en.wikipedia.org
Society[edit]
Economics[edit]
According to analysis based on the 2011 census, Muslims in the United Kingdom face poor standards of housing, poorer levels of education and are more vulnerable to long-term illness,
[127] 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.
[128] The figures were, to some extent, explained by the fact that Muslims were the least well-established group, having the youngest age profile.
[128]
According to a 2013 assessment from the
Muslim Council of Britain, it was estimated that there were more than 10,000 Muslim millionaires and 13,400 Muslim-owned businesses in London, creating more than 70,000 jobs and representing just over 33 per cent of Small to Medium Enterprises in London.
[129]
Education[edit]
In 2018, 34 per cent of British Muslims had degree level qualifications, compared to 30 per cent of Christians and 35 per cent of those with no religion. 13 per cent of Muslims had no qualifications, higher than every other religious group.
[130]
In 2006, it was found that approximately 53% of British Muslim youth chose to attend university.
[131] This was higher than the figure for Christians (45%) and the non-religious (32%) but lower than for
Hindus (77%) and
Sikhs (63%).
[131]
There are around 184 Muslim
faith schools in the UK, 28 of them being state-funded.
[132] In 2008, 86.5% of pupils attending Muslim schools achieved five
GCSEs, compared to a figure of 72.8% of
Roman Catholic schools and 64.5% of secular schools.
[133]
In 2019, four Islamic schools were in the top ten ranking for secondary schools in England, including
Tauheedul Islam Girls High School in first place.
[134] Some Islamic schools have been accused of promoting extremist versions of Islam.
[135]
In 2018, the
Crown Prosecution Service brought its first prosecution in England & Wales against an unregistered school, the Islamic
faith school Al-Istiqamah Learning Centre in
Southall, London where nearly 60 children aged 5–11 were being taught.
[136][137][138] Head teacher Beatrix Bernhardt and director Nacerdine Talbi were convicted as running a school not registered with the
Department for Education violates the
Education and Skills Act 2008. They received fines and a
curfew.
[139]
Politics[edit]
Sadiq Khan the current
Mayor of London, was elected in 2016.
Pola Uddin, Baroness Uddin was the first Muslim female to sit in the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Muslims are playing an increasingly prominent role in political life.
[140] Nineteen Muslim MPs were elected in the
December 2019 general election,
[141] and there are nineteen Muslim peers in the
House of Lords.[
citation needed]
The majority of British Muslims vote for the
Labour Party,
[142] however there are some high-profile Conservative Muslims, including former Minister for Faith and Communities and former
Co-chairman and the
Conservative Party Sayeeda Warsi,
[143] described by
The Guardian as a 'rising star' in the Tory party.
[144] The Guardian stated that "The treasury minister is highly regarded on the right and would be the Tories' first Muslim leader."
Salma Yaqoob is the former leader of the left-wing
Respect Party.
[145] Sayeeda Warsi, who was the first Muslim to serve in a British cabinet, was appointed by
David Cameron in 2010 as a minister without portfolio. She was made a senior minister of state in 2012. In August 2014 she resigned over the government's approach to the
2014 Israel-Gaza conflict.
[146]
Muslim political parties in Britain have included the
People's Justice Party (UK), a Pakistani and Kashmiri party that won city council seats in Manchester in the 2000s,
[147] and the unsuccessful
Islamic Party of Britain, an
Islamist party in Bradford in the 1990s.
[148]
In the 2017 general election, 15 Muslim MPs (12 Labour and 3 Conservative) were elected, up from 13 Muslim MPs in 2015 general election.
[149] In the 2019 general election, a record number of 19 Muslim MPs were elected (15 Labour and 4 Conservative).
[150][151]
Muslim MPs by election 1997–2019 | | | | | | |
---|
Election | Labour | Conservative | Scottish National Party | Other | Total | % of Parliament |
---|
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.15 |
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.31 |
| 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0.62 |
| 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1.23 |
| 9 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 2.00 |
| 12 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 2.31 |
| 14 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 2.92 |
Main article:
Sharia
Public demonstration in the United Kingdom for sharia, October 2009
Although
sharia is not part of the
British legal system, several British establishment figures have supported its use in areas of dispute resolution in Islamic communities. For example, in February 2008
Rowan Williams the
Archbishop of Canterbury (the head of the
Church of England) lectured at the
Royal Courts of Justice on Islam and English law. In this lecture he spoke of the possibility of using sharia in some circumstances:
[...] it might be possible to think in terms of [...] a scheme in which individuals retain the liberty to choose the jurisdiction under which they will seek to resolve certain carefully specified matters, so that 'power-holders are forced to compete for the loyalty of their shared constituents'.
— Rowan Williams, 2008
[158]
Several months later,
Lord Phillips, then
Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales supported the idea that sharia could be reasonably employed as a basis for "mediation or other forms of alternative dispute resolution", and explained that "It is not very radical to advocate embracing sharia law in the context of family disputes, for example, and our system already goes a long way towards accommodating the archbishop's suggestion."
[159]
In March 2014,
The Law Society issued guidance on how to draft sharia-compliant wills for the network of sharia courts which been established to deal with disputes between Muslim families.
[160] The guidance was withdrawn later in 2014 following criticism by solicitors and by
Chris Grayling, the
Justice Secretary.
[161]
In 2016–2018 an independent panel commissioned by the UK government investigated the practices of sharia councils operating in England and Wales. The councils have no legal status and no legal jurisdiction in the UK. Estimates for their number range between 30 and 85. The investigation found that most people consulting the councils are women seeking an Islamic divorce. The review concluded that "there is unanimous agreement among the sharia councils themselves that discriminatory practices do occur in some instances within the councils in England and Wales" and made legislative and administrative recommendations to remedy the abuses. The panel was not aware of any sharia councils operating in Scotland.
[162]
According to Kaveri Qureshi, while women educate themselves and follow Islamic norms and values referring to colonial era
Islamic advice literature about marriage not for continuation but to end their marriages and for justification of remarriages contrary to original intention of authors of the literature.
[163]
By 1911, the British Empire had a Muslim population of 94 million, larger than the empire's 58 million Christian population.
[22] By the 1920s, the British Empire included roughly half of the world's Muslim population.
[21] More than 400,000 Muslim soldiers of the
British Indian Army fought for Britain during
World War I, where 62,060 were killed in action.
[34] Muslim soldiers of the British Indian Army later fought for Britain against the
Nazis in
World War II,
[35] where Muslim soldiers accounted for up to 40%
[36] of the 2.5 million troops serving the British Indian Army.
[37] 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.
[20] Winston Churchill also stated in 1942: "We must not on any account break with the Moslems, who represent a hundred million people, and the main army elements on which we must rely for the immediate fighting."
[36]