April, 2004
MUSLIMS IN BRITAIN: A JOURNEY TO SELF-AWARENESS
Dina Shehata
Three hundred years ago, Britain received its first groups of Muslim immigrants, employees of the British Company of East India and others from the Indian subcontinent. Following the inauguration of the Suez Canal in 1869, large numbers of Yemeni sailors were recruited for the British commercial fleet, most of whom took up residence in Britain’s coastal cities. This was followed by successive waves of immigrants.
During these early phases, Britain’s Muslims did not cooperate as a group except to build mosques. Britain’s first mosque was built in 1860 in Cardiff. In 1928, the country’s Muslims established a fund to finance the building of a mosque in the centre of London on land allotted by the British government for this purpose. The Central London Mosque and the accompanying Islamic Cultural Centre, commonly known as Regents Park Mosque, were opened in 1977.
The fund first became involved in politics in 1938, objecting to the British government’s proposal to divide Palestine. Youssef Ali, a treasurer in a central London mosque, gave lectures in a number of cities around the country on the Palestinian issue.
Following the second world war, Britain received many more Muslim immigrants and the community became the country’s largest minority. Muslim immigration to Britain after the second world war can be divided into several stages:
- In the 1950s and 1960s, Britain received large numbers of Indians and Pakistanis seeking to earn a better living or escape the violence and dispersal that accompanied the division of India and Pakistan. Most of these immigrants were unskilled and came to search for work before their families would follow. The first generation of these immigrants lived in relative isolation from British society due to differences in language and traditions, though succeeding generations have become a part of the fabric of British society.
- In the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, thousands of Indians and Pakistanis fled to Britain from East Africa because of a change in government policies there. Unlike their predecessors, though, these new arrivals were educated professionals and businessmen, which facilitated their merger into British society.
- From the 1980s onwards, Britain’s Muslim community has grown further, with waves of refugees arriving from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia and the Balkans, and with members of the indigenous population converting, mostly of African or Caribbean origins.
Britain’s Muslims number some 1.59-2m, according to 2001 figures, making them the country’s largest religious minority. Their ethnic origins are diverse: 43% have Pakistani origins; 17% Bangladeshi; 9% Indian; while 6% are black; 4% Anglo-Saxon; and 21% have other origins.
Yet while the Muslim community might be the largest religious minority in Britain, it is also one of the most marginalised. Various reports and opinion polls have shown that Muslims in Britain suffer discrimination in the areas of work, education, health, services and housing, while many feel themselves to be cut off from society at large.
According to a study prepared by the Home Office on religious discrimination in Britain, around 30% of Islamic organisations in the country perceive that Muslim students are disadvantaged by education policies in schools and universities, and 75% believe that Muslims are treated unfairly by government employees and social services.
A report from the Open Society Institute in 2002, meanwhile, highlights the lack of security and resultant fear that Muslims face in Britain as many live in areas with high crime rates. Many also suffer physical and non-physical abuse by groups that support the extreme right British National Party, and this increased after the events of 11 September 2001.
Until the issuance of a law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of religion in 2003, British legislation outlawed discrimination against minorities on the basis of ethnicity only. The rights and freedoms of the Muslim community as a single group were thus unprotected by previous laws, such as those of 1956, 1968, 1976 and 2000, which protected the rights of other minorities, such as the Sikhs and Jews, which were recognised as having minority. This led British Muslims to focus on their ethnicity rather than their religion, thus emphasising their differences rather than drawing on their common religious bond.
The self-awareness of Muslims in Britain of the need to organise themselves as a community developed gradually over time.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the interests of Muslims as a group focused on the establishment of schools and mosques. Between the 1960s and the 1980s, they became interested in developing Islamic, educational and social institutions, and the provision of aid to Muslim immigrants and their families. Chief among the establishments founded during this era was the London Central Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre, mentioned above, and the Islamic Council of Europe, opened in 1973.
In the late 1980s, British Muslims became more politically active as a group following their realisation that they shared a common identity and interests. They sought to defend their citizenship and civil rights, and to participate in public life and involve themselves more in mainstream British society.
This realisation was hastened by the crisis that arose in 1986 as a result of Indian British author Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. The publishing of this book, considered blasphemous by Muslims, motivated more than 20 Islamic organisations to form a committee in October 1988 to coordinate efforts and mobilise public support against its publication and distribution through courts and various other legitimate channels. Although these efforts failed to achieve their target, they nevertheless constitute a turning point in the development of British Muslims activities. The committee was the first Islamic organisation to be involved in public action and to interact with state institutions to defend Muslims’ rights in Britain.
The activities of this committee paved the way for the establishment of the Muslim Council of Britain in 1997, around the same time as the UK Action Committee of Islamic Affairs issued a report on Islamophobia and Muslims’ conditions in the country (“Islamophobia, a challenge to us all,” Runnemede Trust, London, 1997). Muslim issues thus became more prominent, urging state institutions to endorse legislation to guarantee Muslims their rights and freedoms as British citizens and as a religious minority. These issues were further highlighted in 1998, when then home secretary Jack Straw presented a report to the House of Commons on the poor conditions of the Muslim minority and the danger of prejudice against Islam and Muslims.
In 2001, two important events influenced the position of Muslims in Britain. The first was a series of riots by Muslim youth in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford, in response to a British National Party campaign against Islam during the summer 2001 elections. Muslims’ rage increased when many of their numbers were convicted of offences for their involvement in the riots, and they thus organised a committee to campaign for justice, which managed to appeal and quash some convictions.
The second major event of the year was the 11 September bombings in the US, which led to an increase in discrimination and violence against Muslims across Europe.
Britain’s Muslims thus realised the importance of organisation and common work to defend their interests, and they succeeded, through their establishment of various institutions, to increase their civil rights in a number of areas. These achievements include:
- securing the passing of legislation to protect their civil rights and freedoms. The law to combat terrorism, for example, includes items that prohibit attacks on individuals and their property on religious grounds. And in December 2003, the House of Commons passed legislation outlawing religious discrimination at work. Muslims were thus protected against all forms of direct or indirect discrimination.
- convincing the British government to include religion in its 2001 national census. This provided Muslims with accurate information to help them assess their conditions, and thus handle their issues more effectively.
- finding a solution to discrepancies between Islamic and British law. British Muslims succeeded, for example, in acquiring a permit to establish their own slaughterhouses where animals would be slaughtered according to Islamic Sharia law.
- realising their electoral power and joining forces to serve their interests through block voting
In 2003, British participation in the war against Iraq brought about a qualitative shift in the activities of British Muslims. The war pushed them for the first time to participate with other groups in society in the defence of a common cause. The Muslim Council of Britain played an influential role in this regard, mobilising Muslims to defend their interests and to push the government to respond to their demands. This reflected their growing success in organising and mobilising their resources, thus allowing them to participate more fully in British society.
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