Muslims are now arriving in the West not only in Britain but also in the United States. Not impressed by what their own countries had to offer them, they saw great opportunities in the West - particularly in the countries where English is the official language. Recently the German ambassador in India urged the youth in that country to seriously consider moving to Germany but recognised that that would mean learning the German language. Most migrants to Britain and the United States don't face that problem. English is a major language in South Asia, the region from which most Muslim migrants have recently arrived. Today, I will examine how the Muslim population in Britain is faring.

There are approximately 4 million Muslim residents in Britain, making up 6 per cent of the country's population. The number increased from 1.6 million in 2001. The single largest group of Muslims in the United Kingdom are of Pakistani descent who were one of the first Muslim communities to permanently settle in the United Kingdom, arriving in England first in the late 1940s. Immigration from Mirpur, a city in the Pakistani part of Kashmir, grew from the late 1950s. These people had worked in the large dam built by a British company on the Jhelum River. They moved to England to work in the houses of the people who were contractors engaged in building the Mangla Dam.

London has the largest Muslim population. Most Muslims in the country belong to the Sunni sect of Islam. But a large number of the........

© The Express Tribune