page_title: Islam in the United Kingdom
section_title: Bangladeshis
hierarchical_section_title: Islam in the United Kingdom / Demographics / South Asian / Bangladeshis
caption_attribution_description: East London Mosque
context_page_description: Islam is the second largest religion in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with results from the United Kingdom 2011 Census giving the UK Muslim population in 2011 as 2,516,000, 4.4% of the total population. The vast majority of Muslims in the United Kingdom live in England: 2,660,116. 76,737 Muslims live in Scotland, 45,950 in Wales. London has the greatest population of Muslims in the country. The majority of Muslims in United Kingdom adhere to Sunni Islam, while smaller numbers are associated with Shia Islam.
  During the Middle Ages, there was some general cultural exchange between Christendom and the Islamic world, however, there were no Muslims in the British Isles. During the Elizabethan age contacts became more explicit as the Tudors made alliances against Catholic Habsburg Spain, including with Morocco and the Ottoman Empire. As the British Empire grew, particularly in India, Britain came to rule territories with many Muslim inhabitants; some of these, known as the lascars are known to have settled in Britain from the mid-18th century onwards.
context_section_description: People of Bangladeshi descent are the second largest Muslim community (after Pakistanis), 15% of Muslims in England and Wales are of Bangladeshi descent, one of the ethnic groups in the UK with the largest proportion of people following a single religion, being 92% Muslim.
  The majority of these Muslims come from the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh. Many mosques opened by the British Bangladeshi community are often named after Shah Jalal and other Sufi saints who took part in the Islamic conquest of Sylhet in 1303. British Bangladeshi Muslims are mainly concentrated in London (Tower Hamlets and Newham), Luton, Birmingham and Oldham. The Bangladeshi Muslim community in London forms 24% of the Muslim population, larger than any other ethnic group. Other smaller Bangladeshi Muslim communities are present in Newcastle upon Tyne, Bradford, Manchester, Sunderland, Portsmouth, and Rochdale.
  There are groups which are active throughout Bangladeshi communities such as The Young Muslim Organisation. It is connected to the Islamic Forum Europe, associated with the East London Mosque and the London Muslim Centre – all of which have connections with the Bangladeshi political party, the Jamaat-e-Islami. Other large groups include another Sunni movement, the Fultoli (founded in Sylhet), and the Tablighi Jamaat – which is a missionary and revival movement, and avoids political attention. The Hizb ut-Tahrir calls for the Khilafah (caliphate) and influences by publishing annual magazines, and lectures through mainly political concepts, and the other which is a movement within Sunni Islam is the Salafi – who view the teachings of the first generations as the correct one, and appeals to younger Muslims as a way to differentiate themselves towards their elders.  All these groups work to stimulate Islamic identity among local Bengalis or Muslims and particularly focus on the younger members of the communities. The British Bangladeshi community has held a strong point in Islam, often opening large mosques such as East London Mosque and Brick Lane Masjid, as well as opening madrassas and Islamic TV Channels.
caption: The East London Mosque was one of the first in Britain to be allowed to use loudspeakers to broadcast the adhan.[60]
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