Executive Summary
Introduction
London’s ethnic and religious diversity makes it one of the world’s most cosmopolitan and vibrant cities; the multicultural and international character of London contributes to the city’s economic growth and dynamism.

There has been a long and fruitful connection between Muslims and London over many centuries, involving interactions in the realms of diplomacy, commerce and scholarship. There is evidence of Muslim influence in place names, historical records, emblems and architecture. The last hundred years have seen the rapid development of this association, contributing to the emergence of London as a unique world cosmopolitan centre.

The Mayor commissioned this report with the objective of bringing together in one volume the information available on the Muslim communities of London.

This report brings together data and information about Muslims in London, drawn from the 2001 Census and other sources. The 2001 Census included, for the first time, a voluntary question on religion, providing official statistics on faith communities. Nonetheless, a significant issue that arose in preparing this report was a general lack of faith-based data and information. Information is also limited by the categories used in collecting and analysing data and to some extent the relative sizes of the populations in London and the UK as a whole. This lack of information highlights the need for future research and the need for more or different questions in the next Census. The Scottish Census, for example, asked two questions about religion.

The structure of the report focuses on five major themes to give a snapshot of London’s Muslim communities in the key areas of: demography; socio-economic profiles; inclusion (political, community and voluntary sector, and cultural); the criminal justice system; and Islamophobia.

Demography
The 2001 Census found that 607,083 Muslims (310,477 men and 296,606 women) were living in London.

Forty per cent of London’s Muslims were born in the UK, with significant numbers born in south Asia, Africa and Europe. Almost two thirds of Muslims in London are of south Asian origin (24 per cent Bangladeshi, 22 per cent Pakistani, seven per cent Indian and seven per cent ‘other’ Asian). Nearly 20 per cent are white, 13 per cent black (12 per cent Black African) and almost five per cent from mixed groups and from other ethnic groups. London’s Muslim communities are highly diverse in terms of nationality, ethnicity and language.

The range of languages spoken by London’s Muslim communities includes Punjabi, Bengali/Sylheti, Urdu, Gujarati, Arabic, Turkish, Somali and Kurdish. With 50 per cent under the age of 24, London’s Muslim population is younger than the population of London as a whole, which has 33 per cent of people aged 24 years and less and 40 per cent aged 40 and over. There are 1.2 million people aged over 60 in London; of those who declared their religion in the 2001 Census, 3.6 per cent were Muslim.

Education The 2001 Census represents the only instance in which educational attainment by faith was monitored on a large scale for five to 16 year olds. The lack of other data can conceal differences between the educational experiences and outcomes of different Muslim communities. Education is crucial to the life chances of individuals and communities. London’s growing demand for more highly skilled labour means that people with low qualifications are excluded from the most dynamic sectors of London’s economy. Muslims aged 16-24 in London have lower qualification levels as a group compared with their peers in the general population.

Muslims in higher education can face discriminatory structures, sometimes indirectly. For example, an Open Society Institute report on Muslims in the UK details a number of issues faced by Muslim students. These include the fact that timetables or examination schedules may clash with religious observances, that educational loans systems contravene Islamic law, and that the culture of the institutions is such that students are expected to participate in social events where alcohol is consumed.2 Although some ethnic monitoring of graduate recruitment is conducted, monitoring by faith is not.

Employment and economic activity The 2001 Census indicated that Muslims have the lowest rates of employment and economic activity and the highest unemployment rate of all the faith groups. Economically active people are defined as being in employment or unemployed and looking for work. Economically inactive people include students, retired people and people who are permanently sick. Only 42 per cent of Muslims aged 16-24 are economically active, compared with 60 per cent of the general population.

Muslim women have higher levels of economic inactivity compared with women from other groups. The lack of affordable, appropriate childcare is a major barrier to work, as a higher proportion of Muslim women are looking after home or family compared with women from the general population. Muslim women are also more likely to be studying rather than working. Lack of work experience is also an issue.

Muslims in London face several barriers to employment, including educational underachievement, discrimination, lack of affordable and appropriate childcare, lack of suitable training, travel costs and housing costs

Commerce and trade
Businesses owned by Muslims in London include finance and legal services, property, technology, retail and wholesale, and media and publishing. There is no definitive figure on the number of businesses owned by Muslims in London. Muslims wishing to set up or develop their own businesses can face barriers including access to funding, lack of appropriate financial services, reluctance to access advice, or a lack of awareness of such. The development of Shariah-compliant financial services should go some way to opening doors for Muslims to access funding for business ventures.

In 2003, it was estimated that UK trade with five countries with predominantly Muslim populations (Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan) generated imports worth approximately £8.1 billion and exports estimated at around £6.8 billion.

Housing regeneration and planning
The 2001 Census highlights the housing needs of some Muslim communities, but real progress in targeting need and providing appropriate accommodation and services requires improved data. Despite this information deficit, some conclusions can be drawn about the problems that London’s Muslims encounter.

Home Office research into religious discrimination in 2001 found that Muslims reported having experienced discrimination and unfair treatment from private landlords, social landlords and in some cases estate agents. Muslims have lower than average rates of home ownership, with only 38 per cent of the Muslim population owning their own home, compared with 56 per cent of the general population in London. The growing availability of appropriate financial services and mortgage products has been found to assist those who can afford to buy. Data on homelessness figures are not analysed by faith, but groups overrepresented in the homelessness figures include Pakistani and Bangladeshi people.

Health and well-being The 2001 Census provided details of self-assessed levels of health by faith, which showed that 24 per cent of Muslim women and 21 per cent of Muslim men suffered limiting long-term illness and disability. Key areas where progress is needed include further health surveys, faith-based monitoring of primary and secondary care services, minimum standards of training in diversity considerations and the availability of more female staff, particularly in maternity wards. The ongoing programme of work and initiatives to address health inequalities and to improve health outcomes should include considerations for the faith communities.

Political representation
There is significant under-representation of Muslim communities in all spheres of public life in London and the UK as a whole. According to the 2001 Census, 8.5 per cent of Londoners were Muslim. For representation in public life to be in proportion to the Muslim population there would need to be over 169 Muslim councillors and six Muslim MPs. In fact, there were just 63 Muslim London councillors in 2000. There is now one Muslim MP representing a London constituency (out of 74 constituencies) and one Muslim MEP out of ten. Only one of the 25 London Assembly members elected in 2004 is Muslim.

Community and voluntary organisations Muslim communities have invested heavily in building up their own voluntary and community organisations over a relatively short period. A research study by the Home Office published in January 2005 reported that Muslims were more likely to participate in ‘civic activities’ than people of other faiths.

The Muslim Directory, published by MDUK Media, lists over 250 Muslim charities and social and welfare organisations in London, including some 30 Muslim women’s projects. Mosques are both places of worship and local hubs in the provision of community services. The Muslim Council of Britain, in its policy document Electing to Deliver, identified the need for specific action to strengthen community voluntary organisations. Muslim organisations report that funding is a significant concern as they cannot access lottery funding for religious reasons and in some cases are denied access to other funding ‘because of the absence of a race element in their work.'

Cultural participation Muslims make a significant contribution to London’s cultural diversity through art, literature, entertainment, food, sports and the media. Muslim communities have developed cultural facilities and events closely linked to their faith that perform a range of social and religious services. Recent developments include the rise of diverse and dynamic Muslim media, which is playing a key role in communicating with and through Muslim communities.

The UK has many Muslim sports people who participate and excel in their various fields of endeavour, providing inspiration and a high profile presence for Muslims in sport.

Muslims in London were keen backers of the bid for the 2012 Olympic Games, with Sir Iqbal Sacranie and Tanzeem Wasti of the Muslim Council of Britain acting as bid ambassadors. Four of the London boroughs most closely involved with the 2012 Games – Tower Hamlets, Newham, Waltham Forest and Hackney – had a combined Muslim population of almost 191,500 people at the time of the 2001 Census. The Muslim Council of Britain estimates that by 2012 the Muslim population in these boroughs will be over 250,000. There are tremendous opportunities for local communities to become stakeholders in the Olympics, through their participation as athletes, volunteers, and spectators and through involvement in associated sporting and cultural initiatives. The 2012 Olympics also have the potential to leave a lasting legacy for these communities in terms of business opportunities, jobs, improved skills, and housing.

Criminal justice system
The lack of data on the treatment of Muslims by the criminal justice system must be urgently addressed. In 2004, 17 per cent of the prison population in London was made up of Muslims, compared with 8.5 per cent recorded in the 2001 Census. There is evidence that Muslims are disproportionately victims of religiously aggravated crime, more so than any other faith.

There were 269 incidents of religious hate crime across all faith groups in the Metropolitan Police area between 7 July and 31 July 2005, compared with 40 incidents over the same period in 2004.8 Increased attacks were primarily directed against Asian and Muslim people.

In 2005/06 there were 1,006 reported faith hate crimes, an increase of 469 (87 per cent since 2004). At the same time, reports from Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) community contacts continue to note the possibility of a large gap between reported and experienced incidents. The Metropolitan Police Commissioner estimated that London needs another 2,000 Muslim police officers for the MPS to be representative of London’s communities.

Islamophobia
Islamophobia can be defined as the ‘fear, hatred or hostility directed towards Islam and Muslims’.European Union research found that, after the events of 11 September 2001, Muslim communities across Europe have increasingly become targets of hostility and hatred.11 Following the bombings in London in July 2005, Muslim organisations reported a backlash against Muslims in the form of attacks on persons and property. The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) report on the impact of the July 2005 bombings on Muslim communities in the European Union found that individual Muslims experienced fear and feelings of suspicion from other Londoners to the extent that some people curtailed their normal routines. This was despite the fact that anti- Muslim sentiments were in the minority among the general population. That they did not become more commonplace was due to the fact that Muslim communities, Muslim leaders, political leaders and media strongly condemned the attacks and clearly stated that neither Islam nor the wider Muslim communities sanctioned such actions.

The media plays a significant role in shaping the public impressions of Islam and Muslims and it has been found to lack balance and, in some cases, promote highly negative stereotypes. In February 2006, the Danish press published cartoons that caused great offence to Muslims. The Mayor has raised concerns about how Muslims and Islam are presented in the media, specifically highlighting the fact that the voice of the mainstream Muslim community is not being heard in the media. It is important that the role of the media in promoting negative stereotypes of Muslims and Islam is challenged. It is also essential that Muslims are aware of the assistance available to them in tackling Islamophobia on an individual level, through the police and community organisations.

Recommendations
The following recommendations fall under three main interconnected themes: monitoring and research; eliminating disadvantage and discrimination; and improving representation.

Monitoring, research and information
• Public bodies should monitor their workforce, service take-up and outcomes by health, policing, education, housing, homelessness and faith. This will help build valid and robust statistical information about the ethnic origin of London’s Muslim communities across London.

• The Greater London Authority (GLA) should work with the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to develop quarterly reports on faith and race and correlate these with demographic information to provide an indicator of the prevalence of racial and faith attacks on different groups.

• There is a need for research by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and education authorities into the correlation between faith and educational underachievement, discrimination, access to higher education, and employment prospects.

• The Department of Work and Pensions should monitor the take-up of in-work benefits such as working tax credit by faith and ethnicity. • Valid and robust data and information on the health of Muslims should be gathered and analysed by the NHS and the London Health Observatory.

• Further research needs to be undertaken to establish a true understanding of the access to and participation of Muslim communities in culture and sport and the provision of culturally appropriate funding and facilities.

Eliminating disadvantage and discrimination
• The Mayor will work with the London Development Agency (LDA) and other organisations to investigate educational underachievement among Muslim communities in London schools, examine the effectiveness of the provision of training and skills to London’s Muslim communities and devise strategies to remedy any problems identified.  

• The DfES and local education authorities should work towards eliminating direct and indirect discriminatory practices by educational institutions.

• The Mayor will work with the LDA and the government to investigate direct and indirect discrimination against Muslims in the labour market and enterprise.

• Housing providers, planners and local strategic partnerships should work together and engage more with Muslims in developing and delivering regeneration strategies. This will help empower communities and foster a sense of ownership that would ensure the development of sustainable communities.

• The MPS needs to ascertain an accurate picture of faith hate crime in the capital, develop effective victim support policies and further develop good relationships between the communities and the police.

• The MPS needs to improve police officers’ training in stop and search procedures and strengthen their operational management.

• Initiatives and legislation that seek to eliminate Islamophobia need to be monitored, evaluated and reviewed in consultation with Muslim communities in order to ensure their effectiveness.

• There need to be London-wide accessible and affordable interpretation and translation services for people with a first language other than English.

Improving representation
• The Mayor will work to improve representation of Muslims on the boards and workforces of the GLA group and work with the government and boroughs with a view to improving representation in all public services and public bodies in London.

• There needs to be continuing discussion and partnership working between Muslim communities and policy makers at local, regional and national government levels to seek ways of improving representation in public life.

• Muslim community organisations and mosques need to be supported in terms of funding, training and other resources to enable them to promote participation that is representative and inclusive of all sections of Muslim communities. The potential of mosques as hubs of service delivery should be explored and developed.

• Local Education Authorities must work with communities to increase the proportion of Muslim teachers and Muslim school governors in areas with significant Muslim communities.  

References (to summary)
Towards an Older People’s Strategy for London - a draft Mayoral strategy for consultation, Mayor of London, November 2005

OSI, Muslims in the UK: Policies for Engaged citizens, 2005

A Dale, N Shaheen, et al, The labour market prospects for Pakistani and Bangladeshi women in Work, Employment and Society, Vol 16 (1) 5-25. BSA Publications Ltd, 2002

OSI, Aspirations and reality: British Muslims and the Labour Market, 2004

ONS Pink Book, 2004 and GLA Economics, 2004

Home Office research study Diversity, trust and community participation in England. 2005. Civic activities/engagement include signing petitions, contacting councillors or MPs.

Muslim Council of Britain, policy document Electing to Deliver, 2005

N Somerlad, Capital ‘needs 2,000 more Muslim police’ reported on Muslim News website, www.muslimnews.co.uk  23 June 2005

Defining Islamophobia, Forum against Islamophobia and Racism, www.fairuk.org

Summary report on Islamophobia in the EU after 11 September 2001, European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia

Abdul Wahid Hamid, Islam the Natural Way, Muslim Education and Literary Services, UK, 2004

Briefing on the census profiles of Muslims in London by the Data Management and Analysis Group (DMAG) of the Greater London Authority, 2005

2001 Census Key Statistics: Ethnicity, religion and country of birth. DMAG briefing 2003/9. Greater London Authority

Eds. P Baker and J Eversley, Multilingual Capital - The languages of London’s schoolchildren and their relevance to economic, social and educational policies, 2000

FULL REPORT (pdf, 112 pages)

©  GLA 2006