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Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
is the second-largest
religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...
in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, with results from the 2021 Census recording just under four million Muslims, or 6.0% of the total population in the United Kingdom.
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
has the largest population and greatest proportion (15%) of Muslims in the country. The vast majority of
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
Muslims in the United Kingdom adhere to
Sunni Islam Sunni Islam is the largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any Succession to Muhammad, successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr ...
, while smaller numbers are associated with
Shia Islam Shia Islam is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political Succession to Muhammad, successor (caliph) and as the spiritual le ...
. During the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
, there was some general cultural exchange between
Christendom The terms Christendom or Christian world commonly refer to the global Christian community, Christian states, Christian-majority countries or countries in which Christianity is dominant or prevails.SeMerriam-Webster.com : dictionary, "Christen ...
and the
Islamic world The terms Islamic world and Muslim world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs, politics, and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is ...
. Nonetheless, there were no Muslims in the
British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...
; however, a few
Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...
did convert in the East, such as Robert of St. Albans. During the Elizabethan age, contacts became more explicit as the
Tudors The House of Tudor ( ) was an English and Welsh dynasty that held the throne of England from 1485 to 1603. They descended from the Tudors of Penmynydd, a Welsh noble family, and Catherine of Valois. The Tudor monarchs ruled the Kingdom of Engl ...
made alliances against Catholic
Habsburg Spain Habsburg Spain refers to Spain and the Hispanic Monarchy (political entity), Hispanic Monarchy, also known as the Rex Catholicissimus, Catholic Monarchy, in the period from 1516 to 1700 when it was ruled by kings from the House of Habsburg. In t ...
, including with the
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
. As the
British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...
grew, particularly in India, Britain came to rule territories with many Muslim inhabitants; some of these, known as the ''
lascar A lascar was a sailor or militiaman from the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, the Arab world, British Somaliland or other lands east of the Cape of Good Hope who was employed on European ships from the 16th century until the mid-20th centur ...
s'', are known to have settled in Britain from the mid-18th century onwards. In the 19th century, Victorian
Orientalism In art history, literature, and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects of the Eastern world (or "Orient") by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. Orientalist painting, particularly of the Middle ...
spurred an interest in
Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
and some British people, including aristocrats, converted to Islam.
Marmaduke Pickthall Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall (born Marmaduke William Pickthall; 7 April 187519 May 1936) was an English Islamic scholar noted for his 1930 English translation of the Quran, called '' The Meaning of the Glorious Koran''. His translation of the Q ...
, an English writer and novelist, and a convert to Islam, provided the first complete English-language translation of the
Qur'an The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...
by a British Muslim in 1930. Under the
British Indian Army The Indian Army was the force of British Raj, British India, until Indian Independence Act 1947, national independence in 1947. Formed in 1895 by uniting the three Presidency armies, it was responsible for the defence of both British India and ...
, a significant number of Muslims fought for the United Kingdom during the First and the
Second World Wars World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
(a number of whom were awarded the
Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious decoration of the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British decorations system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British ...
, Britain's highest honour). In the decades following the latter conflict and the
Partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...
in 1947, many Muslims (from what is today
Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...
,
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
and
Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
) settled in Britain itself. Today,
South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...
ns constitute the majority of Muslims in Britain in terms of ethnicity, although there are significant Turkish,
Arab Arabs (,  , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...
and Somali communities, as well as up to 100,000 British converts of multiple ethnic backgrounds. Islam is the second most widely practiced religion in the United Kingdom, with its followers having the youngest average age among major religious groups. Between 2001 and 2009, the Muslim population increased almost 10 times faster than the non-Muslim population. Reports suggest each year, approximately 6000 Britons, primarily women, choose to convert to Islam.


History


Early history

The earliest evidence of Islamic influence in England dates to the 8th century, when
Offa Offa ( 29 July 796 AD) was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death in 796. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of ...
, the
Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...
king of
Mercia Mercia (, was one of the principal kingdoms founded at the end of Sub-Roman Britain; the area was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlan ...
, minted a coin with an Arabic inscription, largely a copy of coins issued by a contemporary Abbasid ruler,
Caliph A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...
Al-Mansur Abū Jaʿfar ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Manṣūr (; ‎; 714 – 6 October 775) usually known simply as by his laqab al-Manṣūr () was the second Abbasid caliph, reigning from 754 to 775 succeeding his brother al-Saffah (). He is known ...
. In the 16th century, Muslims from North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia were present in London, working in a range of roles, from diplomats and translators to merchants and musicians.


Interactions under British Empire

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...
was
annexed Annexation, in international law, is the forcible acquisition and assertion of legal title over one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. In current international law, it is generally held to ...
by the
East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...
from the quasi-independent
Nawabs of Bengal The Nawab of Bengal (, ) was the hereditary ruler of Bengal Subah in Mughal India. In the early 18th-century, the Nawab of Bengal was the ''de facto'' independent ruler of the three regions of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa which constitute the mod ...
following the
Battle of Plassey The Battle of Plassey was a decisive victory of the British East India Company, under the leadership of Robert Clive, over the Nawab of Bengal and his French Indies Company, French allies on 23 June 1757. The victory was made possible by the de ...
in 1757. The manufactured goods produced in Bengal directly contributed to the
Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...
in Britain, with the textiles produced in Bengal being used to support British industries such as
textile manufacturing Textile manufacturing or textile engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful good ...
, aided by the invention of devices such as the
spinning jenny The spinning jenny is a multi- spindle spinning frame, and was one of the key developments in the industrialisation of textile manufacturing during the early Industrial Revolution. It was invented in 1764–1765 by James Hargreaves in Stan ...
. With the establishment of Crown control in India after
1857 Events January–March * January 1 – The biggest Estonian newspaper, '' Postimees'', is established by Johann Voldemar Jannsen. * January 7 – The partly French-owned London General Omnibus Company begins operating. * Ja ...
, the
British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...
came to rule over a large Muslim population.David Motadel (2014)
''Islam and the European Empires'', page 267
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
Francis Robinson (2001)
The British Empire and the Muslim world
, ''
The Oxford History of the British Empire ''The Oxford History of the British Empire'' is a five-volume history of the British Empire published by the Oxford University Press in 1998 and 1999. According to the publisher, the series "deals with the interaction of British and non-western ...
'', volume 4, pages 398-420,
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
The first educated South Asian to travel to Europe and live in Britain was
I'tisam-ud-Din Mīrzā Muḥammad Iʿtiṣām ad-Dīn Panchnūrī or Itesham Uddin (, ,1730-1800) was a Bengalis, Bengali diplomat for the Mughal Empire. He became the first South Asian to travel to Europe in the modern era, in 1765. He was also a munshi serv ...
, a
Bengali Muslim Bengali Muslims (; ) 'Mussalman'' also used in this work./ref> are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. Comprising over 70% of the global Bengali population, they are the second-largest ...
cleric,
munshi During the Mughal Empire, ''Munshi'' () came to be used as a respected title for persons who achieved mastery over language and politics in the Indian subcontinent. Use in Bengal The surname "Munshi" ( Bengali: মুন্সি) is used by bot ...
and diplomat to the
Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an Early modern period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to ...
who arrived in 1765 with his servant Muhammad Muqim during the reign of King
George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...
.C.E. Buckland, Dictionary of Indian Biography, Haskell House Publishers Ltd, 1968, p.217 He wrote of his experiences and travels in his
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
book, (or 'Wonder Book of Europe'). In South Asia, specifically, the British ruled over one of the largest Muslim populations in the world. Upon coming into contact with such a population, the British authorities forged a uniquely Muslim identity for the local believers. This was, in part, due to the way British historians periodised South Asian history into an "ancient" Hindu one and a "medieval" Muslim one. Under the system, the colonial period was classified as "modern". Debate rages on concerning the utility and legitimacy of these labels themselves. Problems with these labels range from the connotations coupled with the word 'medieval' to the implications related to labelling the colonial era as "modern". The term ''medieval'' itself is quite controversial. Historians writing in journals relating to the time period have asked whether the term is a "tyrannous construct" or an "alien conceptual hegemony". This is because the label was originally developed during the study of European history to mark the period in between the fall of the Roman Empire and the fall of
Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...
. Such classifications done by British historians throughout their long period of rule paved the way for a more cohesive Muslim identity. In the eighteenth century, this seemed unlikely. Muslims who hailed from Afghan, Turk, Persian, or Arab roots did not find their Muslim identities especially salient. Mughal courts divided not into Hindu or Muslim factions but Persian and Turkish ones. Converts to the religion outside of courtly life, the majority of the Muslim population in the Subcontinent, too were more focused on their regional and lingual cultural identities-whether that be Bengali, Punjabi, Sindhi, or Gujarati. The first group of Muslims to come to Great Britain in significant numbers, in the 18th century, were
lascar A lascar was a sailor or militiaman from the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, the Arab world, British Somaliland or other lands east of the Cape of Good Hope who was employed on European ships from the 16th century until the mid-20th centur ...
s (sailors) recruited from the
Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...
, largely from the Bengal region, to work for the East India Company on British ships, some of whom settled down and took local wives. 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 district Sylhet District (), located in north-east Bangladesh, is one of the four districts in Sylhet Division, which contains Sylhet, the regional capital. History Sylhet District was established on 3 January 1782, and until 1878 it was part of Benga ...
of British Bengal (now in Bangladesh). One of the most famous early Asian immigrants to England was the
Bengali Muslim Bengali Muslims (; ) 'Mussalman'' also used in this work./ref> are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. Comprising over 70% of the global Bengali population, they are the second-largest ...
entrepreneur Sake Dean Mahomet, a captain of the East India Company who in 1810 founded London's first
Indian restaurant Indian cuisine consists of a variety of regional and traditional cuisines native to the Indian subcontinent. Given the diversity in soil, climate, culture, ethnic groups, and occupations, these cuisines vary substantially and use locally av ...
, the Hindoostanee Coffee House. Between 1803 and 1813, there were more than 10,000 lascars from the Indian subcontinent visiting British port cities and towns. By 1842, 3,000 lascars visited the UK annually, and by 1855, 12,000 lascars were arriving annually in British ports. In 1873, 3,271 lascars arrived in Britain. Throughout the early 19th century lascars visited Britain at a rate of 1,000 every year, which increased to a rate of 10,000 to 12,000 every year throughout the late 19th century. A prominent English convert of the 19th century was Henry Stanley, 3rd Baron Stanley of Alderley, who became a Muslim in 1862. Although not a convert himself, the Victorian Age adventurer, Sir
Richard Francis Burton Captain (British Army and Royal Marines), Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton, Order of St Michael and St George, KCMG, Royal Geographical Society#Fellowship, FRGS, (19 March 1821 – 20 October 1890) was a British explorer, army officer, orien ...
visited Mecca in disguise, documented in '' The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night''. At the beginning of
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, there were 51,616 South Asian lascars working on British ships, the majority of whom were of Bengali descent. In 1932, the
Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...
survey of 'all Indians outside India' (which included modern Pakistani and Bangladeshi territories) estimated that there were 7,128 Indians living in the United Kingdom. By 1911, the British Empire had a Muslim population of 94 million, larger than the empire's 58 million Christian population. By the 1920s, the British Empire included roughly half of the world's Muslim population. More than 400,000 Muslim soldiers of the
British Indian Army The Indian Army was the force of British Raj, British India, until Indian Independence Act 1947, national independence in 1947. Formed in 1895 by uniting the three Presidency armies, it was responsible for the defence of both British India and ...
fought for Britain during
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, where 62,060 were killed in action. Muslim soldiers of the British Indian Army later fought for Britain against the
Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
in
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, where Muslim soldiers accounted for up to 40% of the 2.5 million troops serving the British Indian Army.
David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. A Liberal Party (United Kingdom), Liberal Party politician from Wales, he was known for leadi ...
,
British Prime Minister The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet, and selects its ministers. Modern pri ...
from 1916 to 1922, stated: "we are the greatest Mahomedan power in the world and one-fourth of the population of the British Empire is Mahomedan. There have been no more loyal adherents to the throne and no more effective and loyal supporters of the Empire in its hour of trial." This statement was later reiterated by
Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British ...
in 1920.
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...
also stated in 1942: "We must not on any account break with the Moslems, who represent a hundred million people, and the main army elements on which we must rely for the immediate fighting." The Shah Jahan Mosque in
Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in north-west Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'', and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settleme ...
was the first purpose-built mosque in Britain, and was built in 1889. In the same year, Abdullah Quilliam installed a mosque in a terrace in
Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
, which became the
Liverpool Muslim Institute The Liverpool Muslim Institute was founded by Abdullah Quilliam in 1887. Overview William Henry Quilliam was born in Liverpool in 1856. He developed an interest in Islam when travelling in Morocco. In 1887 he converted to the religion, taking t ...
. The first mosque in London was the Fazl Mosque, established in 1924, commonly called the London mosque. Quran translators Yusuf Ali and
Marmaduke Pickthall Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall (born Marmaduke William Pickthall; 7 April 187519 May 1936) was an English Islamic scholar noted for his 1930 English translation of the Quran, called '' The Meaning of the Glorious Koran''. His translation of the Q ...
, who authored ''
The Meaning of the Glorious Koran ''The Meaning of the Glorious Koran'' (1930) is an English-language translation of the Quran with brief introductions to the Surahs by Marmaduke Pickthall Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall (born Marmaduke William Pickthall; 7 April 187519 May 1 ...
: An Explanatory Translation'' in 1930, were both trustees of the Shah Jahan Mosque in Woking and the
East London Mosque The East London Mosque (ELM) is situated in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets between Whitechapel and Aldgate East. Combined with the adjoining London Muslim Centre and Maryam Centre, it is one of the largest mosques in Western Europe accomm ...
. Other aristocratic British converts included Sir Archibald Hamilton, 5th Baronet, Rowland Allanson-Winn, 5th Baron Headley,
St John Philby Harry St John Bridger Philby, CIE (3 April 1885 – 30 September 1960), also known as Jack Philby or Sheikh Abdullah (), was a British Arabist, advisor, explorer, writer, and a colonial intelligence officer who served as an advisor to King A ...
and Zainab Cobbold (the first Muslim woman born in Britain to perform the pilgrimage to
Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...
).


Immigration and post-World War II

Large-scale immigration of Muslims to Britain began after
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, as a result of the destruction and labour shortages caused by the war.MariaCaterina La Barbera (2014)
''Identity and Migration in Europe: Multidisciplinary Perspectives'', page 230
Springer Science+Business Media Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing. Originally founded in 1842 in ...
Muslim migrants from former British colonies, predominantly India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, were recruited in large numbers by government and businesses to rebuild the country. Large numbers of doctors recruited from India and Pakistan, encouraged by health minister
Enoch Powell John Enoch Powell (16 June 19128 February 1998) was a British politician, scholar and writer. He served as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Wolverhampton South West for the Conservative Party (UK), Conserv ...
in the early 1960s, also played a key role in the establishment of the
National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...
(NHS).
British Asians British Asians (also referred to as Asian Britons) are British people of Asian people, Asian descent. They constitute a significant and growing minority of the people living in the United Kingdom, with a population of 5.76 million people or 8.6 ...
(both Muslim and non-Muslim) faced increased discrimination following Powell's "Rivers of Blood" speech and the establishment of the National Front (NF) in the late 1960s. This included overt racism in the form of " Paki bashing", predominantly from
white power skinhead White power skinheads, also known as racist skinheads and neo-Nazi skinheads, are members of a neo-Nazi, music of white skin head white supremacist and antisemitic offshoot of the skinhead subculture. Many of them are affiliated with white natio ...
s, the National Front, and the
British National Party The British National Party (BNP) is a Far-right politics, far-right, British fascism, fascist list of political parties in the United Kingdom, political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and is led by Adam ...
(BNP), throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Drawing inspiration from the civil rights movement, the
black power Black power is a list of political slogans, political slogan and a name which is given to various associated ideologies which aim to achieve self-determination for black people. It is primarily, but not exclusively, used in the United States b ...
movement, and the anti-apartheid movement, young British Pakistani and
British Bangladeshi British Bangladeshis () are citizens or residents of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots are from Bangladesh. Bengali Muslims have prominently been migrating to the UK since World War II. Migration reached its peak during the 1970s, with ...
activists began a number of
anti-racist Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and delibera ...
Asian youth movements in the 1970s and 1980s, including the Bradford Youth Movement in 1977, the Bangladeshi Youth Movement following the murder of Altab Ali in 1978, and the Newham Youth Movement following the murder of Akhtar Ali Baig in 1980. The majority of mosques founded after World War II in Britain are reflective of the major strands of Sunni Islam predominating in the Indian subcontinent; namely
Deobandi The Deobandi movement or Deobandism is a revivalist movement within Sunni Islam that adheres to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence. It was formed in the late 19th century around the Darul Uloom Madrassa in Deoband, India, from which the nam ...
and
Barelvi The Barelvi movement, also known as Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah (People of the Prophet's Way and the Community) is a Sunni revivalist movement that generally adheres to the Hanafi school, Hanafi and Shafi'i school, Shafi'i schools of jurisprudenc ...
(the latter of which is more
Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...
-orientated). There are also a smaller number of
Salafi The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a fundamentalist revival movement within Sunni Islam, originating in the late 19th century and influential in the Islamic world to this day. The name "''Salafiyya''" is a self-designation, claiming a retu ...
-oriented mosques, inspired by
Abul A'la Maududi Abul A'la al-Maududi (; – ) was an Islamic scholar, Islamist ideologue, Muslim philosopher, jurist, historian, journalist, activist, and scholar active in British India and later, following the partition, in Pakistan. Described by Wilfred C ...
and , are representative of the Arab mainstream or are associated with the UK Turkish Islamic Trust. In addition to this there are Twelver Shīʿa Mosques. The Murabitun World Movement founded by Abdalqadir as-Sufi (born Ian Dallas) in 1968 is a branch of the Sufi
Darqawi The Darqawiyya or Darqawi Sufi order is a revivalist branch of the Shadhiliyah brotherhood which originated in Morocco. The Darqawa comprised the followers of Sheikh Muhammad al-Arabi al-Darqawi (1760–1823) of Morocco. The movement, which becam ...
-
Shadhili The Shadhili Order () is a tariqah or Sufi order. The Shadhili order was founded by Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili in the 13th century and is followed by millions of people around the world. Many followers (Arabic ''murids'', "seekers") of the Shadhil ...
-
Qadiri The Qadiriyya () or the Qadiri order () is a Sunni Sufi order (''Tariqa'') founded by Abdul Qadir Gilani (1077–1166, also transliterated ''Jilani''), who was a Hanbali scholar from Gilan, Iran. The order, with its many sub-orders, is wides ...
tariqa A ''tariqa'' () is a religious order of Sufism, or specifically a concept for the mystical teaching and spiritual practices of such an order with the aim of seeking , which translates as "ultimate truth". A tariqa has a (guide) who plays the ...
which was run out of Achnagairn in the
Scottish Highlands The Highlands (; , ) is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Scottish Lowlands, Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Scots language, Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gae ...
. Martin Lings, an English Muslim scholar, published a biography of Muhammad in 1983 entitled '' Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources''. The publication of
Salman Rushdie Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie ( ; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British and American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern wor ...
's novel ''
The Satanic Verses ''The Satanic Verses'' is the fourth novel from the Indian-British writer Salman Rushdie. First published in September 1988, the book was inspired by the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. As with his previous books, Rushdie used magical re ...
'' in 1988 caused major controversy. A number of Muslims in Britain condemned the book for
blasphemy Blasphemy refers to an insult that shows contempt, disrespect or lack of Reverence (emotion), reverence concerning a deity, an object considered sacred, or something considered Sanctity of life, inviolable. Some religions, especially Abrahamic o ...
. On 2 December 1988, the book was publicly burned at a demonstration in
Bolton Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and vill ...
attended by 7,000 Muslims, followed by a similar demonstration and book-burning in
Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...
on 14 January 1989. Recently, several wars in the
Balkans The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...
, Middle East and North Africa have led to many Muslims migrating to the United Kingdom. In 1992, with the outbreak of the
Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incid ...
, a large number of Bosniaks who fled the ethnic cleansing and genocide ended up settling in Britain. Their numbers currently exist at between 10,000 and 15,000 including their descendants. Just over three years later, an insurgency in Kosovo beginning in 1995, eventually evolving into the
Kosovo War The Kosovo War (; sr-Cyrl-Latn, Косовски рат, Kosovski rat) was an armed conflict in Kosovo that lasted from 28 February 1998 until 11 June 1999. It ...
in 1998, would see 29,000
Kosovo Albanians The Albanians of Kosovo (, ), also commonly called Kosovo Albanians, Kosovan Albanians or Kosovars (), constitute the largest ethnic group in Kosovo. Kosovo Albanians belong to the Albanians, ethnic Albanian sub-group of Ghegs, who inhabit the ...
flee their homes and settle in Britain. It is commonly believed that many Albanians from Albania moved to the United Kingdom at this time, posing as refugees from Kosovo, in search of a better life in the UK. A mere decade later, the
Arab Spring The Arab Spring () was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings, and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began Tunisian revolution, in Tunisia ...
(and later
Arab Winter The Arab Winter () is a term referring to the resurgence of authoritarianism and Islamic extremism in some Arab countries in the 2010s in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. The term "Arab Winter" refers to the events across Arab League countrie ...
) brought a wave of Muslim refugees fleeing civil war in Syria,
war in Iraq This is a list of wars involving the Republic of Iraq and its predecessor states. , style="background:#F88" , Coalition of Gulf War, Coalition victory * Kuwait, State of Kuwait resumes self-governance over all Kuwaiti sovereign territory * Esta ...
, two wars in Libya, war in Yemen and countless other insurgencies by political groups and other terrorist organisations which exerted control over vast swathes of territory in the Middle East. Britain took on 20,000 refugees from Syria and 11,647 from Iraq. The growing number of Muslims resulted in the establishment of more than 1,500 mosques by 2007.


Demographics

According to the
2021 United Kingdom census 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, Numeral (linguistics), numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest Positive number, positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in o ...
, Muslims in England and Wales numbered 3,868,133, or 6.5% of the population. Northern Ireland recorded a population of 10,870, or 0.6% of the population, with the highest number of Muslims recorded in
Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...
at 5,487, or 1.59% of the population. The equivalent census was conducted a year later in Scotland and recorded a population of 119,872, or 2.2% of the population. In Scotland,
Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
recorded the highest number of Muslims at 48,766, or 7.86% of the population. Ethnic group, national identity, language and religion > Religion UV205 The top 25 local authorities in the United Kingdom with the highest percentage of Muslims based on the 2021 census were: In the 2021 census for England and Wales, the main places of birth were the United Kingdom at 1,974,479 people (51.0% of the total Muslim population),
South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...
at 993,415 (25.7%), Africa at 366,133 (9.5%), other parts of Europe at 262,685 (6.8%) and the Middle East at 231,261 (6.0%). Among individual countries outside of the UK, the countries of Pakistan; Bangladesh; Somalia; India; Iraq; Turkey; Afghanistan; Iran; Syria; and Italy made up the top ten most common countries of birth for Muslims residing in England and Wales. 59.7% of Muslims identified as either
Pakistani Pakistanis (, ) are the citizens and nationals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. As much as ...
/
Bangladeshi Bangladeshis ( ) are the citizens and nationals of Bangladesh, a South Asian country centred on the transnational historical region of Bengal along the Bay of Bengal, eponymous bay. Bangladeshi nationality law, Bangladeshi citizenship was fo ...
/ Indian, 6.2% were of other Asian heritage, 10.8% identified as
Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...
, 7.2% identified as
Arab Arabs (,  , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...
, 5.9% were
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 3.7% were of Mixed heritage, and the remaining 6.6% identified with other ethnic groups. The Muslim population of England and Wales has grown consistently since World War II. Sophie Gilliat-Ray attributes the recent growth to "recent immigration, the higher than average birth rate, some conversion to Islam". In 2017,
Pew Research Center The Pew Research Center (also simply known as Pew) is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world. It ...
projected the population of Muslims in the United Kingdom to grow to 6.56 million (12.7% of the population) by 2050 under a zero migration scenario, or to 13.48 million (17.2%) under a high migration scenario. 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 Dewsbury is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder, West Yorkshire, River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, ...
. 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 The East London Mosque (ELM) is situated in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets between Whitechapel and Aldgate East. Combined with the adjoining London Muslim Centre and Maryam Centre, it is one of the largest mosques in Western Europe accomm ...
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 , and their identity is based on their religion rather than their
ethnic group An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...
. 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 Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...
,
Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...
,
Adygea Adygea ( ), officially the Republic of Adygea or the Adygean Republic, is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia. It is situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe. The republic is a part of the Southern Federal District, and covers an a ...
,
Chechnya Chechnya, officially the Chechen Republic, is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia. It is situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, between the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The republic forms a part of the North Caucasian Federa ...
,
Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...
,
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
,
Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
, the region of
East Macedonia and Thrace Eastern Macedonia and Thrace ( ; , ) is one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It consists of the northeastern parts of the country, comprising the eastern part of the region of Macedonia along with the region of Western Thr ...
in
Northern Greece Northern Greece () is used to refer to the northern parts of Greece, and can have various definitions. Administrative term The term "Northern Greece" is widely used to refer mainly to the two northern regions of Macedonia and (Western) Thra ...
, and
North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...
. 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 Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...
and
Sikhism Sikhism is an Indian religion and Indian philosophy, philosophy that originated in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent around the end of the 15th century CE. It is one of the most recently founded major religious groups, major religio ...
. 8% of UK Muslims are of Indian descent, principally those whose origins are in
Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...
,
West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...
,
Telangana Telangana is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated in the Southern India, south-central part of the Indian subcontinent on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, ele ...
and
Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...
. Gujarati Muslims from the
Surat Surat (Gujarati Language, Gujarati: ) is a city in the western Indian States and territories of India, state of Gujarat. The word Surat directly translates to ''face'' in Urdu, Gujarati language, Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of t ...
and
Bharuch Bharuch () is a city at the mouth of the river Narmada in Gujarat in western India. Bharuch is the administrative headquarters of Bharuch District. The city of Bharuch and surroundings have been settled since times of antiquity. It was a shi ...
districts started to arrive from the 1940s when India was under British colonial rule, settling in the towns of
Dewsbury Dewsbury is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder, West Yorkshire, River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, ...
and
Batley Batley is a market town in the Kirklees district, in West Yorkshire, England, south-west of Leeds, north-west of Wakefield and Dewsbury, south-east of Bradford and north-east of Huddersfield, in the Heavy Woollen District. In 2011, the popu ...
in Yorkshire and in parts of Lancashire.


South Asian


Pakistanis

The single largest group of Muslims in the United Kingdom are of Pakistani descent. Pakistanis were one of the first
South Asian South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...
Muslim communities to permanently settle in the United Kingdom, arriving in
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
first in the late 1940s. Immigration from Mirpur in Pakistan grew from the late 1950s, accompanied by immigration from other parts of Pakistan especially from
Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...
, particularly from the surrounding Punjab villages of
Faisalabad Faisalabad, formerly known as Lyallpur, is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, second-largest city and primary List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, industrial center of the Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan ...
,
Sahiwal Sahiwal ( Punjabi / ; ; ), formerly known as Montgomery, is a city in central Punjab, Pakistan. It is the administrative capital of both Sahiwal District and Sahiwal Division. It is the 19th largest city of Pakistan by population accordin ...
,
Sialkot Sialkot (Punjabi language, Punjabi, ) is a city located in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the capital of the Sialkot District and the List of most populous cities in Pakistan, 12th most populous city in Pakistan. The boundaries of Sialkot are joined ...
,
Jhelum Jhelum (; , ) is a city, located along the western bank of the Jhelum River, in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the 21st largest city in Punjab and 31st largest in Pakistan, by population. Located in northern Punjab, it serves as the capital of the ...
,
Gujar Khan Gujar Khan ( ; ) is a city in Rawalpindi District, Punjab, Pakistan. It is also the headquarters of Gujar Khan Tehsil, the largest tehsil of Punjab by land area. Gujar Khan is located approximately southeast of Islamabad, the capital of Pak ...
and
Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...
, in addition to from the north-west Punjab including the
chhachh Chhachh or Chach (Hindko: ) is a region located in Punjab, Pakistan between Peshawar and Islamabad at the northern tip of Attock, consisting of an alluvial plain extending from Attock District of Punjab, Pakistan, southwest of Topi and Swabi. ...
i Pathans and Pashtuns from
Attock District Attock District ( Punjabi/Urdu), known as Campbellpur District during British Raj, is a district, located on the Pothohar Plateau, in north western Punjab, Pakistan; created in April 1904. According to 2023 Pakistani census population of Att ...
, and some from villages of Ghazi, Nowshera and
Peshawar Peshawar is the capital and List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the sixth most populous city of Pakistan, with a district p ...
. There is also a fairly large Punjabi community from
East Africa East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the Africa, African continent, distinguished by its unique geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the regi ...
found in London. People of Pakistani extraction are particularly notable in West Midlands,
West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...
, London,
Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
/
Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...
and several industrial towns such as
Luton Luton () is a town and borough in Bedfordshire, England. The borough had a population of 225,262 at the 2021 census. Luton is on the River Lea, about north-west of London. The town's foundation dates to the sixth century as a Saxon settleme ...
,
Slough Slough () is a town in Berkshire, England, in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4, M40 and M25 motorways. It is part of the historic county of Buckinghamshire. In 2021, the ...
and
High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye, Buckinghamshire, River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, ...
in the Home Counties. There are smaller numbers of
Sindhis Sindhis are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group originating from and native to Sindh, a region of Pakistan, who share a common Sindhi culture, history, ancestry, and language. The historical homeland of Sindhis is bordered by southeastern Balochi ...
in
Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...
. Pakistanis were traditionally working class but are slowly progressing into a Metropolitan middle class. Chain migration played a significant role, as many of the early migrants helped bring their family members to the UK. Today, the British Mirpuri diaspora is one of the largest Kashmiri communities outside of South Asia, with strong ties to cities like Bradford, Birmingham, and Manchester.


Bangladeshis

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 Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
. The majority of these Muslims come from the
Sylhet Division Sylhet Division () is a northeastern Divisions of Bangladesh, division of Bangladesh, renowned for its lush tea gardens, rolling hills and vibrant cultural heritage. Covering an area of approximately 12,298 square kilometres, it is bordered by t ...
of Bangladesh. Many mosques opened by the British Bangladeshi community are often named after
Shah Jalal Shāh Jalāl Mujarrad Kunyāʾī (), popularly known as Shah Jalal (), was a celebrated Sufi Saint, conqueror and historical figure of Bengal. His name is often associated with the Muslim conquest of Sylhet and the Spread of Islam into the ...
and other Sufi saints who took part in the Islamic conquest of Sylhet in 1303. British Bangladeshi Muslims are mainly concentrated in London ( Tower Hamlets and
Newham The London Borough of Newham () is a London boroughs, London borough created in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. It covers an area previously administered by the Essex county boroughs of County Borough of West Ham, West Ham and County ...
),
Luton Luton () is a town and borough in Bedfordshire, England. The borough had a population of 225,262 at the 2021 census. Luton is on the River Lea, about north-west of London. The town's foundation dates to the sixth century as a Saxon settleme ...
,
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
and
Oldham Oldham is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers River Irk, Irk and River Medlock, Medlock, southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative cent ...
. The Bangladeshi Muslim community in London forms 24% of the Muslim population, larger than any other ethnic group. Other smaller Bangladeshi Muslim communities are present in
Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...
,
Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...
,
Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
,
Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...
,
Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...
, and
Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England, and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. In the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 111,261, compared to 223,773 for the wid ...
. There are groups which are active throughout Bangladeshi communities such as The Young Muslim Organisation. It is connected to the Islamic Forum Europe, associated with the
East London Mosque The East London Mosque (ELM) is situated in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets between Whitechapel and Aldgate East. Combined with the adjoining London Muslim Centre and Maryam Centre, it is one of the largest mosques in Western Europe accomm ...
and the London Muslim Centre – all of which have connections with the Bangladeshi political party, the . Other large groups include another Sunni movement, the Fultoli (founded in Sylhet), and the
Tablighi Jamaat Tablighi Jamaat ( , also translated as "propagation party" or "preaching party") is an international Islamic schools and branches, Islamic religious movement. It focuses on exhorting Muslims to be more religiously observant and encourages f ...
– which is a
missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...
and revival movement, and avoids political attention. The
Hizb ut-Tahrir Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT; ) is an international pan-Islamist and Islamic fundamentalist political organization whose stated aim is the re-establishment of the Islamic caliphate to unite the Muslim community (called ''ummah'') and implement sharia glo ...
calls for the
Khilafah A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...
(caliphate) and influences by publishing annual magazines, and lectures through mainly political concepts, and the other which is a movement within
Sunni Islam Sunni Islam is the largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any Succession to Muhammad, successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr ...
is the
Salafi The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a fundamentalist revival movement within Sunni Islam, originating in the late 19th century and influential in the Islamic world to this day. The name "''Salafiyya''" is a self-designation, claiming a retu ...
– who view the teachings of the first generations after Muhammed as the correct teachings, and appeals to younger Muslims as a way to differentiate themselves towards their elders.''The Next Attack'', By Daniel Benjamin Steven Simon, – Page 55 All these groups work to stimulate Islamic identity among local Bengalis or Muslims and particularly focus on the younger members of the communities. The British Bangladeshi community has held a strong point in Islam, often opening large mosques such as
East London Mosque The East London Mosque (ELM) is situated in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets between Whitechapel and Aldgate East. Combined with the adjoining London Muslim Centre and Maryam Centre, it is one of the largest mosques in Western Europe accomm ...
and Brick Lane Masjid, as well as opening madrassas and Islamic TV channels.


Indians

There are large numbers of Gujarati Muslims in
Dewsbury Dewsbury is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder, West Yorkshire, River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, ...
,
Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the River Ribble, Ribble Valley, east of Preston ...
(including
Darwen Darwen is a market town and civil parish in the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The residents of the town are known as "Darreners". The A666 road, A666 road passes through Darwen towards Blackburn to the north, Bolton to ...
),
Bolton Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and vill ...
, Preston,
Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...
,
Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...
,
Nuneaton Nuneaton ( ) is a market town in Warwickshire, England, close to the county border with Leicestershire to the north-east.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : Nuneaton's population at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 censu ...
,
Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...
and London (
Newham The London Borough of Newham () is a London boroughs, London borough created in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. It covers an area previously administered by the Essex county boroughs of County Borough of West Ham, West Ham and County ...
,
Waltham Forest The London Borough of Waltham Forest () is an outer London borough formed in 1965 from the merger of the municipal boroughs of Leyton, Walthamstow and Chingford. The borough's administrative headquarters are at Waltham Forest Town Hall, wh ...
and Hackney).


Middle Eastern


Arabs

People of Arab origin in Britain are the descendants of Arab immigrants to Britain from a variety of Arab states or entities, including
Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...
,
Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
,
Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
,
Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...
,
Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...
,
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
and the
Palestinian Authority The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, ...
. Most British Arabs are Sunni Muslim, although some – such as those of Iraqi and Lebanese origin – are Shi'ite. The main Arab Muslim communities in the UK live in the Greater London area, with smaller numbers living in
Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
,
Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
, and
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
. There are also sizable and very long-established communities of Muslim Yemenis in the United Kingdom in among other places
Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...
and the
South Shields South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England; it is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. The town was once known in Roman Britain, Roman times as ''Arbeia'' and as ''Caer Urfa'' by the Early Middle Ag ...
area near
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...
.


Kurds

The UK has a significant Iraqi Kurdish population. Iraqi Kurds are mostly Sunni Muslims. According to the
Department for Communities and Local Government The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for housing, communities, and local government in England. It was established in May 200 ...
, the Iraqi Kurds make up the largest group of Kurds in the country, exceeding the numbers from
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
and
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
. The 2001 UK Census recorded 32,236 Iraqi-born residents, and the
Office for National Statistics The Office for National Statistics (ONS; ) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament. Overview The ONS is responsible fo ...
estimates that, as of 2009, this figure had risen to around 65,000. According to estimates by the Iraqi embassy, the Iraqi population in the UK is around 350,000–450,000.


Turks

Turks in the United Kingdom represent a unique community in the country because they have emigrated not only from the
Republic of Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
but also from other former Ottoman regions; in fact, the majority of British Turks are
Turkish Cypriots Turkish Cypriots or Cypriot Turks ( or ; ) are so called ethnic Turks originating from Cyprus. Turkish Cypriots are mainly Sunni Muslims. Following the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1571, about 30,000 Turkish settlers were given land onc ...
who migrated from the island of
Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...
from the British colonial period onwards. The second largest Turkish community descend from Turkey. There has also been ethnic Turkish migration waves from Arabic-speaking countries (such as
Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
and
Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
) as well as the
Balkans The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...
(including
Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
,
Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
, and
Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
). A report published by the
Home Affairs Committee The Home Affairs Select Committee is a departmental select committee of the House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of ...
in 2011 claimed that there was 500,000 British Turks, made up of approximately 150,000 Turkish nationals, 300,000
Turkish Cypriots Turkish Cypriots or Cypriot Turks ( or ; ) are so called ethnic Turks originating from Cyprus. Turkish Cypriots are mainly Sunni Muslims. Following the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1571, about 30,000 Turkish settlers were given land onc ...
, and the remainder from other countries. , there was a growing number of ethnic Turks from the modern diaspora in Western Europe; for example, Turks with German and Dutch citizenship (i.e. Turkish Germans and Turkish Dutch) had also immigrated to Britain in accordance with the freedom of movement under EU law.
Turkish Cypriots Turkish Cypriots or Cypriot Turks ( or ; ) are so called ethnic Turks originating from Cyprus. Turkish Cypriots are mainly Sunni Muslims. Following the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1571, about 30,000 Turkish settlers were given land onc ...
first began to migrate to the United Kingdom in 1917. At the time, the
British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...
had already annexed Cyprus and the residents of Cyprus became subjects of the Crown. Migration continued through the 1920s;. during the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the number of Turkish-run cafes increased from 20 in 1939 to 200 in 1945 – creating a demand for more Turkish Cypriot workers. However, due to the Cyprus conflict, many Turkish Cypriots began to leave the island for political reasons in the 1950s, with the numbers increasing significantly after the intercommunal violence of late 1963. With the subsequent division of the island in 1974 (followed by the declaration of the
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Northern Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a '' de facto'' state that comprises the northeastern portion of the island of Cyprus. It is recognised only by Turkey, and its territory is considered by all o ...
in 1983) an economic embargo against the Turkish Cypriots by the Greek Cypriot controlled Republic of Cyprus, caused a further 130,000 Turkish Cypriots to leave the Island for the United Kingdom. Migrant workers from the
Republic of Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
began to arrive in large numbers in the 1970s, followed by their family members in the late 1970s and 1980s. Many of these workers were recruited by Turkish Cypriots who had already established businesses such as restaurants. These workers were required to renew their work permits every year until they became residents after living in the country for five years. By the 1980s, intellectuals, including students, and highly educated professionals arrived in the country, most of which received support from the Turkish Cypriot community. Mainland Turks settled in similar areas of London in which the Turkish Cypriots lived in; however, many have also moved to the outer districts, such as
Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...
. The Turkish community have established several mosques in the country. The first was Shacklewell Lane Mosque, established by the Turkish Cypriot community in 1977. There are numerous other Turkish mosques in London, mainly in Hackney, including the Aziziye Mosque and Suleymaniye Mosque. Notable Turkish mosques outside London include Selimiye Mosque in
Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
, Hamidiye Mosque in
Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...
, and Osmaniye Mosque in
Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England. It has an estimated population of 259,965 as of 2022, making it the largest settlement in Staffordshire ...
. Turks from the same districts from their homeland tend to congregate in the same quarters in the UK.. The majority live in capital city of London, particularly in Hackney, Haringey, Enfield,
Lewisham Lewisham ( ) is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in ...
,
Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, which today also gives its name to the (much larger) London Borough of Lambeth. Lambeth itself was an ancient parish in the county of Surrey. It is situated 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Charin ...
,
Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...
,
Croydon Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...
,
Islington Islington ( ) is an inner-city area of north London, England, within the wider London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's #Islington High Street, High Street to Highbury Fields ...
,
Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...
,
Waltham Forest The London Borough of Waltham Forest () is an outer London borough formed in 1965 from the merger of the municipal boroughs of Leyton, Walthamstow and Chingford. The borough's administrative headquarters are at Waltham Forest Town Hall, wh ...
, and
Wood Green Wood Green is a suburban district of the London Borough of Haringey, London, England. Its postal district is N22, with parts in N8 or N15. The London Plan identifies it as one of the metropolitan centres in Greater London, and today it forms ...
. Outside London there are smaller Turkish communities in
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
,
Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...
,
Luton Luton () is a town and borough in Bedfordshire, England. The borough had a population of 225,262 at the 2021 census. Luton is on the River Lea, about north-west of London. The town's foundation dates to the sixth century as a Saxon settleme ...
,
Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
,
Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...
and the
East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire (except for North Lincolnshire and North East ...
.


African


Maghrebis

Although data is short, findings indicate Maghrebis make up a substantial community in Europe and the United Kingdom. Britain has long ties with Maghrebis, through contact with the
Maghrebis Maghrebis or Maghrebians () are the inhabitants of the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is a modern Arabic term meaning "Westerners", denoting their location in the western part of the Arab world. Maghrebis are predominantly of Arab and Berber ...
. Nevertheless, Britain has a far lower count of Maghrebis in comparison to France, the Netherlands and Spain, where the majority of Muslims are Maghrebi.


Nigerians

A 2009 government paper estimated the Nigerian Muslim community at 12,000 to 14,000 people. The community is concentrated in London. Nigerian Muslims in the UK are represented by several community organizations including the Nigeria Muslim Forum.


Somalis

The United Kingdom, with 43,532 Somalia-born residents in 2001, and an estimated 101,000 in 2008, Figure given is the central estimate. See the source for 95 per cent confidence intervals. is home to the largest Somali community in
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
. 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. Further more Somali European such as from Holland or Denmark have been emigrating in recent years. Established Somali communities are found in
Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...
,
Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...
,
Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
and London, and newer ones have formed in
Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...
,
Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
and
Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...
.


White European

The history of native British Muslims has a long presence in the country. The earliest known Englishman to convert to Islam was John Nelson of the 16th century. Thomas Keith was a
Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
soldier who converted to Islam and became the governor of
Medina Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...
. The pirate
Jack Ward John Ward or Jack Ward ( 1553 – 1622), also known as Birdy, Sparrow or later as Yusuf Reis, was an English people, English pirate who later became a Barbary pirates, Corsair for the Ottoman Empire operating out of Ottoman Tunisia, Tunis ...
, one of the inspirations for Captain Jack Sparrow, converted to Islam in the early 1600s. Another famous convert was the Victorian explorer
Richard Francis Burton Captain (British Army and Royal Marines), Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton, Order of St Michael and St George, KCMG, Royal Geographical Society#Fellowship, FRGS, (19 March 1821 – 20 October 1890) was a British explorer, army officer, orien ...
who successfully completed a
Hajj Hajj (; ; also spelled Hadj, Haj or Haji) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for capable Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetim ...
to
Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...
in 1853, although later in life he declared himself an atheist. Abdullah Quilliam was a 19th-century Englishman who converted to Islam and built what is argued to be the first mosque in the country in Liverpool. He was known locally for his work advocating trade unionism and divorce law reform and persuaded more people in Liverpool to convert but they faced abuse from the wider society.


Branches

An August 2017 survey by the
Bertelsmann Stiftung The Bertelsmann Stiftung is an independent Foundation (nonprofit), foundation under private law, based in Gütersloh, Germany. It was founded in 1977 by Reinhard Mohn as the result of social, corporate and fiscal considerations. The foundati ...
foundation found that among British Muslims, 75% were Sunni and 8% were Shia. A September 2017 survey by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research found that among British Muslims, 77% were Sunni, 5% were Shia, 1% were Ahmadiyya, and 4% were members of other denominations. 14% of British Muslims said they did not know or refused to answer the survey. The denominational or theme breakdown of mosques and prayer rooms in the UK in 2017 with a sum total of more than 5% were as follows: 41.2% Deobandi, 23.7% Barelvi, 9.4% Salafi, and 5.9% Shia (Twelver, Bohra, Ismaili). 7.4% were non-denominational prayer rooms.


Sunni

In 2015, ''
The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...
'' stated that were 2.3 million
Sunni Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Mu ...
s in the UK. Among British Sunnis in 2017, 66.7% were just non-denominational Sunni, 5.9% were Barelvi, 5.0% were Salafis, 4.1% were Deobandi, and 18.3% adhered to another Sunni Islam denomination. The majority of British mosques are
Sunni Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Mu ...
, including
Deobandi The Deobandi movement or Deobandism is a revivalist movement within Sunni Islam that adheres to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence. It was formed in the late 19th century around the Darul Uloom Madrassa in Deoband, India, from which the nam ...
,
Barelvi The Barelvi movement, also known as Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah (People of the Prophet's Way and the Community) is a Sunni revivalist movement that generally adheres to the Hanafi school, Hanafi and Shafi'i school, Shafi'i schools of jurisprudenc ...
s and
Salafi The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a fundamentalist revival movement within Sunni Islam, originating in the late 19th century and influential in the Islamic world to this day. The name "''Salafiyya''" is a self-designation, claiming a retu ...
. In 2010 the affiliation of the mosques was: 44.6%
Deobandi The Deobandi movement or Deobandism is a revivalist movement within Sunni Islam that adheres to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence. It was formed in the late 19th century around the Darul Uloom Madrassa in Deoband, India, from which the nam ...
, 28.2%
Barelvi The Barelvi movement, also known as Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah (People of the Prophet's Way and the Community) is a Sunni revivalist movement that generally adheres to the Hanafi school, Hanafi and Shafi'i school, Shafi'i schools of jurisprudenc ...
and other
Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...
, 5.8%
Salafi The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a fundamentalist revival movement within Sunni Islam, originating in the late 19th century and influential in the Islamic world to this day. The name "''Salafiyya''" is a self-designation, claiming a retu ...
, 2.8% Maudoodi-inspired; of the remainder many were part of other Sunni traditions or unaffiliated, while 4.2% were
Shi'a Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor ( caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community ( imam). However, his right is understoo ...
(4%). The majority of mosque managers are of
Pakistani Pakistanis (, ) are the citizens and nationals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. As much as ...
and
Bangladeshi Bangladeshis ( ) are the citizens and nationals of Bangladesh, a South Asian country centred on the transnational historical region of Bengal along the Bay of Bengal, eponymous bay. Bangladeshi nationality law, Bangladeshi citizenship was fo ...
origin, with many Gujarati, and fewer
Arab Arabs (,  , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...
, Turkish and Somali managed entities.


Shia

In 2015, ''
The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...
'' stated that were 400,000 Shias in the UK. Shia mosques are usually
Twelvers Twelver Shi'ism (), also known as Imamism () or Ithna Ashari, is the largest branch of Shi'a Islam, comprising about 90% of all Shi'a Muslims. The term ''Twelver'' refers to its adherents' belief in twelve divinely ordained leaders, known as t ...
but also cater for
Zaydi Zaydism () is a branch of Shia Islam that emerged in the eighth century following Zayd ibn Ali's unsuccessful rebellion against the Umayyad Caliphate. Zaydism is one of the three main branches of Shi'ism, with the other two being Twelverism ...
s and the 50,000-strong
Ismaili Ismailism () is a branch of Shia Islam. The Isma'ili () get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor ( imām) to Ja'far al-Sadiq, wherein they differ from the Twelver Shia, who accept ...
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 as well as Masjid-e-Ali in Luton, one of the largest Imam Bargah/community centres in the UK, and the Islamic Centre of England in Maida Vale, also a large multi-ethnic community centre. Others include Al Masjid ul Husseini in Northolt, Ealing, and Imam Khoei Islamic Centre in Queens Park, Brent. Across the country Manchester, Birmingham and London have the most Shia residents.


Ahmadiyyat

The
Ahmadiyya Ahmadiyya, officially the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (AMJ), is an Islamic messianic movement originating in British India in the late 19th century. It was founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835–1908), who said he had been divinely appointed a ...
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 Blessed Mosque' (Masjid Mubarak), inaugurated on 17 May 2019 by
Mirza Masroor Ahmad Mirza Masroor Ahmad (; born 15 September 1950) is the current and fifth leader of the Ahmadiyya, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. His official title within the movement is Ahmadiyya Caliphate, Fifth Caliph of the Messiah (, ''khalīfatul masīh al- ...
, the fifth
caliph A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...
of the
Ahmadiyya movement Ahmadiyya, officially the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (AMJ), is an Islamic messianic movement originating in British India in the late 19th century. It was founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835–1908), who said he had been divinely appointed a ...
, in Tilford, Surrey. 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 (), in the UK (membership of 10,000). In 2014, on the 125th anniversary of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, the group published an advertisement in ''Luton on Sunday''. After Dr. Fiaz Hussain, coordinator of the Preservation of Finality of Prophethood Forum (PFPF), lodged a written complaint stating the Ahmadiyya community should not be called "Muslim" due to its rejection of certain Islamic principles, the paper received a delegation of "Community Leaders" and soon issued an apology, disassociating itself from the advertisement. Tell MAMA responded, labeling attempts to intimidate or discriminate against Ahmadiyya Muslims "as anti-Muslim in nature."


Society


Economics

In a 2010 aggregate study published by the
Government Equalities Office The Office for Equality and Opportunity (OEO, formerly known as the Government Equalities Office) is the unit of the British government with responsibility for social equality. Based in the Cabinet Office, it is led by the Minister for Women a ...
, Muslims in the United Kingdom had the lowest median hourly salary and held the least wealth amongst religious groups. They also held the lowest employment rates amongst religious groups, at 24% for Muslim women and 47% for Muslim men. The study noted that Muslim women who worked earned more than Muslim men and that Muslim men were more likely to be in self employment compared to the general population of men. Muslim men also had the smallest proportion with degrees, at 18%. More than two-fifths of Muslim men and women have no qualification beyond
level 1 Level 1 may refer to: Technology and standards * Level 1 (National Qualifications Framework) * level 1 cache, a type of CPU cache (Computer Memory) * A Level I trauma center * Level 1, a level of automation in a self-driving car (see Autonomous ...
(equivalent to grades D-G at GCSE). According to analysis based on the 2011 census, Muslims in the United Kingdom faced poor standards of housing and were more vulnerable to long-term illness. According to a 2013 assessment from the Muslim Council of Britain, it was estimated that there were more than 10,000 Muslim millionaires and 13,400 Muslim-owned businesses in London, creating more than 70,000 jobs and representing just over 33 per cent of Small to Medium Enterprises in London. Amongst the economically active population in England and Wales, 19.8% of the Muslim population were in full-time employment compared to 34.9% of the overall population. Data from the ONS for England and Wales in 2020 indicated that across religious groups, Muslims continue to hold the lowest earnings, lowest rates of employment, highest rates of economic inactivity, least likely to work in high-skilled occupations, least likely to hold managerial positions, and most likely to report holding no qualifications. However, there had been progress in these metrics. The
2021 United Kingdom census 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, Numeral (linguistics), numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest Positive number, positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in o ...
for England and Wales found that the Muslim population had consistently lower rates of employment across every age group compared to the general population. Between the ages of 25–54, the employment rate for Muslims was typically 60% compared to around 80% across the whole population. Overall, 48.6% of working aged British Muslims were in employment, with the employment rate of Muslim women improving to 37%. Muslim women were 3.5 times more likely to report economic inactivity due to looking after family or home compared to the general population of women. The 2021 census for England and Wales recorded 41.5% of Muslims either owning their home with a mortgage (26.3%) or outright (15.2%). 31.3% rent privately or live rent free and the remaining 27.2% live in
social housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...
. Across religious groups, Muslims were the most likely to live in social housing (compared to 17.1% of the wider population) and held the lowest rates of home ownership (compared to 62.8% of the wider population).


Education

Around 32.3% of Muslims in the UK held degree-level qualifications, according to the 2021 UK Census. This is higher than White British (31%) and Christians (31.6%). In contrast, a higher proportion of Muslims in the UK held no qualifications (25%), in comparison with White British (18.3%) and Christians (20.8%). 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 Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
(77%) and
Sikhs Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Sikh'' ...
(63%). There are around 184 Muslim
faith schools A faith school is a school in the United Kingdom that teaches a general curriculum but which has a particular religious character or formal links with a religious or faith-based organisation. The term is most commonly applied to state-funded fai ...
in the UK, 28 of them being state-funded. In 2008, 86.5% of pupils attending Muslim schools achieved five
GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools ...
s, compared to a figure of 72.8% of
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
schools and 64.5% of secular schools. In 2019, four Islamic schools were in the top ten ranking for secondary schools in England, including Tauheedul Islam Girls High School in first place. In 2018, the
Crown Prosecution Service The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal adv ...
brought its first prosecution in England & Wales against an unregistered school, the Islamic
faith school A faith school is a school in the United Kingdom that teaches a general curriculum but which has a particular religious character or formal links with a religious or faith-based organisation. The term is most commonly applied to state-funded fai ...
''Al-Istiqamah Learning Centre'' in
Southall Southall () is a large suburban town in West London, England, part of the London Borough of Ealing and is one of its seven major towns. It is situated west of Charing Cross and had a population of 69,857 as of 2011. It is generally divided ...
, London where nearly 60 children aged 5–11 were being taught. Head teacher Beatrix Bernhardt and director Nacerdine Talbi were convicted as running a school not registered with the
Department for Education The Department for Education (DfE) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for child protection, child services, education in England, educati ...
violates the Education and Skills Act 2008. They received fines and a
curfew A curfew is an order that imposes certain regulations during specified hours. Typically, curfews order all people affected by them to remain indoors during the evening and nighttime hours. Such an order is most often issued by public authorit ...
.


Politics

Muslims are playing an increasingly prominent role in political life. Nineteen Muslim MPs were elected in the December 2019 general election, and there are nineteen Muslim peers in the
House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
. 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 The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a Board of directors, board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by ...
and the Conservative Party Sayeeda Warsi, described by ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' as a 'rising star' in the Tory party. Warsi, who was the first Muslim to serve in a British cabinet, was appointed by
David Cameron David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Until 2015, he led the first coalition government in the UK s ...
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. Muslim political parties in Britain have included the
People's Justice Party (UK) The People's Justice Party (PJP) was a political party in the United Kingdom from 1998 to 2006. It began in 1998 growing out of a protest movement ''Justice for Kashmir'', which first gave rise to the ''Justice Party'' and then the People's Jus ...
, a Pakistani and Kashmiri party that won city council seats in Manchester in the 2000s, and the unsuccessful Islamic Party of Britain, an Islamist party in Bradford in the 1990s. In 2023, the
Electoral Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...
rejected an application to set up a new political party named 'Party of Islam'. In the 2017 general election, 15 Muslim MPs (12 Labour and 3 Conservative) were elected, up from 13 Muslim MPs in 2015 general election. In the 2019 general election, a record number of 19 Muslim MPs were elected (15 Labour and 4 Conservative). Survey data analysed by
UK in a Changing Europe The UK in a Changing Europe is a pro EU think tank intended to improve access to research on the relationship between the UK and the European Union (EU). It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and is based at King's C ...
showed that Labour (72 per cent) led Conservatives (11 per cent) by 61 points amongst Muslim voters in 2019. Further analysis showed that many minorities were "necessity liberals" who voted for Labour not because they were social liberals, but because Labour represented a broader political package and distrusted the Conservatives on identity matters. British Pakistani and
British Bangladeshi British Bangladeshis () are citizens or residents of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots are from Bangladesh. Bengali Muslims have prominently been migrating to the UK since World War II. Migration reached its peak during the 1970s, with ...
voters in particular, by a margin of 20–30 points, believed that
LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, Gay men, gay, Bisexuality, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the Capital punishmen ...
had gone too far. At the 2024 general election, 24 Muslim MPs were elected including a record four independent pro-Palestinian MPs. All of the elected independent MPs were endorsed by The Muslim Vote, a pressure group set up in December 2023 in response to the
Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...
. Polling by Savanta found that 44 per cent of Muslim voters ranked the matter among their top five issues compared to 12 per cent of non-Muslims.


Law

The first sharia court, also known as sharia councils, began operating in the United Kingdom in 1982, and the number in operation has grown to 85 by 2024. A ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' investigation has found that there are a growing number of Muslims from across Europe and North America seeking the services of British sharia courts, with the UK now dubbed as the 'western capital' for sharia courts. 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 Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth (born 14 June 1950) is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet, who served as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 to 2012. Previously the Bishop of Monmouth and Archbishop of W ...
the
Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...
(the head of the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
) lectured at the
Royal Courts of Justice The Royal Courts of Justice, commonly called the Law Courts, is a court building in Westminster which houses the High Court and Court of Appeal of England and Wales. The High Court also sits on circuit and in other major cities. Designed by Ge ...
on Islam and English law. In this lecture he spoke of the possibility of using sharia in some circumstances: Several months later, Lord Phillips, then
Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales The Lord or Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales is the head of the judiciary of England and Wales and the president of the courts of England and Wales. Until 2005 the lord chief justice was the second-most senior judge of the English and ...
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 Christopher Stephen Grayling, Baron Grayling, (born 1 April 1962), is a British politician and author who served as Secretary of State for Justice from 2012 to 2015, Leader of the House of Commons from 2015 to 2016 and Secretary of State for T ...
, the Justice Secretary. In its
2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...
manifesto,
UKIP The UK Independence Party (UKIP, ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), member ...
pledged to abolish the existence of sharia courts in the UK. In 2016–2018 an independent panel commissioned by the UK government investigated the practices of sharia councils operating in England and Wales. The councils have no legal status and no legal jurisdiction in the UK. Estimates for their number range between 30 and 85. The investigation found that most people consulting the councils are women seeking an Islamic divorce. The review concluded that "there is unanimous agreement among the sharia councils themselves that discriminatory practices do occur in some instances within the councils in England and Wales" and made legislative and administrative recommendations to remedy the abuses. The panel was not aware of any sharia councils operating in Scotland. According to Kaveri Qureshi, while women educate themselves and follow Islamic norms and values referring to colonial era
Islamic advice literature Islamic advice literature may include collections of stories or anecdotes such as legal opinion, interpretation of religious text, legal theory, guidance, consultation, or Islamic stories. Islamic advice literature is usually printed on small ...
about marriage not for continuation but to end their marriages and for justification of remarriages contrary to original intention of authors of the literature.


Media and culture

There are several Islamic television channels operating in the UK, including British Muslim TV,
Muslim Television Ahmadiyya International Muslim Television Ahmadiyya International (MTA), a globally-broadcasting, nonprofit organization, nonprofit satellite television, satellite television network and a division of Al-Shirkatul Islamiyyah, was established in 1994 and launched the wo ...
(MTA International), Ummah Channel, Ahlebait TV, and
Fadak Fadak () was a village with fertile land in an oasis near Medina. The takeover of Fadak by Muslims in 629 CE was peaceful and a share of it thus belonged to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. After Muhammad died in 632, Fadak was confiscated from h ...
. British Muslims are represented in various media positions across different organisations. Notable examples include Mehdi Hasan, the political editor of the UK version of ''
The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...
'' and the presenter of
Al Jazeera English Al Jazeera English (AJE; , ) is a 24-hour English-language News broadcasting, news channel operating under Al Jazeera Media Network, which is funded by the government of Qatar. Al Jazeera introduced an English-language division in 2006. It is ...
shows ''The Café'' and ''Head to Head'',
Mishal Husain Mishal Husain (born 12 March 1973) is a British journalist, broadcaster and author. She is best known for having presented a range of BBC News programmes, most notably BBC Radio 4's ''Today'' programme. She has occasionally appeared as a relief ...
, a British
news presenter A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...
for the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
, currently appearing on
BBC World News BBC News is an international English-language pay television channel owned by BBC Global News Ltd. – a subsidiary of BBC Studios – and operated by the BBC News division of the BBC. The network carries news bulletins, documentaries, an ...
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 Al Jazeera English (AJE; , ) is a 24-hour English-language News broadcasting, news channel operating under Al Jazeera Media Network, which is funded by the government of Qatar. Al Jazeera introduced an English-language division in 2006. It is ...
, and
Faisal Islam Faisal Islam (born 29 May 1977) is a British political and economics journalist who is the economics editor of BBC News and an occasional presenter of ''Newsnight''. He was the political editor of Sky News from 2014 to 2019, and from May 2004 wa ...
, economics editor and correspondent for ''
Channel 4 News ''Channel 4 News'' is the main news programme on British television broadcaster Channel 4. It is produced by ITN, and has been in operation since Channel 4's launch in November 1982. Current productions ''Channel 4 News'' ''Channel 4 News'' ...
''. In 2013, there were 40 Muslim players in the
English Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...
, up from one in 1992. Man of the Match awardees were awarded bottles of champagne, which is forbidden in Islam, and after Muslim player Yaya Toure refused the award, champagne was phased out for small trophies instead. Children playing football have been seen falling to their knees as if in prayer after scoring a goal, a common practice of Muslim footballers.


Associations

* Ahmadiyya Muslim Association * Association of British Muslims, the oldest organisation of British Muslims, created in 1889 as the ''English Islamic Association'' by Abdullah Quilliam. * Association of Muslim Lawyers * British Muslim Forum * Civil Service Islamic Society * Daru-Al-Moameneen * Islamic Forum of Europe * Islamic Party of Britain * Islamic Society of Britain * Minhaj-ul-Quran UK * Mosques & Imams National Advisory Board * Muslim Association of Britain * Muslim Council of Britain *
Muslim Educational Trust Muslim Educational Trust (MET) is an educational organization offering information, advice and publications about education and the educational needs of children to parents in particular. It is based in London. Islamic schooling From the earl ...
* Muslim Parliament of Great Britain * Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK * Muslim Safety Forum * Sufi Muslim Council * The Young Muslims UK *
UK Islamic Mission UK Islamic Mission (UKIM) is a Charitable organization, registered charity and Islamic organization based in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1963 to organise a network of study circles and mosques. The members of the Jamaat-e-Islami mo ...
* World Islamic Mission * Young Muslim Organisation


Proselytisation

An estimated 5,200 Britons convert to Islam each year, with around 100,000 converts reported by 2013. For men, prisons have been a notable setting for conversions. Approximately 18% of the British prison population, or over 14,000 prisoners, are Muslims, disproportionately higher than the general population. The proportion of Muslims in the UK prison population rose from 8% in 2002 to 15% in 2016. According to the UK prison officers' union in 2013, some Muslim prisoners in the UK had allegedly forcibly converted fellow inmates to Islam in prisons. There have been multiple cases of non-Muslim prisoners threatened with violence with "convert or get hurt" being a commonly used phrase by Muslim gangs according to an independent report published by the government. A 2010 report by the
Chief Inspector of Prisons His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons is the head of HM Inspectorate of Prisons and the senior inspector of prisons, young offender institutions and immigration service detention and removal centres in England and Wales. The current chief inspe ...
stated that 30% of the Muslim prisoners interviewed had converted to Islam while in prison, some of whom were "convenience Muslims" who adopted the religion in order to get benefits available only to Muslims. Other reasons why inmates may convert include wanting protection in wings where Muslim gangs are prevalent, the ability to go to chapel, and access to different foods. Around 1 in 5 Muslim prisoners in the UK are now white. Mosques in the country are sometimes seen as ethnic clubs which are not welcoming of new converts but there have also been recent convert led mosques. A study in 2023 found that amongst some schools, there were tensions between Hindu and Muslims pupils. Hindu students were labelled as "kaffirs" and threatened to either convert or face "hell for disbelievers".


Extremist ideology

In June 2017,
Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North (UK Parliament constituency), Islington North since 1983. Now an Independent ...
, leader of the Labour Party, said that difficult conversations are needed, starting with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states that have funded and fuelled extremist ideology, and has also urged an immediate halt to UK arms exports to
Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...
.
Tom Brake Thomas Anthony Brake (born 6 May 1962) is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Carshalton and Wallington in London from 1997 to 2019. He was appointed Director of the cross party pressure group Unl ...
, Liberal Democrat, foreign affairs spokesman has said that Saudi Arabia provides funding to hundreds of mosques in the UK, espousing a very hardline Wahhabist interpretation of Islam. In July 2017, a report by the Henry Jackson Society, a
neo-conservative Neoconservatism (colloquially neocon) is a political movement which began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party alo ...

Factsheet: Henry Jackson SocietyCTSHEET
'. 13 June 2018. Georgetown University. Bridge Initiative Team. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
Griffin, T., Aked, H., Miller, D., & Marusek, S. (2015).
The Henry Jackson Society and the degeneration of British neoconservatism
': Liberal interventionism, Islamophobia and the 'War on Terror'. Glasgow: Public Interest Investigations. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
think tank, claimed that Middle Eastern nations are financially supporting mosques and educational institutions linked to spreading extremist material with "an illiberal, bigoted Wahhabi ideology". The report said that the number of
Salafi The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a fundamentalist revival movement within Sunni Islam, originating in the late 19th century and influential in the Islamic world to this day. The name "''Salafiyya''" is a self-designation, claiming a retu ...
and
Wahhabi Wahhabism is an exonym for a Salafi revivalist movement within Sunni Islam named after the 18th-century Hanbali scholar Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. It was initially established in the central Arabian region of Najd and later spread to other ...
mosques in Britain had increased from 68 in 2007 to 110 in 2014. In 2017, Gilles de Kerchove reported that the UK had the highest number of Islamist radicals in the EU, with estimates ranging between 20,000 and 25,000. Of these, 3,000 were considered a direct threat by MI5, and 500 were under constant surveillance. Among those identified by security services but not seen as an immediate threat were the perpetrators of three ISIS-linked attacks in 2017, which resulted in 35 deaths. Between 2011 and 2014, more British Muslims traveled to Syria to join ISIS and Al-Nusra Front than enlisted in the
British Armed Forces The British Armed Forces are the unified military, military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its British Overseas Territories, Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests ...
, with around 1,500 joining these groups compared to 220 who enlisted in the military. Political scientists Olivier Roy and
Gilles Kepel Gilles Kepel, (born June 30, 1955) is a French political scientist and Arabist, specialized in the contemporary Middle East and Muslims in the West. He was Professor at Sciences Po Paris, the Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL) and direc ...
offer differing perspectives on the roots of radical Islamist terrorism. Roy argues that many individuals are drawn to fundamentalist Islam only after becoming radicalized, while Kepel suggests that certain ideologies, like
Salafism The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a Islamic fundamentalism, fundamentalist Islamic revival, revival movement within Sunni Islam, originating in the late 19th century and influential in the Islamic world to this day. The name "''Salafiyya''" ...
, may lead individuals to violence. Roy also noted that restrictive policies like France’s burkini ban might provoke religious violence, but Kepel countered that the UK has experienced jihadist attacks despite having no such policies. A 2020 report indicated that British Muslims share similar concerns with the general population regarding Muslim extremism, with 63% expressing some level of worry. British Muslims were also slightly more likely (66%) than others (63%) to report individuals to the Prevent programme if concerned about radicalization, and 80% supported Prevent once they understood its goals. Additionally, as of 2023, Muslim extremism represents a significant portion of MI5's caseload and related arrests, with nine-tenths of the individuals on its watchlist linked to this type of extremism. In March 2024, Communities Secretary Michael Gove announced that five organisations would be assessed against the government's new definition of extremism. Three of these organisations, named as
Cage A cage is an enclosure often made of mesh, bars, or wires, used to confine, contain or protect something or someone. A cage can serve many purposes, including keeping an animal or person in captivity, capturing an animal or person, and displayi ...
, Muslim Association of Britain, and Muslim Engagement and Development, were of concern due to their Islamist orientation and views. The latter two groups threatened to sue after the announcement.


Antisemitism

According to British Muslim journalist Mehdi Hasan, "anti-Semitism isn't just tolerated in some sections of the British Muslim community; it's routine and commonplace". A 2016 survey of 5,446 adult Britons, part of a report titled ''Anti-Semitism in contemporary Great Britain'' conducted by the London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research found that the prevalence of
antisemitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
views among Muslims was two to four times higher than the rest of the population, that 55% of British Muslims held at least one antisemitic view (compared to 30% of the general population), and that there was a correlation between Muslim religiosity and antisemitism. A 2020 poll by Hope not Hate found that 45% of British Muslims held a generally favourable view of British Jews, and 18% held a negative view. In March 2024, the
Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a Minister (government), government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to th ...
, Oliver Dowden, suspended the
Civil Service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...
Muslim Network (CSMN) over alleged antisemitic remarks and activities. The network was criticized for hosting webinars that instructed civil servants on lobbying to change government policy on Israel, promoting 'resistance' to government stances, and advising members on avoiding disciplinary action.


Relations with wider society


Attitudes of British Muslims

According to the 2006 Pew Global Attitudes Survey, around 81% of Muslims think of themselves as Muslim first. This is consistent with Muslims living in Muslim-majority countries, who 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 in 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). In the wake of the cartoon depiction of Muhammad in Danish newspapers and the 7/7 attacks, a 2006 ICM Research poll found that 97% of British Muslims believed it was wrong to show Muhammad with 86% of respondents feeling personally offended by the depiction. 96% believed it was wrong for Muslims to have bombed London during 7/7, although 20% had sympathy with the feelings and motives of the attackers. 40% of those surveyed also supported the introduction of
Sharia Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...
law in Muslim-majority areas of Britain. Another poll by GfK 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. On religious issues, a 2007 poll by
Populus ''Populus'' is a genus of 25–30 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar (), aspen, and cottonwood. The we ...
reported that 36% of 16 to 24 year olds believed if a Muslim converted to another religion they should be punished by death, compared to 19% of British Muslims aged over 55. The polling also 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. A survey by Gallup in 2009 found that the Muslim community claimed to feel more patriotic about Britain than the general British population as a whole, while another survey found that Muslims assert that they support the role of Christianity in British life more so than British Christians themselves. However, a poll conducted by
Demos Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * Plural for Demo (computer programming ...
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 legalise 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 face-to-face survey conducted in 2015 by ICM Research for ''
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
'' found that 18 per cent of British Muslims agreed with the statement that homosexuality should be legal in Britain, while 52 per cent disagreed, and 22 per cent neither agreed or disagreed. In the wake of the
Charlie Hebdo shooting On 7 January 2015, at about 11:30 a.m. in Paris, Paris, France, the employees of the French satirical weekly magazine ''Charlie Hebdo'' were targeted in a terrorist shooting attack by two French-born Islam in Algeria, Algerian Muslim bro ...
in 2015, a
ComRes Savanta is a market research consultancy based in London, England. Established in 2003 as Communicate Research Ltd, then ComRes, it was a founding member of the British Polling Council in 2004, and, by 2016, it was described one of the UK's "mos ...
poll for
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
found that 27% of British Muslims had some sympathy with the motives of the attackers, 45% believed that Muslim clerics who advocate for violence against the west are aligned with mainstream Muslim opinion and 78% of British Muslims were deeply personally offended by the publication of the images of Muhammad. The poll also found that 95% of British Muslims felt loyalty to Britain, 93% believed that Muslims should obey British laws and 46% felt that being Muslim in Britain was difficult due to prejudice. In November of the same year, a Survation poll found that 19% of British Muslims had "sympathy with young Muslims who leave the UK to join fighters in Syria" which was a fall from the 28% figure the same polling company recorded in March. A 2016 report by the right-wing think tank
Policy Exchange Policy Exchange is a British conservative think tank based in London. In 2007 it was described in ''The Daily Telegraph'' as "the largest, but also the most influential think tank on the right". Policy Exchange is a registered charity; it most ...
in conjunction with ICM Research found that 93 per cent of British Muslims hold fairly or very strong attachment to Britain, 53 per cent wanted to "fully integrate with non-Muslims in all aspects of life" and British Muslims were found to be more likely to condemn terrorism than the general population. The report, which was co-authored by Khalid Mahmood MP, also found that British Muslims had "separatist" tendencies and were inclined to believe in conspiracy theories to do with 9/11 and plots to "do down Muslims". When asked what they would do if someone they knew was involved with supporters of terrorism in Syria, only 52% said they would report them to the police. In 2018, Ipsos MORI published a review which analysed previous surveys of British Muslims. The report found that British Muslims placed greater importance on their British and religious identity than the general population. 63% believed that different religious and ethnic groups should mix together more in their local area and Muslim children had higher levels of university aspiration than the general population. British Muslims tended to have more conservative social attitudes, with about half of Muslim men and one third of Muslim women believing that "wives should always obey their husbands" and 38% of Muslim men and 23% of Muslim women believing that it was acceptable to have more than one wife. A survey carried out by J.L. Partners in 2024 reported that 40 per cent of British Muslims found it desirable for women to take a more traditional role in society, 39 per cent supported the formation of a Muslim political party and 32 per cent supported Islam to be declared the national religion with the same proportion desiring Sharia law to be implemented in the UK. 52 per cent wanted to make it illegal to show a picture of Muhammad, 46 per cent believed Jews have too much power over UK government policy and 41 per cent believed they have too much power over the UK media industry. The survey was conducted between February and March during the
Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...
; when asked which of the two entities they had sympathy with, 46 per cent of British Muslims sympathised more with Hamas compared to 3 per cent sympathising more with Israel. 36 per cent had a positive view of Hamas, 21 per cent had a positive view of jihad and 24 per cent believed that Hamas committed murder and rape in Israel on October 7th. Younger and more educated Muslims were more likely to hold these beliefs. Among 18 to 24 year olds, 65 per cent agreed with the statement that "Israel does not have a right to exist as a Jewish homeland" compared to 34 per cent of 45 to 54 year old British Muslims.


Attitudes towards British Muslims

The British media has been criticised for propagating negative
stereotype In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalization, generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can ...
s of Muslims and fueling Islamophobic prejudice. In 2006, several
British cabinet The Cabinet of the United Kingdom is the senior decision-making body of the Government of the United Kingdom. A committee of the Privy Council, it is chaired by the Prime Minister and its members include Secretaries of State and senior Mini ...
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 The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...
on white and Asian-Muslim youths demonstrating otherwise: that Asian-Muslim youths "are in fact the most tolerant of all" and that white youths "have far more intolerant attitudes," concluding that the attitudes held by members of the white community was a greater "barrier to integration." In January 2010, the
British Social Attitudes Survey The British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA) is an annual statistical survey conducted in Great Britain by National Centre for Social Research since 1983. The BSA involves in-depth interviews with over 3,300 respondents, selected using Survey samplin ...
found that the general 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 Scapegoating is the practice of singling out a person or group for unmerited blame and consequent negative treatment. Scapegoating may be conducted by individuals against individuals (e.g., "he did it, not me!"), individuals against groups (e.g ...
" of British Muslims by the media and politicians in the 21st century has been compared in the media to the rise of
antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
in the early 20th century. A 2013 survey by
YouGov YouGov plc is a international Internet-based market research and data analytics firm headquartered in the UK with operations in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. History 2000–2010 Stephan Shakespeare and Nadhim ...
indicated that immigrants from Muslim countries were perceived as integrating less well into British society than immigrants from other countries, with 71% of respondents believing migrants from Muslim countries were not integrating well. Another YouGov poll conducted in 2015 found that 55% of the British public believed there was a fundamental clash between Islam and the values of British society. Only 22% believed British values and Islam were generally compatible. In 2015, in light of a growing number of radicalised British Muslims joining ISIS to fight in Syria, a Survation poll for
Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel, live stream news network and news organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of ...
found that 70% of non-Muslims in the UK believed that British Muslims were not doing enough to integrate into British society, 44% became more suspicious of Muslims and only 30% believed that the values of British society were compatible with Islam. When British Muslims were asked the same questions, over four in five believed that Islamic values were compatible with British society and 71% believed that British Muslims were doing enough to integrate into British society. In polling conducted by
ComRes Savanta is a market research consultancy based in London, England. Established in 2003 as Communicate Research Ltd, then ComRes, it was a founding member of the British Polling Council in 2004, and, by 2016, it was described one of the UK's "mos ...
in 2016, only 28% of those surveyed believed that Islam was compatible with British values. 72% agreed with the statement that "most people in the UK have a negative view of Islam" and 43% believed that Islam was a negative force in the UK. Younger people were more likely to say they have a better understanding of Islam and hold less negative views. A survey conducted in 2017 by
Chatham House The Royal Institute of International Affairs, also known as Chatham House, is a British think tank based in London, England. Its stated mission is "to help governments and societies build a sustainably secure, prosperous, and just world". It ...
revealed widespread opposition to Muslim immigration across the UK. 47% were opposed to further Muslim immigration meanwhile 23% disagreed with stopping further migration from mainly Muslim countries. This opposition figure was lower than in other European countries, Austria: 65%; Belgium: 64%; France: 61%; Germany: 53%; Italy: 51%, and lower than the European average of 55%. In 2019, a survey conducted by the
Pew Research Center The Pew Research Center (also simply known as Pew) is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world. It ...
found that 78% of Britons had a favourable view of Muslims, while 18% had an unfavourable view of Muslims. This was the most favourable in
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
. A 2021 study published by the
University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...
found that Muslims are the British public's second ‘least liked’ group, after Gypsy and
Irish Travellers Irish Travellers (, meaning ''the walking people''), also known as Mincéirs ( Shelta: ''Mincéirí'') or Pavees, are a traditionally peripatetic indigenous ethno-cultural group originating in Ireland.''Questioning Gypsy identity: ethnic na ...
with 25.9% of the British public holding negative views towards Muslims and 23.5% holding a positive view. People from middle and upper-class backgrounds were more likely to hold prejudiced views about Islam compared to those from working-class backgrounds. 71% of respondents named Islam as having a more negative impact on society compared to other religions with 18.1% of those surveyed supported banning all Muslim migration to the UK.


Islamophobia

A survey conducted in 2024 by Opinium for '' Hope not Hate'' found that 30 per cent of the British public believed that Islam was a threat to the British way of life and the existence of 'no-go' zones for non-Muslims in European cities. Members of the Conservative party were more likely to hold these views, with 58% believing Islam was a threat and 52% believing in the existence of 'no-go' zones. There have been cases of threats, one 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 The University of Exeter is a research university in the West Country of England, with its main campus in Exeter, Devon. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of ...
's European Muslim Research Centre noted that the number of anti-Muslim
hate crime Hate crime (also known as bias crime) in criminal law involves a standard offence (such as an assault, murder) with an added element of bias against a victim (individual or group of individuals) because of their physical appearance or perceived ...
s 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 On the afternoon of 22 May 2013, a British Army soldier, Fusilier#United Kingdom, Fusilier Lee Rigby of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was attacked and killed by Islamic terrorism, Islamist terrorists Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale n ...
. In the four months following the 2023 Israel-Gaza conflict,
Tell MAMA Tell MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks) is a national project which records and measures anti-Muslim incidents in the United Kingdom. It is modelled on the Jewish Community Security Trust (CST) and like the CST it also provides support for ...
reported a more than three-fold increase in Islamophobic incidents to 2,010, with Muslim women targeted in two-thirds of incidents. The emergence of the
English Defence League The English Defence League (EDL) was a Far-right politics, far-right, Islamophobia, Islamophobic organisation active in England from 2009 until the mid-late 2010s. A social movement and Advocacy group, pressure group that employed street demo ...
resulted in demonstrations in English cities with large Muslim populations. The EDL was a right wing, anti Islam street protest movement which opposed what it considers to be a spread of
Islamism Islamism is a range of religious and political ideological movements that believe that Islam should influence political systems. Its proponents believe Islam is innately political, and that Islam as a political system is superior to communism ...
,
Sharia Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...
law and
Islamic extremism Islamic extremism refers to extremist beliefs, behaviors and ideologies adhered to by some Muslims within Islam. The term 'Islamic extremism' is contentious, encompassing a spectrum of definitions, ranging from academic interpretations of Is ...
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 Unite Against Fascism (UAF) is a British anti-fascist group. Its joint secretaries are Weyman Bennett and Sabby Dhalu, formerly of the National Assembly Against Racism (NAAR). Its chair is Steve Hart of Unite the Union and its assistant secre ...
(UAF) and
Anonymous Anonymous may refer to: * Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown ** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author * Anonym ...
.


Relations between Muslims and Sikhs

Most British Muslims, particularly those of South Asian descent, share cultural traditions, histories, and ethnic ties with the British Sikh community, as well as with British Hindus. The majority of Sikhs oppose strongly anti-Muslim groups like the BNP and EDL, and the anti-Muslim campaigns of the BNP have been condemned by all leading Sikh organizations. However, it has been reported that some extremists from the Sikh community have aligned themselves with the BNP. It has also been noted that some Sikhs adopted prevalent racial prejudices in the West, leading to a variant of Islamophobia within the Sikh community that mirrors broader Islamophobic discourse. In 2018, Sikh Youth UK’s report claimed similarities between the exploitation of young Sikh women and the Rotherham scandal. However, a 2019 critique from two Sikh academics and a UK government report found the allegations to be false and misleading, lacking solid data and promoting historical tensions "designed to whip up fear and hate".Jagbir Jhutti-Johal; Sunny Hundal (August 2019).
The changing nature of activism among Sikhs in the UK today
'. The Commission For Countering Extremism. University of Birmingham. p. 15.
WayBackMachine Link
'. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
Research by Katy Sian of the University of York further debunked these claims, attributing them to extremist Sikh groups. During the
2024 United Kingdom riots From 30 July to 5 August 2024, Far-right politics in the United Kingdom, far-right, anti-immigration protests and riots occurred in England and Northern Ireland, within the United Kingdom. This followed a 2024 Southport stabbing, mass stabbin ...
, the Sikh community, along with the
Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
and
Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
communities, released statements condemning the Islamophobic rioting.


Notable British Muslim figures


Media and entertainment

*
Cat Stevens Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou; ), commonly known by his stage names Cat Stevens, Yusuf, and Yusuf / Cat Stevens, is a British singer-songwriter and musician. He has sold more than 100 million records and has more than two billion st ...
, musician * Asad Ahmad,
BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
presenter * Riz Ahmed,
Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
winning actor *
Mishal Husain Mishal Husain (born 12 March 1973) is a British journalist, broadcaster and author. She is best known for having presented a range of BBC News programmes, most notably BBC Radio 4's ''Today'' programme. She has occasionally appeared as a relief ...
, BBC News presenter * Riz Lateef, BBC News presenter * Mehdi Hasan, Former Aljazeera news reporter and journalist


Politics

* Waqar Azmi OBE, EU Ambassador of Intercultural Dialogue *
Sadiq Khan Sir Sadiq Aman Khan (, ; born 8 October 1970) is a British politician serving as Mayor of London since 2016. He was previously Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting (UK Parliament constituency), Tooting ...
, Labour Party mayor of London *
Humza Yousaf Humza Haroon Yousaf (; born 7 April 1985) is a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from March 2023 to May 2024. He served under his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon as Scottish ...
, Former First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the SNP * Sayeeda Warsi, Conservative and Unionist Life Peer and former Cabinet Minister


Sports

* Moeen Ali,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
cricketer *
Mo Farah Sir Mohamed Muktar Jama Farah (born Hussein Abdi Kahin; 23 March 1983) is a Somali-British former long-distance runner. Considered one of the greatest runners of all time, his ten global championship gold medals (four Olympic and six World tit ...
, runner and four-time Olympic gold medalist * Amir Khan, world champion boxer * Adil Rashid, England cricketer *
Adam Azim Adam Azim is a British professional boxer who has held the International Boxing Organization (IBO) super lightweight belt since 2025. As a youth amateur, he was ranked as number one in the world at welterweight. Early life Azim was born to Brit ...
, British professional boxer * Zidane Iqbal, British-Iraqi Soccer player * Zesh Rahman, former British-Pakistani professional soccer player * Adil Nabi, English footballer * Easah Suliman, British footballer, captain of the
Pakistan national football team The Pakistan national football team () represents Pakistan in men's international Association football, football in FIFA-authorized events and is controlled by the Pakistan Football Federation, the governing body for football in Pakistan. Paki ...
* Hamza Choudhury, English footballer * Lutalo Muhammad, British teakwondo athlete * Enaam Ahmed, British-Pakistani motorsports racing driver * Adil Anwar, British professional boxer * Hamzah Sheeraz, British professional boxer * Haroon Khan, British professional boxer and
Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...
bronze medallist * Jawaid Khaliq, MBE British former professional boxer *
Muhammad Ali Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and social activist. A global cultural icon, widely known by the nickname "The Greatest", he is often regarded as the gr ...
, English professional boxer *
Naseem Hamed Naseem Hamed (Arabic: نسيم حميد; born 12 February 1974), nicknamed Prince Naseem and Naz, is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2002.Davies, Gareth A (8 June 2015)"Prince Naseem Hamed: 'I always thought they w ...
, British former professional boxer * Adam Gemili, British sprinter and runner


Religion

* Syed
Abdul Qadir Jilani Abdul Qadir Gilani (; ; c. 1077/78 – 1166) was a Hanbali scholar, preacher, and Sufi leader who was the eponym of the Qadiriyya, one of the oldest Sufi orders. He was born c. 1077/78 in the town of Na'if, Rezvanshahr in Gilan, Persia, an ...
, Pakistani Sunni scholar and jurist * Allama Qamaruzzaman Azmi, Leader of World Islamic Mission * Shaykh Muhammad al-Ya’qoubi of Al-Mustafa Centre * Muhammad Arshad Misbahi Imam of Manchester Central Mosque * Sheikh Abdul Qayum, Chief Imam of
East London Mosque The East London Mosque (ELM) is situated in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets between Whitechapel and Aldgate East. Combined with the adjoining London Muslim Centre and Maryam Centre, it is one of the largest mosques in Western Europe accomm ...
* Abu Yusuf Riyadh ul Haq, khateeb of Birmingham Central Mosque * Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, principal of Hijaz College * Ajmal Masroor, imam and politician * Haitham al-Haddad, British Muslim television host * Ibrahim Mogra, Leicester imam *
Joel Hayward Joel Hayward (born 1964) is a New Zealand-born British scholar, academic and writer. He has been listed in the 2023, 2024 and 2025 editions of The 500 Most Influential Muslims, ''The World's 500 Most Influential Muslims''. He has been the Dean ...
, New Zealand-born British Islamic scholar *
Timothy Winter Timothy John Winter (born 15 May 1960), also known as Abdal Hakim Murad, is an English Islamic scholar and theologian who is a proponent of Islamic neo-traditionalism. His work includes publications on Islamic theology, modernity, and Anglo ...
, Dean of Cambridge Muslim College and Director of Studies at
Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...


Philanthropy

*
Muhammad Abdul Bari Muhammad Abdul Bari (; born October 1953), is a Bangladeshi-born British physicist, writer, teacher, and community leader. He is a former secretary of Muslim Aid, a former chairman of the East London Mosque, and a former secretary general o ...
, secretary of Muslim Aid


Notable mosques

* Shah Jahan Mosque, Woking – Britain's first mosque *
Baitul Futuh Mosque The Baitul Futuh (English: ''House of Victories'') is a mosque complex of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, situated in Morden, London. It is one of the largest mosque complexes in Europe. Completed in 2003 at a cost of £15 million, entirely f ...
, London – Britain and Western Europe's largest mosque complex * Cambridge Central Mosque, Europe's first eco-friendly mosque and the first purpose-built mosque within the city of Cambridge * Ghamkol Shariff Masjid, Birmingham * Manchester Central Mosque, Manchester * Madina Mosque (Sheffield), Sheffield * Green Lane Masjid, Birmingham * Markazi Mosque, Dewsbury – Headquarters of the Tablighi Jama'at * Al-Rahma Mosque, Liverpool * Jamea Masjid, Preston * Birmingham Central Mosque *
East London Mosque The East London Mosque (ELM) is situated in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets between Whitechapel and Aldgate East. Combined with the adjoining London Muslim Centre and Maryam Centre, it is one of the largest mosques in Western Europe accomm ...
, London * Leeds Grand Mosque, Leeds *
Finsbury Park Mosque The Finsbury Park Mosque, also known as the North London Central Mosque, is a five-storey mosque located next to Finsbury Park station close to Arsenal F.C., Arsenal Football Club's Emirates Stadium, in the London Borough of Islington. It serve ...
, London * Abbey Mills Mosque, London * Glasgow Central Mosque, Glasgow Green Lane Mosque sym.jpg, Green Lane Masjid,
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
Front View of Jamea Masjid.gif, Jamea Masjid in Preston, known for its architectural design London Central Mosque3.JPG, The
London Central Mosque The London Central Mosque (also known as the Regent's Park Mosque) is an Islamic place of worship located on the edge of Regent's Park in central London. Design and location It was designed by Sir Frederick Gibberd, completed in 1977, and ...
located in London, and built in 1977 Jamia Masjid Ahl E Hadith and Moorgate A H Community Centre - geograph.org.uk - 2250123.jpg, Jamia Masjid Ahl-e Hadith and Moorgate Ahl-e Hadith community centre,
Rotherham Rotherham ( ) is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies at the confluence of the River Rother, South Yorkshire, River Rother, from which the town gets its name, and the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don. It is the largest settlement ...
,
South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...


See also

* The Muslim Vote *
Islam in England Islam is the second largest religion in England after Christianity in England, Christianity. Most Muslims are immigrants from South Asia (in particular Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India) or descendants of immigrants from that region. Man ...
*
Islam in London Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
* Islam in Birmingham * Islam in Northern Ireland * Islam in Scotland * Islam in Wales * Islam in the Republic of Ireland *
Islam in Europe Islam is the second-largest religion in Europe after Christianity. Although the majority of Muslim communities in Western Europe formed as a result of immigration, there are centuries-old indigenous European Muslim communities in the Balkans, ...
*
Islam in France Islam is the second-largest religion in France after Christianity. As of the most recent estimates, it is followed by approximately 9 million people, accounting for about 13% of the national population. This represents a steady increase from ...
* List of British Muslims *
Muslims in Western Europe Islam is the second-largest religion in Europe after Christianity. Although the majority of Muslim communities in Western Europe formed as a result of immigration, there are centuries-old indigenous European Muslim communities in the Balkans, ...
*
Religion in Europe Religion has been a major influence on the societies, culture of Europe, cultures, traditions, Western philosophy, philosophies, Art, artistic expressions and laws within present-day Europe. The largest religion in Europe is Christianity. Howe ...
*
Religion in the United Kingdom Christianity is the largest religion in the United Kingdom. Results of the United Kingdom Census 2021, 2021 Census for England and Wales showed that Christianity is the largest religion (though it makes up less than half of the population at ...


Notes


References


Sources

* * *


Further reading

* Koenig, Matthias. "Incorporating Muslim migrants in Western nation states—a comparison of the United Kingdom, France, and Germany." in Marian Burchardt & Ines Michalowski, eds., ''After Integration'' (Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, 2015) pp. 43–58. * Lewicki, Aleksandra, and Therese O’Toole. "Acts and practices of citizenship: Muslim women’s activism in the UK. ''Ethnic and Racial Studies'' 40#1 (2017): 152-171. * Lewicki, Aleksandra. ''Social Justice Through Citizenship?: The Politics of Muslim Integration in Germany and Great Britain'' (Springer, 2014). * Lewis, Valerie A., and Ridhi Kashyap. "Piety in a Secular Society: Migration, Religiosity, and Islam in Britain." ''International Migration'' 51#3 (2013): 57–66. * Model, Suzanne, and Lang Lin. "The cost of not being Christian: Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims in Britain and Canada." ''International Migration Review'' 36#4 (2002): 1061–1092. * Peach, Ceri, and Richard Gale. "Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs in the new religious landscape of England." ''Geographical Review'' 93#4 (2003): 469–490. * Asbali, Nadeine
Veiled Threat: On being visibly Muslim in Britain
' (Biteback Publishing, 2024)


External links


BBC: Islam and Britain Before the 20th Century

Muslim Council of Britain
* Hassan Mahamdalli
"Muslim working class struggles"
''
International Socialism ''International Socialism'' is a British-based quarterly journal established in 1960 and published in London by the Socialist Workers Party which discusses socialist theory. It is currently edited by Joseph Choonara who replaced Alex Callini ...
'', 4 January 2007
Muslims In Britain, Guide and Directory
{{Mosques in the United Kingdom