United Kingdom - Executive summary

BACKGROUND RESEARCH REPORT

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Executive summary

While a Muslim presence in Britain can be traced back over 300 years to the sailors from the Indian subcontinent that were employed by the British East India Company, large scale migration of unskilled male workers from South Asia took place in the 1960s. Many of these men were later joined by their families. A significant number of Muslims were also among the East African Asians who began arriving in the late 1960s and early 1970s under pressure from the 'Africanisation' policies in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Since the 1980s, Muslims also began to arrive in the UK in significant numbers as refugees from the Balkans, East Africa, the Middle East, and Turkey.

Since the 1980s, research studies have tracked the growing salience of religion in the identity of Muslims. These studies provide a picture of the complex and diverse reasons for the foregrounding of religion in the identity of Muslims. These range from the impact of experiences of discrimination, prejudice, violence and disparagement of religion in creating in-group solidarity, through to the role of Muslim identity in the empowerment of young women and men.

The question in the 2001 Census on religious identity provides a rich source of data on Muslims. It shows that in 2001 there were 1.6 million Muslims in Great Britain. In terms of age structure, Muslims have the youngest demographic profile as a faith group in England and Wales. Over 60 per cent of all Muslims are under the age of 30. Approximately half of Muslims living in Britain were born in the UK. The Census data demonstrated that there are Muslims in every local authority in the UK except the Isle of Scilly. 75 per cent live in 24 cities or authorities, in the five major conurbations of Greater London, the West Midlands, West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, and the East Midlands. Birmingham is the local authority area with the largest number of Muslims in absolute terms. The five local authorities with the highest proportions of Muslims are Tower Hamlets, Newham, Blackburn, Bradford, and Waltham Forest. Muslims in the UK are disproportionately represented in the most deprived urban communities. One third of the Muslim population live in the 10 per cent most deprived neighbourhoods.

Most academic research on minorities in education has focused on ethnic groups rather than Muslims as a group. Muslims of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin, who constitute 50 per cent of Britain’s Muslim population, have been the main reference groups in research when looking at the educational attainment of Muslims. Research in education, on Muslims as a religious group, rather than ethnic groups, has focused largely on state-funded faith schools and the experiences of Muslim women in education. Literature on the latter has explored Muslim women’s aspirations, the value placed on educational qualifications for women by Muslim communities and within Islam, single sex schools and obstacles faced by Muslim women within the education system. The Census does provide some baseline data on levels of education among the UK population which can be disaggregated by religion.

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