Religions in the United Kingdom

15.2.1 Buddhism

Throughout the UK there is a variety of Buddhist organisations, reflecting both the variety of ethnic groups and also the different schools of thought and practice to be found amongst Buddhists. It is now estimated that, including a high percentage of the ethnically Chinese people of the UK as Buddhists, there are around 130,000 Buddhists in the UK out of an estimated world Buddhist population of 327,000,000 (Weller, 1993).

Although Buddhist activity is not as focused upon religious buildings as some other religious traditions, there are approximately 130 viharas, monastries and other Buddhist centres in the UK (Weller, 1993).

More and more individuals are beginning to develop and show an interest in Buddhism as a philosophy and a way of life. During the 1950s and 1960s increased immigration from New Commonwealth countries strengthened Buddhism in the UK with the arrival of various minority ethnic communities of Chinese and other Asian origins who followed Buddhist religious practice.

15.2.2 Christianity

Christianity is the principal religious tradition of the UK in terms of the numbers of its adherents and the length of its historical presence. There are approximately 37,600,000 people in the UK who regard themselves as Christians (Weller, 1993). For England and Wales there are 29,539 places of Christian worship other than those of the Church of England and Church in Wales which together have 16,562 places of worship (Weller, 1993).

The Christian scene in Britain has been renewed and diversified. Today, Christianity in the UK is found in various organisational forms and is

ethnically diverse. Through a variety of migratory movements, groups of Christians have arrived bringing their own distinctive forms of Christianity with them. There are also groupings of Chinese Christians from Hong Kong, and of Asian Christians with ethnic origins in the Indian sub-continent.

Together with the total community numbers of 37,600,000 the total active membership of the various Christian churches stands at 7,023,000 (Weller, 1993).

15.2.3 Hinduism

A small number of Hindus have visited and worked in the UK for centuries. However, it was not until the 1950s and 1960s that significant numbers of Hindus settled here. Some migrants came to Britain directly from India. Others came from the countries to which their foreparents had previously migrated, such as Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Malawi. Between 1965 and 1972 some of these came as economic migrants and others came seeking refuge from persecution.

Hindus are now settled in most large towns and cities in the UK with the largest Hindu communities being in Greater London (especially Wembly and Harrow), Birmingham, Coventry, Leicester and Manchester. There are around 130 Hindu places of worship in the UK (Weller, 1993).

15.2.4 Jews

The Jewish population of the UK is estimated at around 300,000 (Weller, 1993). The Jewish community in the UK is composed of both Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jewish communities (Weller, 1993). Sephardi Jews came originally from Spain and Portugal. However, the majority of Jews in the UK today are descendants of two waves of immigration by Ashkenazi Jews of Central and East European origins who migrated to England for economic

reasons or who fled from persecution in the Russian Empire between 1881- 1914, and from 1933 onward during the Nazi persecution in Germany and other European countries.

At present, the largest concentration of British Jews is in the Greater London area. Two-thirds of the Jewish community are affiliated to a synagogue. The Registrar General's list of certified places of worship records 354 Jewish places of worship in England and Wales (Weller, 1993).

15.2.5 Muslims

There has been a significant Muslim presence in Britain since the early nineteenth century when Muslim seamen and traders from the Middle East began to settle around major ports.

The size of the community significantly increased with the arrival in the 1950s and 1960s of workers from the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent, seeking employment in the mills and factories of industrial Britain where there was a shortage of workers in the aftermath of the Second World War.

With a global Muslim population of around 961,500,000, it is estimated there are around 1,500,000 Muslims in the UK, based on recent extrapolations from the 1991 Census (Weller, 1993). In England and Wales the Registrar General lists 487 mosques which are certified as places of worship (Weller, 1993).

Approximately two thirds of the Muslims in the UK have ancestral origins in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent, coming to Britain either directly or via earlier migrations to East Africa and the Caribbean. The remaining one third of the Muslims in the UK have ethnic and national origins in a variety of other countries and regions, such as Cyprus, Malaysia, Iran and the Arab world.

Communities became established and continued to thrive and grow, particularly in the West Midlands, West Yorkshire, Lancashire, Greater London and Glasgow. The ethnic backgrounds of the Muslim community in the UK are quite diverse and therefore a number of different languages are spoken among Muslims. Knowledge of Arabic is considered very important as this is the language of the Qur’an. In addition to English, Urdu, Malay, Gujarati, Hausa, Bengali, Turkish, Panjabi, Farsi, Pushto and Arabic are among the most commonly used languages among Muslims in Britain today. The community includes a number of converts from the indigenous population who have become Muslims in adult life.

15.2.6 Sikhs

Most Sikhs in the UK came directly to the UK from the Punjab, although a significant minority came via East Africa and other former British colonies to which members of their families had initially migrated.

The size of the Sikh community in the UK is estimated to be around 400,000 and, as such, it is the largest Sikh community outside the Indian subcontinent (Weller, 1993). Sikhs are mainly to be found in most large towns and cities in the UK but the largest communities are to be found in Birmingham, Bradford, Cardiff, Coventry, Glasgow, Leeds, Leicester, London (especially in Southall) and Wolverhampton. There are about 180 Gurdwaras in the UK in which the Sikhs can worship (Weller, 1993).