Islam in England

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Islam is the second largest religion in England with most Muslims being immigrants from South Asia (in particular Pakistan, Bangladesh and India), or are descendants of immigrants from that region. Some come from Africa including countries such as Nigeria, Uganda and Sierra Leone, while many others are from the Middle East, Somalia, Malaysia, and Indonesia.^[1]

Contents 1 History 2 Demography and ethnic background 3 Muslims by ethnicity 4 7 July 2005 London bombings 5 Discrimination 6 Notable mosques 6.1 Activities 7 References 8 See also 9 External links

[edit] History

Although Islam is generally thought of as being a recent arrival in England, there has been contact between the English 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 a coin minted with an Islamic inscription - largely a copy of coins issued by the contemporary Muslim ruler, Caliph Al-Mansur. It is thought that they may have been minted simply for prestige, to facilitate trade with the expanding Islamic empire in Spain, or that Offa himself was a Muslim.^[2]

Muslim scholarship, especially early Islamic philosophy and Islamic science, was well-known through Latin translation among the learned in England by 1386, when Geoffrey 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 (1025) was a standard text for medical students well into the 18th century.^[3] Roger Bacon, one of the earliest European advocates of the scientific method,^[4] was inspired by the works of early Muslim scientists.^[5][6] In particular, his work on optics in the 13th century was largely based on the Book of Optics (1021) by Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen).^[7]

Since the publication of Professor John Makdisi's "The Islamic Origins of the Common Law" in the North Carolina Law Review,^[8] there has been controversy over whether English common law was inspired by medieval Islamic law.^[9] Makdisi drew comparisons between the "royal English contract protected by the action of debt" and the "Islamic Aqd", the "English assize of novel disseisin" and the "Islamic Istihqaq", and the "English jury" and the "Islamic Lafif" in the classical Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence, and argued that these institutions were transmitted to England by the Normans,^[8] "through the close connection between the Norman kingdoms of Roger II in Sicily — ruling over a conquered Islamic administration — and Henry II in England."^[10] Makdisi also argued that the "law schools known as Inns of Court" in England (which he asserts are parallel to Madrasahs) may have also originated from Islamic law.^[8] He states that the methodology of legal precedent and reasoning by analogy (Qiyas) are also similar in both the Islamic and common law systems.^[11] Other legal scholars such as Monica Gaudiosi, Gamal Moursi Badr and A. Hudson have argued that the English trust and agency institutions, which were introduced by Crusaders, may have been adapted from the Islamic Waqf and Hawala institutions they came across in the Middle East.^[12][13][14] Dr. Paul Brand also notes parallels between the Waqf and the trusts used to establish Merton College by Walter de Merton, who had connections with the Knights Templar, but Brand also points out that the Knights Templar were primarily concerned with fighting the Muslims rather than learning from them, making it less likely that they had knowledge of Muslim legal institutions.^[9] The first English convert to Islam mentioned by name is John Nelson.^[15] 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 a yeoman of our Queen's guard, whom the king's son had enforced to turn Turk; his name was John Nelson.^[16]

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.

From 1609 to 1616, England lost 466 ships to Barbary pirates, who sold the passengers into slavery in North Africa.^[17] 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.^[18] Around 1645, Barbary pirates under command of the Dutch renegade Jan Janszoon operating from the Moroccon port of Salé occupied Lundy, before he was expelled by the Penn. During this time there were reports of captured slaves being sent to Algiers and of the Islamic flag flying over Lundy.^[19][20]

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 around 1600.^[21] A portrait was painted of one of the Moorish ambassadors, Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud ben Mohammed Anoun.

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), followed by Ibn Tufail's Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, which was translated into Latin as Philosophus Autodidactus by Edward Pococke the Younger in 1671 and then into English by Simon Ockley in 1708. The English translation of Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, set on a desert island, may have inspired Daniel Defoe to write Robinson Crusoe, considered the first novel in English, in 1719.^{[22][23][24][25]} Later translated literary works include Layla and Majnun and Ibn al-Nafis' Theologus Autodidactus.

By the time of Union with Scotland in 1707, only small numbers of Muslims were living in England. The first large group of Muslims to arrive, in the 18th century, were lascars (sailors) recruited from the Indian subcontinent to work for the British East India Company, most of whom settled down and took local wives.^[26] 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 what is now Bangladesh. One of the most famous early Bengali Muslim immigrants to England was Sake Dean Mahomet, a captain of the British East India Company who in 1810 founded London's first Indian restaurant, the Hindoostane Coffee House. He is also reputed for introducing shampoo and therapeutic massage to the United Kingdom.^[27] The practice of Islam in the United Kingdom was legalized by the Trinitarian Act 1812.

[edit] Demography and ethnic background

In 2008, this was British Muslim population origin.^{[citation needed]}

• Pakistani - 942,000 (mostly from Punjab and Azad Kashmir the ethnic groups Punjabi, Mirpuri, Pashtun
• Bangladeshi - East Bengal - 498,000 (from Sylhet)
• Indian - 455,000 (Mostly from Gujarat but also via the East African Indian disaspora)
• Asian Other - 140,000 (Australia, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Caucasian region, Maldives, Malaysia, Turkey, Turkish Kurds, Iraqi Kurds, Thailand, Iran and Indonesia)
• African Other - 258,000 (Nigeria, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Kenya, Burundi, Uganda, DR Congo , etc.)
• Somali - 225,000 (largest Somali diaspora)
• Middle Eastern - 160,000 (Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi-Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, Algeria, Libya, Syria, Tunisia, Morocco and other Arab countries)
• Mixed - 85,000 (those of mixed race)
• Eastern Europeans - 84,000 (mostly from Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo and Russia)
• English - 82,000 (close to 100% converts or children of converts)
• Caribbean - 38,000 (close to 100% converts or children of converts, from all Caribbean Islands especially Jamaica, Barbados, St Lucia and Trinidad)
• Black Other - 28,000 (Black British, Black Arab, Afro-American, Black European, and Black Brazilian)
• Irish - 10,000 (100% converts or children of converts)
• Scottish - 7,000 (100% converts or children of converts)
• Welsh - 6,000 (100% converts or children of converts)
• Polish - 4,000 (100% converts or children of converts)
• Chinese - 500 to 5000 mainly (from Hong Kong, and Xinjiang Province, which has a high muslim population)
• Others - 170,000

According to the 2001 census 1,536,015 Muslims are living in England and Wales^[28], where they form 3% of the population.

British Muslim population by Ethnic group (Source: 2001 Census^[29])

	Number of Muslims	Muslims as % of ethnic group	Ethnic group as % of Muslims
White	179,733	0.4	11.6
White British	63,042	0.1	4.1
White Irish	890	0.1	<0.1
Other White	115,841	8.6	7.5
Mixed	64,262	9.7	4.2
White & Black Caribbean	1,385	0.6	0.1
White & Black African	10,523	13.3	0.7
White & Asian	30,397	16.1	2.0
Other Mixed	21,957	14.1	1.4
Asian or Asian British	1,139,065	50.1	73.7
Indian	131,662	12.7	8.5
Pakistani	657,680	92.0	42.5
Bangladeshi	261,776	92.5	16.8
Other Asian	90,013	37.3	5.8
Black or Black British	106,345	9.3	6.9
Black Caribbean	4,477	0.8	0.3
Black African	96,136	20.0	6.2
Other Black	5,732	6.0	0.4
Chinese	752	0.3	<0.1
Other Ethnic Group	56,429	25.7	3.7
Total	1,546,626	3.0	100

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.

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. In addition, it is possible to find small areas that are almost entirely Muslim: for example, Savile Town in Dewsbury.^[30]

[edit] Muslims by ethnicity

The single largest group of Muslims in England and Wales 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 1930s. Immigration from Mirpur grew from the late 1950s, accompanied by immigration from other parts of Pakistan, mainly from the north of the Punjab province and the area around Attock. 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.

16.8% of Muslims in England and Wales are of Bangladeshi descent, the ethnic group in the UK with the largest proportion of people following a single religion, being 92% Muslim.^[31]There are many Muslims from the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh, mainly concentrated in Tower Hamlets, and Newham, in London, as well as in Luton, Birmingham and Oldham. The Bangladeshi Muslim community in London form 24% of the Muslim population, larger than any other ethnic group.^[32] 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.^[33][34] Most people regard themselves as part of the ummah, and their identity based on their religion rather than their ethnic group.^[35] Cultural aspects of a 'Bengali Islam' are seen as superstition and as un-Islamic.^[35] The identity is far stronger in comparison to the native land. Younger Bangladeshis are more involved in Islamist activities and movement groups, whereas the older generation practice with Islamic rituals mixed with the Bengali culture. Many Bangladeshi women wear the burqa and many young women or girls also wear the headscarf. 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 (linked with some community mosques, which also linked with the Dawat-e-Islami). Other groups also 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^[36], 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^[37], and appeals to younger Muslims as a way to differentiate themselves towards their elders.^[38][33] 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^[39], 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.^[40][41][34]

8% of Muslims in England and Wales are of Indian descent, especially Gujarat, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. The Gujarati Muslims from Surat and Bharuch districts in India started to arrive from the 1930s, settling in the towns of Dewsbury and Batley in Yorkshire and parts of Lancashire. There are large numbers of Gujarati Muslims in Dewsbury, Blackburn, Bolton, Preston and in the London Boroughs of Newham, Waltham Forest and Hackney. Immigration of Muslims into UK, was primarily started off by Indians during the colonial rule. At present there are many Halal Indian restaurants in UK, run by Indian Muslims.

A number of Muslims are of African descent. In London, there are mosques, centres and Muslim charitable organizations that belong to people of African origins. Mosque of the Muslim Association of Nigeria is located at 365 Old Kent Road South East London – less than two kilometer from Siera Leoneans' Mosque in Brixton. Also in London is AWQAF Africa, the African Muslim Communities founded by Nigerian Muslim Scholar Dr. Sheikh Adelabu, the President of AWQAf Africa Muslim College and the Amir (i.e. Chairman) of African Hajj And Umrah Commission in London. Many African Muslims adopt tradition of going to Asalatu or As-Salat i.e. Muslim prayer groups or Islamic ritual ceremonies during the weekend for spiritual uplifting, awareness and social activities.

In addition, there are groups of Muslims from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Somalia and Afghanistan.

[edit] 7 July 2005 London bombings

The 7 July 2005 London bombings (also called the 7/7 bombings) were a series of coordinated bomb blasts that hit London's public transport system during the morning rush hour. Carried out by British Islamic extremists, the suicide bombings were motivated by Britain's involvement in the Iraq War and other conflicts. Since the 7 July bombings two other attempted suicide bombings have taken place. See: 21 July 2005 London bombings and 2007 London car bombs

[edit] Discrimination

There have been cases of threats^[42] and attacks on Muslims and on Muslim targets, including an attack on Muslim graves.^[43]

[edit] Notable mosques

• Baitul Futuh Mosque of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, London
• Shah Jahan Mosque in Woking, Surrey was the first purpose built mosque in Northern Europe
• Markazi mosque in Dewsbury
• Manchester Central Mosque
• Al-Rahma mosque in Liverpool
• Birmingham Central Mosque
• East London Mosque
• Finsbury Park Mosque in London
• London Central Mosque
• London Markaz
• Medina Mosque in Sheffield
• Markazi mosque

[edit] Activities

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.^[44]

[edit] References

[edit] See also

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

[edit] External links

• Ranking of Local Authorities in England and Wales according to percentage of Muslim population in the 2001 census

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