Islam in the United Kingdom

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Contents

Demography and Ethnic Background

According to the 2001 census 1,591,000 Muslims are living in England and Wales, where they form 2.7 % of the population, in Scotland they represent 0.84 % of the population (app. 43 000). The Northern Ireland census does not provide detailed information on the adherents of non-Christian religions.

The local authorities with the highest percentage of Muslim population are:

The town of Dewsbury is also known as an area with a large number of Muslims, making up around 30% of the population. Three of the town's schools are specifically Islamic. However, it is part of the district of Kirklees, which is only 10.12% Muslim.

The local authorities with the highest percentages and absolute numbers of Muslims in Wales and Scotland are Cardiff (3.7%, 11261) and Glasgow (3,1%, app. 18800) respectively. In rural parts of Scotland, Wales, South West, North East and North West England the Muslim percentage of the population is far below 1%. The old coal-mining areas of Britain have hardly any Muslims.

The first Muslim community which permanently settled 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.

Kashmiris from Mirpur (today a part of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan) were the first South Asian Muslim community which settled in Britain permanently. 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 the north of the Punjab and the area around Attock in the North-West Frontier Province. People of Pakistani ethnic background are particularly strong in the West Midlands, West Yorkshire, Lancashire/ Greater Manchester and industrial towns in South East England like Luton, Slough and Oxford.

Indian Muslims first arrived in Britain in numbers in the early 1970s after the expulsion of Asians from Uganda. Most of them are Gujaratis. There are also some Indian Muslims who came directly from India. Indian Muslims are strong in London, Leicester and Lancashire.

Bengali Muslims arrived in Britain a short time before the independence of Bangladesh. Strong communities of them live in London's East End and central boroughs, but also in places like Luton, Birmingham and Bradford.

Arab Muslims from the Middle East and the Maghreb live especially in the inner western boroughs of London, where many Arab shops and enterprises are to be found. Many of them came to Britain as political refugees.

Turkish Muslims from the mainland and Cyprus have settled in the northern part of the East End of London, where there are also a number of Kurdish refugees.

There are also communities of Somali, Bosnian and Albanian Muslims from Kosovo in Britain.

There are also a number of converts.

Religious currents and organisations

Due to the fact that most Muslims in Britain came there from South Asia, the religious traditions of the Indian subcontinent are dominant.

Most likely the majority follows the Barelwi school of thought which has amalgamised Sufism with the strict adherence to the Hanafi school of law. The Deobandis are strong among the Indian Muslims. They are more puritan but they do still follow the Hanafi school. The Tablighi Jamaat which concentrates on missionary activities is an important subgroup of the Deobandis. Its centre is located in Dewsbury. The Ahl-i Hadith reject the authority of the schools of law and Sufism. They are nowadays closely associated with the Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia. Most of their members in Britain come from the Punjab. Their centre the Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith UK is located in Birmingham Small Heath. The UK Islamic Mission is the counterpart of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami which follows the ideology of Abu l-Ala Mawdudi. It is relatively strong among Muslim students.

South Asian Shias either come from the Punjab or Gujarat (the Khojas). There are also Shias from Lebanon and Iraq. The al-Khoei foundation belonging to one of the most important Iraqi Shii families of scholars is located in London. Among the Gujarati Ismaili Muslims, both branches of Ismailism the Dawoodi Bohras and the Nizaris are represented.

The Ahmadiya from Pakistan, which is considered heretical by mainstream Muslims, has relocated its centre to Tilford near Farnham in Surrey due to the persecution in Pakistan.

Not much is known about the organisations of Arab Sunnis in Britain, although the congregation of London's most famous mosque (London Central or Regent's Park Mosque, see below) hails from this group. The Hizb ut-Tahrir is an Islamist organisation originally from Palestine. Today it has a following among Muslim students of various nationalities.

Most Turkish Muslims are Sunnis and rather secularised. The religious authority of Turkey runs a mosque in London. The Alevi minority owns several cemevis.

The Muslim Council of Britain is an umbrella organisation for many local, regional and specialist Islamic organisations in the United Kingdom.

Political organisations and pressure groups

Personalities

Issues and Controversies

Notable mosques

Literature

  • Joly, Danièle: Britannia's crescent: making a place for Muslims in British society, Aldershot: Avebury, 1995 ISBN 1-85628-680-0
  • Philip Lewis: Islamic Britain: religion, politics and identity among British Muslims ; Bradford in the 1990s, London: Tauris, 1994 ISBN 1-85043-861-7

See also

External links

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