Islam in England

Many others are from Muslim-dominated regions such as the Middle East, Afghanistan, Malaysia and Somalia, and other parts of African countries such as Nigeria, Uganda and Sierra Leone.

[5][6] Although Islam is generally thought of as a contemporary arrival in England, Muslims have been trading and exchanging ideas with the English for centuries.

These coins may have been minted simply for prestige or to facilitate trade with the expanding Caliphate of Córdoba, as Islamic gold dinars were the most important coinage in the Mediterranean at the time.

[7] References to Britain are also found in early Islamic geographical literature, such as the 9th century work of Ahmad ibn Rustah, which describes the islands of "Bratiniya".

[10] Roger Bacon, one of the earliest European advocates of the scientific method,[11] is known to have studied the works of several early Muslim philosophers.

[citation needed] He states that the methodology of legal precedent and reasoning by analogy (Qiyas) are also similar in both the Islamic and common law systems.

[19][20][21] Paul Brand also notes parallels between the Waqf and the trusts used to establish Merton College by Walter de Merton, who had connections with the Knights Templar, but Brand also points out that the Knights Templar were primarily concerned with fighting the Muslims rather than learning from them, making it less likely that they would imitate Muslim legal institutions.

This king had a son which was a ruler in an island called Gerbi, whereunto arrived an English ship called the Green Dragon, of the which was master one M. Blonket, who, having a very unhappy boy on that ship, and understanding that whosoever would turn Turk should be well entertained of the a yeoman of our Queen's guard, whom the king's son had enforced to turn Turk; his name was John Nelson.

[25] In 1627, Barbary pirates under command of the Dutch renegade Jan Janszoon operating from the Moroccan port of Salé occupied Lundy, before they were expelled by Sir John Pennington.

Diplomatic relations were also established with the Ottoman Empire with the chartering of the Levant Company and the dispatch of the first English ambassador to the Porte, William Harborne, in 1578.

[31] In one correspondence, Murad entertained the notion that Islam and Protestantism had "much more in common than either did with Roman Catholicism, as both rejected the worship of idols", and argued for an alliance between England and the Ottoman Empire.

[33] To the dismay of Catholic Europe, England exported tin and lead (for cannon-casting) and ammunition to the Ottoman Empire, and Elizabeth seriously discussed joint military operations with Murad III during the outbreak of war with Spain in 1585, as Francis Walsingham was lobbying for a direct Ottoman military involvement against the common Spanish enemy.

The first large group of Muslims to arrive, in the 18th century, were lascars (sailors) recruited from the Indian subcontinent (largely from the Bengal region) to work for the Honourable East India Company, many of whom settled down and took local wives (due to a lack of Indian women living in England at the time).

One of the most famous early Muslim immigrants to England was Sake Dean Mahomet, a captain of the East India Company army who in 1810 founded London's first Indian restaurant, the Hindoostane Coffee House.

[62][63] Muslim migrants from former British colonies, predominantly India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh,[60] were recruited in large numbers by government and businesses to rebuild the country.

[65] British Asians (both Muslim and non-Muslim) faced increased discrimination following Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood speech and the establishment of the National Front in the late 1960s.

[3] Largest in United Kingdom which majority being Hanafi Shia mosques are usually Twelvers but cater to Zaydis and Ismailis also and they usually include facilities for women.

Pakistanis from Mirpur District were one of the first South Asian Muslim communities to permanently settle in the United Kingdom, arriving in Birmingham and Bradford in the late 1930s.

[73] Majority of these Muslim come from the Sylhet region of Bangladesh, mainly concentrated in London (Tower Hamlets, Newham and Redbridge), Luton, Birmingham and Oldham.

Other groups also attract a few people, the Salafi – who view the teachings of the first generations as the correct one,[78] and appeals to younger Muslims as a way to differentiate themselves towards their elders.

All these groups work to stimulate Islamic identity among local Bengalis or Muslims and particularly focus on the younger members of the communities.

The Gujarati Muslims from Surat and Bharuch districts in India started to arrive from the 1930s, settling in the towns of Dewsbury and Batley in Yorkshire and parts of Lancashire.

There are large numbers of Gujarati Muslims in Dewsbury, Blackburn (inc. Darwen), Bolton, Preston, Nuneaton, Gloucester and London (Newham, Waltham Forest and Hackney).

[85] Established Somali communities are found in Bristol, Liverpool and London, and newer ones have formed in Leicester, Manchester and Sheffield.

[92] Furthermore, in recent years, there has been a growing number of ethnic Turks with Bulgarian, German, Greek, Macedonian, and Romanian citizenship who have also migrated to the United Kingdom.

The 7 July 2005 London bombings were a series of coordinated blasts that hit the public transport system during the morning rush hour, killing 52 people and also the four bombers.

Two converts to Islam of Nigerian heritage were found guilty of the murder, one of them having claimed to be a soldier of Allah as his unsuccessful legal defence.

According to analysis based on the 2001 census, Muslims in England face poor standards of housing, poorer levels of education and are more vulnerable to long-term illness,[104] and that Muslims in the UK had the highest rate of unemployment, the poorest health, the most disability and fewest educational qualifications among religious groups.

[113] In January 2010, a report from the University of Exeter's European Muslim Research Centre noted that the number of anti-Muslim hate crimes 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.

[122] In January 2010, the British Social Attitudes Survey 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.