakistan due to Pakistan's persecution of Ahmadi-muslims. However, their biggest mosque in Britain can be found in Morden, south London.

Much of the congregation of London's most famous mosque (London Central or Regent's Park Mosque) are of Arab descent. In Birmingham much of the Arab community is centered around the Muath Trust more commonly known as the 'Amaanah'.

Turkish Muslims are Sunnis. The religious authority of Turkey runs a mosque in London.

The United Kingdom also has a large diaspora of African and Afro-Caribbean Muslims, hailing both from the Muslim communities in British colonies in Africa and the Caribbean and also from British-born converts.

The Sunni Salafi movement has gained some prominence within the British Muslim community in recent decades as well.

The Sufi Muslim Council and British Muslim Forum represents Sufi or Barelwi Muslims in the U.K.

Political organisations and pressure groups

• British Muslim Forum
• Muslim Council of Britain
• Sufi Muslim Council
• Islamic Human Rights Commission
• Conservative Muslim Forum
• Mosques & Imams National Advisory Board
• Muslim Association of Britain
• Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK
• Islamic Society of Britain
• The World Federation
• Muslim Parliament
• Tablighi Jamaat
• Muslim Educational Trust

Notable mosques

• Markazi mosque
• Manchester Central Mosque
• Al-Rahma mosque
• Birmingham Central Mosque
• East London Mosque
• Finsbury Park Mosque
• Glasgow Central Mosque
• London Central Mosque
• London Markaz
• Medina Mosque

References

Ghousia Razvia Jamia Masjid, Accrington Medina Mosque

Literature

• S.E. Al-Djazari The Hidden Debt to Islamic Civilisation. Bayt Al-Hikma Press, September 2005. ISBN 0-9551156-1-2
• Baxter, Kylie (July 2006). "From Migrants to Citizens: Muslims in Britain 1950s-1990s". Immigrants and Minorities 24 (2): 164–192. doi:10.1080/02619280600863663. 
• Joly, Danièle: Britannia's crescent: making a place for Muslims in British society, Aldershot: Avebury, 1995. ISBN 1-85628-680-0
• Lewis, Philip: Islamic Britain: religion, politics and identity among British Muslims ; Bradford in the 1990s, London: Tauris, 1994. ISBN 1-85043-861-7
• Matar, Nabil Turks, Moors, and Englishmen in the Age of Discovery, Columbia University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-231-11015-4

See also

• Islam by country
• Muslims in Western Europe
• Religion in the United Kingdom
• The Muslim Weekly
• British Muslims
• British Bangladeshi Muslims
• Islam in Scotland
• Islam in London
• Islam in Northern Ireland

External links

• BBC: Islam and Britain Before the 20th Century
• Muslim Demographics in the UK
• Ranking of Local Authorities in England and Wales according to percentage of Muslim population in the 2001 census
• Census 2001: Key Statistics of Scotland (PDF, religion KS027)
• Muslim Council of Britain
• A history of Muslim workers in Britain, published in International Socialism journal
• Islam in the United Kingdom
• Reassessing what we collect website – Muslim London History of Muslim London with objects and images