[a] The first director of The Islamic Foundation, Khurram Murad, had the vision to realise that British-born Muslims would need their own organisation and started YMUK.

[7][1] Under his guidance, 27 young Muslims representing various local youth groups met in Leeds in 1984, and decided to form an organisation.

As the organisation grew and newcomers joined, they were less deferential to the UKIM, and sought English-speaking preachers such as the African-American convert Siraj Wahaj and classically trained American Islamic scholar Sheikh Hamza Yusuf.

They promoted modern types of Islamic music, set up Muslim community radio stations, and published a current affairs magazine called Trends.

", the liberation of lands such as Eritrea, Philippines, Tashkent, Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and parts of China from non-Muslim rule was described as an obligation of the worldwide Muslim community.

[11] In 1988, the Young Muslims UK, along with its two parent organisations, played a critical role in driving the campaign against Salman Rushdie for the book Satanic Verses.

The Sudanese Islamist Hassan al-Turabi, said to be the ideological power behind president Omar al-Bashir, met YMUK members on his visits to London and hosted a delegation of theirs in Sudan.

The youth section of this conference was dominated by participants with connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and similar forms of ideology, for instance the Jamat-i Islami, according to French islamologist Gilles Kepel.