THE SITUATION OF MUSLIMS IN THE UK
EU ACCESSION MONITORING PROGRAM
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UMMARY
The United Kingdom has almost two million Muslims, forming one of the mostdiverse, multi-ethnic Muslim communities in the world. Most communities are theresult of economic migration in the 1960s and 1970s. More recently Muslims havearrived as refugees seeking asylum. Half of the Muslim population lives in London;others settled mainly in the industrial Midlands, the northern mill towns and the westcoast of Scotland. The daughters and sons of these immigrants form a new generation, who identify themselves increasingly with their faith and who are finding new ways of being British and being Muslim.Relations with Muslim communities are at a critical crossroads. During 2001 the livesof Britain’s Muslims came under unprecedented scrutiny and examination. First,following the disturbances in the northern mill towns over the Spring and Summer andthen, of course, after 11 September. Much of this scrutiny has focused on the extent to which Muslims have integrated into British society. It has led to assertions thatMuslims are isolationist and failing to integrate; that they are living parallel lives tothose in the wider community. This report seeks to rebalance this debate by focusing on the need for integration to be a two-way process.There is evidence of severe discrimination and disadvantage experienced by Muslimcommunities, which operate as obstacles to those wanting to integrate. Tackling thisdisadvantage and discrimination is essential for integration, as is the cultivation among Muslims of a sense that they belong to the broader society. This requires respect fortheir identity as Muslims, and enhanced opportunities for their participation in allspheres of public life and in all aspects of the policymaking process. The UK hasofficial bodies and structures that have the potential to address the concerns of Muslims; it is vital that such bodies encourage, facilitate and take steps to support theirparticipation. The institutions of the European Union must also take steps to ensureinclusion of Muslims in policy-making processes at that level. Measures to improve thesituation of British Muslims will bring benefits to society as a whole.
Protection from discrimination
The assertion of Muslim identities challenges the pre-existing legal and institutionalframework that views minority communities in terms of racial and ethnic background.The primacy of racial and ethnic community formations has meant that, until recently,religion has been largely missing from the discourse on minority protection. Statisticsare not collected on the basis of religion but on the basis of ethnic identities. Theabsence of reliable data on minority faith communities poses serious challenges toestablishing the extent of discrimination against Muslims. Ethnic data providesstatistics for Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, revealing severe levels of disadvantage among
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