Islam
In the 2001 census 16.8% of the Birmingham population identified themselves as Muslim. This is significantly higher than the average for England and Wales of 3.0%.
The Muslim community in Birmingham is considered one of the most diverse after London with a wide spectrum of people originally from Africa, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, Western Asia and other Asian countries. Although the earliest Muslims to arrive in Birmingham and England generally are said to have been from Yemen and the regions of South Asia now known as Bangladesh, it is the Kashmiri community from Mirpur in Pakistan who form the largest group of migrated Muslims. The majority of the Muslims in Birmingham continue to be born abroad as more and more migrants arrive into the city although the number of British-born Muslims and those who convert to the faith are said to be near 50% of the total Muslim population. More recent Muslim settlers hail from Somalia, Kosovo and Algeria and neighbouring nations.
The first mosque in Birmingham was the conversion of a terraced house in Balsall Heath but later a grand project was undertaken by Muslims with the development of the Birmingham Central Mosque in Belgrave Middleway, Highgate, which was conceived in the 1960s and then opened in 1975 to great acclaim as the largest mosque in Western Europe and has since cemented its role as one of Britain's largest and most prominent Islamic centres.
There are currently just over 200 mosques in the city, including purpose built places of worship, converted warehouses, Churches and cinemas as well as former homes, schools and centres. The other prominent mosques and Islamic centres in the city include the Central Jamia Masjid Ghamkol Sharif (located on Poet's Corner in Golden Hillock Road, Sparkhill), Jami Masjid & Islamic Centre in Coventry Road COVENTRY ROAD MOSQUE, Green Lane Mosque (a former grand library and now modern refurbished Islamic centre and mosque in Green Lane, Small Heath) which is the headquarters of Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith UK and the 'Amaanah' or Bordesley Centre in Camp Hill run by the Muath Welfare Trust and recently renovated with a generous government grant to continue to provide educational and spiritual services to the large citywide Muslim community. The Bordelsey Centre was established by the city's Yemeni community.
Birmingham is home to numerous Islamic schools and has a rich array of Muslim bookstores and libraries including the exhibition centres of the Islamic Propagation Centre International (IPCI), one of the country's longest running Islamic da'wah (or propagation) organisations. The city also has a Shariah Council run by the Birmingham Mosque Trust.
(see also Islam in the United Kingdom)
Read more about this topic: Religion In Birmingham
Famous quotes containing the word islam:
“Awareness of the stars and their light pervades the Koran, which reflects the brightness of the heavenly bodies in many verses. The blossoming of mathematics and astronomy was a natural consequence of this awareness. Understanding the cosmos and the movements of the stars means understanding the marvels created by Allah. There would be no persecuted Galileo in Islam, because Islam, unlike Christianity, did not force people to believe in a “fixed” heaven.”
—Fatima Mernissi, Moroccan sociologist. Islam and Democracy, ch. 9, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. (Trans. 1992)
“Sooner or later we must absorb Islam if our own culture is not to die of anemia.”
—Basil Bunting (1900–1985)
“The exact objectives of Islam Inc. are obscure. Needless to say everyone involved has a different angle, and they all intend to cross each other up somewhere along the line.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)