Islam in the United Kingdom

Islam is the second-largest religion in the United Kingdom, with results from the 2021 Census recording just under four million Muslims, or 6.0% of the total population in the United Kingdom. London has the largest population and greatest proportion (15%) of Muslims in the country. The vast majority of British Muslims in the United Kingdom adhere to Sunni Islam, while smaller numbers are associated with Shia Islam.

During the Middle Ages, there was limited cultural exchange between Christendom and the Islamic world. There was no established Muslim presence in the British Isles, though a small number of Crusaders are recorded as having converted in the East, including Robert of St Albans. During the Elizabethan era, contacts became more explicit as the Tudors pursued diplomatic and commercial relations with Muslim powers, including the Ottoman Empire, in part to counter Catholic Habsburg Spain.

As the British Empire expanded, Britain came to rule territories with large Muslim populations; some Muslim seamen (lascars) are known to have settled in Britain from the mid-18th century onwards. In the 19th century, Victorian Orientalism contributed to growing interest in Islam and a number of Britons, including members of the aristocracy, converted. Marmaduke Pickthall, an English writer and convert to Islam, produced the first complete English-language translation of the Qur'an by a British Muslim in 1930. Under the British Indian Army, large numbers of Muslims fought for the United Kingdom during the First and Second World Wars, with some receiving the Victoria Cross. In the decades after the Second World War—particularly following the partition of India in 1947-many Muslims from what is now India, Pakistan and Bangladesh settled permanently in Britain.

Today, British Muslims are ethnically diverse. South Asians form the largest share of Muslims in Britain, alongside significant Turkish, Arab, and Somali communities, as well as an estimated 100,000 British converts from a range of backgrounds. Muslims have the youngest average age profile among the major religious groups in the United Kingdom. Recent broad estimates suggest around 5,000–6,000 people convert to Islam each year, with women forming the majority in survey-based studies.

History

Early history

thumb|A [[mancus/gold dinar of king Offa, copied from the dinars of the Abbasid Caliphate (774). It includes the Arabic text "Muhammad is the Apostle of Allah", a line from the Shahada.]]

The earliest evidence of Islamic influence in England dates to the 8th century when Offa, the Anglo-Saxon king of Mercia, minted a coin with an Arabic inscription, largely a copy of coins issued by a contemporary Abbasid ruler Caliph Al-Mansur. 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.

In 1627, the Salé Rovers, from the Republic of Salé (in modern-day Morocco) occupied the English island of Lundy for five years. The Barbary pirates, under the command of the Dutch Muslim Jan Janszoon, flew an Ottoman flag over the island. Slaving raids were made embarking from Lundy by the Barbary pirates, and captured Europeans were held on Lundy before being sent to Algiers to be sold as slaves.

Interactions under British Empire

thumb|Bengali Muslim diplomat [[I'tisam-ud-Din was the first educated South Asian to have travelled to the United Kingdom in 1765.]]

thumb|right|[[Punjabi Muslims of the 33rd Punjabis, British Indian Army]]

Bengal was annexed by the East India Company from the quasi-independent Nawabs of Bengal following the Battle of Plassey in 1757. The manufactured goods produced in Bengal directly contributed to the Industrial Revolution in Britain, with the textiles produced in Bengal being used to support British industries such as textile manufacturing, aided by the invention of devices such as the spinning jenny. The first educated South Asian to travel to Europe and live in Britain was I'tisam-ud-Din, a Bengali Muslim cleric, munshi and diplomat to the Mughal Empire who arrived in 1765 with his servant Muhammad Muqim during the reign of King George III. He wrote of his experiences and travels in his Persian 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".

The first group of Muslims to come to Great Britain in significant numbers, in the 18th century, were lascars (sailors) recruited from the Indian subcontinent, 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 of British Bengal (now in Bangladesh). One of the most famous early Asian immigrants to England was the Bengali Muslim entrepreneur Sake Dean Mahomet, a captain of the East India Company who in 1810 founded London's first Indian restaurant, 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, 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 visited Mecca in disguise, documented in The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. At the beginning of World War I, 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 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. Muslim soldiers of the British Indian Army later fought for Britain against the Nazis in World War II, where Muslim soldiers accounted for up to 40% of the 2.5 million troops serving the British Indian Army. David Lloyd George, British Prime Minister 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 in 1920. The first mosque in London was the Fazl Mosque, established in 1924, commonly called the London mosque.

Quran translators Yusuf Ali and Marmaduke Pickthall, who authored The Meaning of the Glorious Koran: An Explanatory Translation in 1930, were both trustees of the Shah Jahan Mosque in Woking and the East London Mosque.

Other aristocratic British converts included Sir Archibald Hamilton, 5th Baronet, Rowland Allanson-Winn, 5th Baron Headley, St John Philby and Zainab Cobbold (the first Muslim woman born in Britain to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca).

Immigration and post-World War II

thumb|Muslims during an [[Eid al-Fitr feast at the East London Mosque in 1941]]

Large-scale immigration of Muslims to Britain began after World War II, as a result of the destruction and labour shortages caused by the war. Muslim migrants from former British colonies, predominantly India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, Large numbers of doctors recruited from India and Pakistan also played a role in the establishment of the National Health Service (NHS).

British Asians (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 skinheads, the National Front, and the British National Party (BNP), throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Drawing inspiration from the civil rights movement, the black power movement, and the anti-apartheid movement, young British Pakistani and British Bangladeshi activists began a number of anti-racist 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 and Barelvi (the latter of which is more Sufi-orientated). There are also a smaller number of Salafi-oriented mosques, inspired by Abul A'la Maududi 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-Shadhili-Qadiri tariqa which was run out of Achnagairn in the Scottish Highlands.

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's novel The Satanic Verses in 1988 caused major controversy. A number of Muslims in Britain condemned the book for blasphemy. On 2 December 1988, the book was publicly burned at a demonstration in Bolton attended by 7,000 Muslims, followed by a similar demonstration and book-burning in Bradford on 14 January 1989.

Recently, several wars in the Balkans, Middle East and North Africa have led to many Muslims migrating to the United Kingdom. In 1992, with the outbreak of the Bosnian War, 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 in 1998, would see 29,000 Kosovo Albanians 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 (and later Arab Winter) brought a wave of Muslim refugees fleeing civil war in Syria, war in Iraq, 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

thumb|Distribution of British Muslims by local authority, 2021 census

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="margin:auto;"

|+ Muslims in the United Kingdom by region and country

! rowspan="2" |Region / Country

! colspan="2" |2021

! colspan="2" |2011

! colspan="2" |2001

!Number

| England

| 3,801,186

| 6.7%

| 2,660,116

| 5.0%

| 1,524,887

| 3.1%

| —Greater London

| 1,318,754

| 15.0%

| 1,012,823

| 12.4%

| 607,083

| 8.5%

| —West Midlands

| 569,963

| 9.6%

| 376,152

| 6.7%

| 216,184

| 4.1%

| —North West

| 563,105

| 7.6%

| 356,458

| 5.1%

| 204,261

| 3.0%

| —Yorkshire and the Humber

| 442,533

| 8.1%

| 326,050

| 6.2%

| 189,089

| 3.8%

| —South East

| 309,067

| 3.3%

| 201,651

| 2.3%

| 108,725

| 1.4%

| —East

| 234,744

| 3.3%

| 148,341

| 2.5%

| 78,931

| 1.5%

| —East Midlands

| 210,766

| 4.3%

| 140,649

| 3.1%

| 70,224

| 1.7%

| —South West

| 80,152

| 1.4%

| 51,228

| 1.0%

| 23,465

| 0.5%

| —North East

| 72,102

| 2.7%

| 46,764

| 1.8%

| 26,925

| 1.1%

| Scotland

| 119,872

| 2.2%

| 76,737

| 1.4%

| 42,557

| 0.8%

| Wales

| 66,947

| 2.2%

| 45,950

| 1.5%

| 21,739

| 0.7%

| Northern Ireland

| 10,870

| 0.6%

| 3,832

| 0.2%

| 1,943

| 0.1%

! 3,998,875

! 6.0%

! 2,786,635

! 4.4%

! 1,591,126

! 2.7%

thumb|Muslim population pyramid in 2021 in England and Wales

thumb|Ethnic composition of British Muslims, 2021 census

According to the 2021 United Kingdom census, 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 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 recorded the highest number of Muslims at 48,766, or 7.86% of the population. The top 25 local authorities in the United Kingdom with the highest percentage of Muslims based on the 2021 census were:

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:90%;"

|+ Top 25 local authorities (2021 Census)

! Local authority !! Population !! Per cent

| London Borough of Tower Hamlets || 123,912 || 39.93%

| Blackburn with Darwen || 54,146 || 34.99%

| London Borough of Newham || 122,146 || 34.80%

| Luton || 74,191 || 32.94%

| London Borough of Redbridge || 97,068 || 31.29%

| City of Bradford || 166,846 || 30.53%

| Birmingham || 341,811 || 29.85%

| Slough || 46,661 || 29.44%

| Pendle || 24,900 || 26.00%

| Metropolitan Borough of Oldham || 59,031 || 24.38%

| Leicester || 86,443 || 23.45%

| Manchester || 122,962 || 22.28%

| London Borough of Waltham Forest || 60,157 || 21.61%

| London Borough of Brent || 72,574 || 21.36%

| City of Westminster || 40,873 || 20.01%

| Bolton || 58,997 || 19.93%

| Rochdale || 42,121 || 18.82%

| London Borough of Ealing || 68,907 || 18.77%

| London Borough of Enfield || 61,477 || 18.63%

| Kirklees || 80,046 || 18.48%

| London Borough of Hounslow || 48,028 || 16.67%

| Preston || 23,825 || 16.12%

| London Borough of Camden || 33,830 || 16.10%

| London Borough of Harrow || 41,503 || 15.89%

| Hyndburn || 12,049 || 14.65%

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 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/Bangladeshi/Indian, 6.2% were of other Asian heritage, 10.8% identified as Black, 7.2% identified as Arab, 5.9% were White, 3.7% were of Mixed heritage, and the remaining 6.6% identified with other ethnic groups. In 2017, Pew Research Center 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.

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 recently expanding into a large former car park where the London Muslim Centre is now used for prayers, recreational facilities and housing.

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, Kosovo, Adygea, Chechnya, Albania, Turkey, Bulgaria, the region of East Macedonia and Thrace in Northern Greece, and North Macedonia. 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 and Sikhism. 8% of UK Muslims are of Indian descent, principally those whose origins are in Gujarat, West Bengal, Telangana and Kerala. Gujarati Muslims from the Surat and Bharuch districts started to arrive from the 1940s when India was under British colonial rule, settling in the towns of Dewsbury and Batley in Yorkshire and in parts of Lancashire.

{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed sortable" style="border:1px ; background:#FFFFFF; text-align:left; clear:both; font-size:100%; margin: 0px auto 0px auto;"

! Census Year !! Number of Muslims !! Population of England and Wales !! Muslim (% of population) !! Registered mosques !! Muslims per mosque

| 1961 || 50,000 || 46,196,000 || 0.11 || 7 || 7,143

| 1971 || 226,000 || 49,152,000 || 0.46|| 1,500 || 1,912

| 2021 || 3,868,133 || 59,597,542 || 6.5

Bangladeshis

thumb|The [[East London Mosque was one of the first in Britain to be allowed to use loudspeakers to broadcast the .]]

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. The majority of these Muslims come from the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh. Many mosques opened by the British Bangladeshi community are often named after Shah Jalal 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), Luton, Birmingham and Oldham. 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, Bradford, Manchester, Sunderland, Portsmouth, and Rochdale.

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 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 – which is a missionary and revival movement, and avoids political attention. The Hizb ut-Tahrir calls for the Khilafah (caliphate) and influences by publishing annual magazines, and lectures through mainly political concepts, and the other which is a movement within Sunni Islam is the Salafi – 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. 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 and Brick Lane Masjid, as well as opening madrassas and Islamic TV channels.

Indians

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

Middle Eastern

Arabs

thumb|[[London Central Mosque interior]]

People of Arab origin in Britain are the descendants of Arab immigrants to Britain from a variety of Arab states or entities, including Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority. 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, Liverpool, and Birmingham. There are also sizable and very long-established communities of Muslim Yemenis in the United Kingdom in among other places Cardiff and the South Shields area near Newcastle.

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 Iraqi Kurds make up the largest group of Kurds in the country, exceeding the numbers from Turkey and Iran.

The 2001 UK Census recorded 32,236 Iraqi-born residents, and the Office for National Statistics 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

thumb|upright|right|A Turkish girl in London

Turks in the United Kingdom represent a unique community in the country because they have emigrated not only from the Republic of Turkey but also from other former Ottoman regions; in fact, the majority of British Turks are Turkish Cypriots who migrated from the island of Cyprus 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 and Syria) as well as the Balkans (including Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania). , 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.

thumb|upright|left|[[Suleymaniye Mosque (London)|Suleymaniye Mosque in Hoxton, London]]

Turkish Cypriots first began to migrate to the United Kingdom in 1917. At the time, the British Empire had already annexed Cyprus and the residents of Cyprus became subjects of the Crown. Migration continued through the 1920s; during the Second World War, 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 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 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. 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. 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, Hamidiye Mosque in Leicester, and Osmaniye Mosque in Stoke-on-Trent.

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, Lambeth, Southwark, Croydon, Islington, Kensington, Waltham Forest, and Wood Green. Outside London there are smaller Turkish communities in Birmingham, Hertfordshire, Luton, Manchester, Sheffield and the East Midlands.

African

thumb|A hijab-wearing British Horner Muslim woman next to another hijab-wearing British Muslim woman at an iftar event in the U.K.

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. 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.

Horners

Horner Muslims in the UK refer to Muslims in the U.K. who have ancestry in Horn African countries such as Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, and to its broadest extent, includes the Atbai region of Sudan. Oromo Ethiopian immigrants to the UK are among the most evenly split ethnic groups, with roughly half of them being Christian and the other half being Muslim. A 2009 estimate by Somali community organisations puts the Somali population figure in the UK 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.

White European

thumb|A hijab-wearing Muslim woman at an AI summit meeting in the U.K.

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 soldier who converted to Islam and became the governor of Medina. The pirate Jack Ward, 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 who successfully completed a Hajj to Mecca 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.

{| class="wikitable"

|+Ethnic composition of British Muslims over time

! rowspan="2" |Ethnic group

! colspan="2" |1987 estimates

! colspan="2" |2021 census

!Number

!% out of total Muslims

!Number

!% out of total Muslims

!Asian

!609,440

!84.9%

!2,550,022

!65.9%

|Indian

|121,760

|17%

|246,968

|6.4%

|Bangladeshi

|111,360

|15.5%

|593,136

|15.3%

|Pakistani

|376,320

|52.5%

|1,470,775

|38%

|Chinese

|–

|1,890

|0%

|Other Asian

|–

|237,253

|6.1%

!Other

!533,505

!13.8%

|Arab

|79,000

|11%

|277,737

|7.2%

|Other

|–

|255,768

|6.6%

!Black

!416,327

!10.8%

|African

|29,000

|4%

|378,219

|9.8%

|Caribbean

|–

|7,167

|0.2%

|Other

|–

|30,941

|0.8%

!White

!–

!226,233

!5.8%

|White British

|–

|90,939

|2.4%

|White Other

|–

|135,294

|3.5%

!Mixed

!142,045

!3.7%

!Total

!717,440

!100%

!3,868,132

!100%

Branches

British Muslims follow a range of Islamic denominations and movements. A Techne UK survey commissioned by the Institute for the Impact of Faith in Life (IIFL) found that the majority identify with Sunni Islam. A large proportion within that grouping identify with non-denominational branches, and smaller proportions identifying with Deobandi, Barelvi and Salafi currents. This translates to 83.8% that identify with broader Sunni Islam.

The survey also recorded a minority identifying with Shi'a denominations and a small proportion identifying with other sects or preferring not to state a denomination.