Was the Uk Again Muslims in 1997

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Sunday, November 23, 1997 Published at 01:ten GMT


Special Report

Muslims in Britain

The creation of the Muslim Council of Britain this weekend is an effort to highlight the problems facing the Muslim customs. In this special written report for BBC News online, the BBC Religious Diplomacy correspondent, Alex Kirby, looks at Britain's Muslim community - their origins, their behavior and the issues which well-nigh concern them:

The number of Muslims in Britain is generally put at around 1.five 1000000, though some community groups suggest it could be nearer 2 million.

Peradventure half came originally from Islamic republic of pakistan, with the Centre East and N Africa accounting for around a quarter. Several hundred thousand originated in Bangladesh, with Bharat also contributing meaning numbers.

The largest Muslim communities are in Greater London, the West Midlands, Due west Yorkshire, Lancashire and key Scotland. Most belong to the Sunni tradition of Islam, which accounts for 90% of Muslims worldwide. Only a minor proportion of British Muslims are Shi'as.

All Muslims affirm the oneness of God. They believe that all ability belongs to Him (who they name Allah); they believe in His prophets and angels, in the books that He has revealed, in the Day of Judgement and in life after death.

The annual pilgrimage to Mecca

They pray five times a day, give two and a half per cent of their savings and income to the needy and find the holy month of fasting and discipline, called Ramadan. And every Muslim who can beget to do and then is expected to perform the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, at least one time.

British Muslims face growing tensions. Almost came here from somewhere else, and were therefore in one case immigrants, people who naturally still looked back to their homelands. But they have put down deep roots, and their children -- a growing proportion of the entire Islamic community -- are Britons who happen to be Muslims.

They go on to face discrimination and disadvantage: Bangladeshis and Pakistanis together take a long-term unemployment rate nigh three times greater than people of West Indian descent. In the inner cities, nearly half of all Bangladeshi and Pakistani adults are out of work.

Once more, the number of Muslims in prison in England and Wales rose by forty% in the iv years to 1995 to account for ix per cent of the prison population, although Muslims constitute only about 4 per cent of the entire British population.

A recent report identified "Islamophobia" as a problem besetting British Muslims of every generation and background: an irrational fear of Muslims as people aptitude on imposing their religious and political views on the rest of society, if necessary by force.

The overwhelming majority of British Muslims are intent simply on living their lives without interference: faithful adherents of their called faith, and at the same fourth dimension loyal citizens of their chosen country.

But the problems they face here are intensified by some of the acts committed in the proper name of Islam by people who most Muslims disown.

The Luxor set on adds to anti-Muslim sentiment

The massacre at the Egyptian tourist resort of Luxor, the long nightmare of the civil war in People's democratic republic of algeria, the treatment of members of other faiths past some Muslims in countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, the fatwa or religious edict by Islamic republic of iran against the writer, Salman Rushdie - all contribute to the mistaken identification of Muslims with violence and disharmonize.

The launching of the Muslim Council of United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland is an attempt, the organisers say, "to highlight the fact that we are an nugget to the nation and to gloat the contribution nosotros take made to society".

It will tackle bigotry against Muslims in areas such as organized religion and education. Its founders expect more than 250 organisations to support the new umbrella grouping -- out of 500 that accept been invited. But already information technology faces opposition from fringe groups who say it doesn't represent them.

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	Special Report Contents
	�-�	Space
	�-�	Mars Surveyor probe
	�-�	Education League Tables
	�-�	El Nino
	�-�	ISS
	�-�	Northern Ireland
	�-�	Whitbread yacht race
	�-�	Sport
	�-�	Louise Woodward case
	�-�	Firm of Lords
	�-�	Unabomber

	1997 Contents
	�-�	Schengen
	�-�	Quiz
	�-�	Asian economic woes
	�-�	BSE
	�-�	Thanksgiving
	�-�	Korean elections 97

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Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1997/religion/33539.stm