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Revision as of 07:53, 10 March 2005 by Marriex (talk | contribs) (→Religious Currents and Organisations)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)According to the 2001 census 1,591 million 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.
Demography and Ethnic Background
The local autorities with the highest percentage of Muslim population are:
- London Borough of Tower Hamlets 36.4% 71389
- London Borough of Newham 24.3% 59293
- Blackburn with Darwen19.4% 26674
- Bradford 16.1% 75188
- London Borough of Waltham Forest 15.1% 32902
- Luton 14.6% 26963
- Birmingham 14.3% 140033
- London Borough of Hackney 13.8% 27908
- Pendle 13.4% 11988
- Slough 13.4% 15897
- London Borough of Brent 12.3% 32290
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 and Northern England the Muslim percentage of the population is far below 1%.
The first Muslim community which permanently settled in the United Kingdom were Yemeni sailors who arrived in major port cities like Swansea, Liverpool, 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 gre 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. No other ethnic minority except the Chinese settled in areas outside London to a similar degree. They are particularly strong in the West Midlands, West Yorkshire, Lancashire/ Greater Manchester and industrial cities in South East England like Luton, Slough and Oxford.
Indian Muslims in Britain arrived in Britain 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 Bangla Desh. 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 Maghrib live especially in the central 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 form the mainland and Cyprus have settled in the northern part of the East End, where also a number of Kurdish refugees is living.
There are also communities of Somali, Bosnian and Albanian Muslims from Kosovo in Britain. There are many people born in Malaysia but most probably the vast majority of them is Chinese.
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 Ahl-i Hadith reject the authority of the chsools 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. The UK Islamic mission is the counterpart of the Islamist Jamaat-i islami which follows the ideology of Abu l-Ala Mawdudi. Its relatively strong among Muslim students.
South Asian Shias either coe from the Punjab or Gujarat (the Khojas. There are also Shias from Lebanon and Iraq. The al-Khoei foundation belongig to one of the most important Iraqi Shii families of scholars is located in London. Among the Gujarati Muslims both the Bohra and the Nizari branch of Ismailism are represented.
The Ahmadiya from Pakistan which is considered heretical by mainstream Muslims has relocated its centre to Telford, Surrey due to the persecution in Pakistan.
Not much is known about the organisations of Arab Sunnis in Britain. The Hizb al-Tahrir is an Islamist organisation originally from Palestine. It has today 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.
Personalities
Notable mosques
Literature
Philip Lewis: Islamic Britain : religion, politics and identity among British Muslims ; Bradford in the 1990s, London : Tauris, 1994 ISBN 1-85043-861-7
Weblinks
- 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
- Islam in Western Europe