Islam in the United Kingdom

Islam is the second-largest religion in the United Kingdom, with results from the 2021 Census recording just under four million Muslims, or 6.0% of the total population in the United Kingdom. London has the largest population and greatest proportion (15%) of Muslims in the country. The vast majority of British Muslims in the United Kingdom adhere to Sunni Islam, while smaller numbers are associated with Shia Islam.

During the Middle Ages, there was limited cultural exchange between Christendom and the Islamic world. There was no established Muslim presence in the British Isles, though a small number of Crusaders are recorded as having converted in the East, including Robert of St Albans. During the Elizabethan era, contacts became more explicit as the Tudors pursued diplomatic and commercial relations with Muslim powers, including the Ottoman Empire, in part to counter Catholic Habsburg Spain.

As the British Empire expanded, especially the British Raj - Britain came to rule territories with large Muslim populations; some Muslim seamen (lascars) are known to have settled in Britain from the mid-18th century onwards. In the 19th century, Victorian Orientalism contributed to growing interest in Islam and a number of Britons, including members of the aristocracy, converted. Marmaduke Pickthall, an English writer and convert to Islam, produced the first complete English-language translation of the Qur'an by a British Muslim in 1930. Under the British Indian Army, large numbers of Muslims fought for the United Kingdom during the First and Second World Wars, with some receiving the Victoria Cross. In the decades after the Second World War—particularly following the partition of India in 1947 - many Muslims from what is now India, Pakistan and Bangladesh settled permanently in Britain.

Today, British Muslims are ethnically diverse. South Asians form the largest share of Muslims in Britain, alongside significant Turkish, Arab and Somali communities, as well as an estimated 100,000 British converts from a range of backgrounds. Muslims have the youngest average age profile among the major religious groups in the United Kingdom. The Muslim population has grown significantly in recent decades, at a rate several times faster than the population overall. Recent broad estimates suggest around 5,000–6,000 people convert to Islam each year, with women forming the majority in survey-based studies.