Immigration
Immigration
Britain's Muslim population are almost all people who immigrated to Britain in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, or their descendants.
During the first quarter of the 20th century it was estimated that there were around 10,000 Muslims in Britain. Now there are between 1 and 2 million British Muslims (2% - 4% of the population), and over half of them were born in Britain.
The first immigrants
Many of the immigrants in the 1950s and 60s came from India and Pakistan in search of a better material life. They could earn 30 times as much in Britain as they could in Pakistan.
A Pakistani farmer ©
While many planned to bring their families to Britain once they'd achieved financial security, others hoped to save money to buy land in Pakistan and then return to the families they had left behind.
Fear was another reason to come to Britain in the 1950s. Many left India because they wanted to escape the disruption and community violence that coincided with the division of British India into Pakistan and India. (During this partition, as many as 2 million people died in communal violence, ostensibly on religious grounds.)
A less-known reason why many Muslims left Pakistan was the construction of the Mangla Dam in the early 1960s. This submerged some 250 villages in the Mirpur District, and displaced 100,000 people; more than half the residents of some villages moved to Britain.
Most immigrants came from farming areas such as Azad Kashmir and the Northwest Frontier, which had close connections with Britain as established recruiting grounds for the British army and the merchant navy.
Almost all Bangladeshis came from Sylhet, which also had a long tradition of providing immigrants to Britain.
Women and children last
The first immigrants left their families behind ©
The first immigrants were men, who left their families behind. Once in Britain they tended to live in groups in communal houses until they had saved enough money to bring their wives and children to join them, or chosen to return to their birth-land.
The communal houses often contained men from the same village in Pakistan. Living like this made life easier for the new arrivals because it gave them a base, a community and friendship, and financial support while they found their feet.
Because they had no family or home comforts in Britain the new immigrants began a tradition of working very long hours that the present generation rejects.
Even when their wives joined them the early Muslim immigrants were still isolated from the host culture by language and prejudice. The generation of Muslims that have been educated in Britain have much stronger relationships with non-Muslims than their ancestors.
The Commonwealth Immigrants Act
Immigration was boosted briefly by The Commonwealth Immigrants Act of 1962, which removed the right of automatic entry for Commonwealth Citizens, restricting it to those who had a work voucher. People hurried to get into Britain before this new law made it too difficult.
The later Immigration Act of 1971 blocked immigration for single men.
Immigration from Africa
The next wave of immigrants came from Africa, mostly from Kenya and then Uganda.
As certain African regimes encouraged a policy of Africanisation, life became more difficult for those Asians already living there. Many of these Asians started moving to Britain until the Commonwealth Immigrants Act made it more difficult for them to do so. In 1972 60,000 Asians were expelled by President Amin from Uganda, many of whom were allowed to settle in Britain.
Although the immigrants from Africa were often traumatised and had lost most of their material possessions, they still had many advantages. They were better educated than the earlier immigrants, many of them were professionals or from skilled trades, and they already had experience of thriving in a minority community.
There are over 600 mosques in the UK ©
1990s and beyond
Islam is Britain's second most popular religion.
Over 600,000 of Britain's 1.5 to 2 million Muslims are active in their faith, which is a high proportion by Christian standards.
Most British Muslims belong to the Sunni tradition of Islam.
There are over 600 mosques in the UK and around 60 Muslim schools.
A recent surge in immigration in the wake of changes to the immigration laws in the late 1990s has had controversial results, with allegations that there has been an increase in enforced arranged marriages.
Home Office figures show that the number of Pakistani men using their wife's status to gain entry to Britain increased from 1,740 in 1995 to 3,510 in 1997.
Islamic scholars say that freely given consent is as necessary for a valid Muslim marriage as for a Christian one, and the Muslim community believe that there are few compulsory marriages.