British Bangladeshis

British Bangladeshi
Bangladeshis in the United Kingdom

Regions with significant populations
Large diaspora in London and small diaspora in Oldham, Birmingham and Luton
Languages
Mainly Sylheti, Bengali and English
Religion
Predominantly Muslim, mainly Sunni-Hanafi and a few Salafi

British Bangladeshi is a term used to describe the Bangladeshi people or community living in the United Kingdom. They are British citizens who have emigrated from Bangladesh to the United Kingdom or British-born people of Bangladeshi descent. The community is thriving in the capital with third generation Bangladeshis on their way to establishing themselves in the mainstream of British commerce and politics.

They primarily live in the city of London, mainly in the East London boroughs, of which the borough of Tower Hamlets had the highest percentage of Bangladeshis with about 33% of the borough's total population. This large diaspora in London is so significant that people in Bangladesh itself refer to British Bangladeshis as 'Londoni' rather than 'British'. They are also found living in towns and cities such as, Oldham, Birmingham and Luton, with smaller clusters based in Manchester, Bradford, Keighley, Sunderland, Hyde (near Manchester), and Newcastle. Most of these people came from the Bangladeshi region of Sylhet during and after the 1970s.

Bangladeshis form one of the UK's largest immigrant communities. The census of ethnicity and identity which found over 283,000 people had Bangladeshi heritage in Britain as of 2001. There are an estimated amount of 500,000 Bangladeshi people living in the United Kingdom today as of 2008.

History

Causes of Immigration

Many have come from the Sylhet division.

Reasons why Bangladeshis decided to move to the United Kingdom included the need to find work, earn a better living and to escape conflict. Bangladesh has witnessed a series of political upheavals, starting with the end of British India in 1947, a spell as East Pakistan and a battle against West Pakistan for independence in 1971. Many Bangladeshi men emigrated to London to search for employment during the 1950s and 1960s and then many more Sylhetis arrived in the 1970s. The majority of these people settled in Tower Hamlets, particularly around Spitalfields and Brick Lane.

Many of them came from the Sylhet region - which is located in the north-east of Bangladesh. They include people from the city of Sylhet itself, and others from the towns of Habiganj, Maulavi Bazar, Sunamganj and the upazila of Jagannathpur. Sylheti people are considered as a distinct ethnic group within Bangladesh and the city of Sylhet is famous for being the resting place of the Muslim Saint Hazrat Shah Jalal.

In the 1970s changes in immigration laws encouraged a wave of Bangladeshis to come to the UK and settle. Job opportunities were initially limited to low paid sectors, with unskilled jobs in small factories and the textile trade being especially common. But when the 'Indian' restaurant business developed, some Sylhetis started to open cafes as businesses. From these small beginnings and developments, a network of Bangladeshi restaurants, shops and banks became established in Brick Lane and the surrounding areas. The influence of Bangladeshi culture and diversity can be seen across London in boroughs such as Camden, Newham and Southwark as well as Tower Hamlets.

The first settlers

The first Bangladeshis settled in Brick Lane known as 'Banglatown'

The first Bangladeshis who arrived in the UK settled in and around Brick Lane. They lived and worked in cramped basements and attics in the area. Centuries earlier these same properties had housed Huguenot immigrants who weaved silk and worked for very long hours in poor conditions with badly heated and poorly lit workshops.

With recession even these jobs became scarce for the Bangladeshis. Garment manufacturing was outsourced to home-workers, many of them women, who were invisible to trade-union officials seeking to root out exploitation. Bangladeshis instead became cooks, waiters and mechanics, but the process up the social and economic ladder was a slow one. The men were often illiterate, poorly educated, and spoke little English. They became easy prey for some of their unscrupulous compatriots who seized control of the squats that proliferated in Whitechapel in the 1970s, and sold them onto other Sylhetis, many of which had no legal claim to the properties.

Changes in Brick Lane

Brick Lane Jamme Masjid.

By 1970 Brick Lane, and many of the streets around it, had become predominantly Bengali. The Jewish bakeries were turned into curry houses, the jewellery shops were turned into sari stores, and the synagogues into dress factories. In 1976 the synagogue at the corner of Fournier Street and Brick Lane became the Jamme Masjid (community mosque).

The building that now houses the Jamme Masjid, is known to represent the history of successive communities of immigrants into this part of London, In 1743 this same building had been built as a French Protestant Church. In 1819 it became a Methodist Chapel, and then in 1898 it was used by Jewish people as the Spitalfields Great Synagogue. With a new influx of Bangladeshi immigrants to the area, the building had then become the Jamme Masjid or Great London Mosque in 1976.

In the predominantly Bengali neighborhood around the mosque, you'll find bagel shops alongside curry houses. On Sunday, the bustling Brick Lane Market sells various bric-a-brac alongside Asian spices and sari silks.

Racial violence

The protest march by Bangladeshis to Downing Street with murdered Altab Ali's coffin, 1978.

In the 1970s there was a huge rise in the number of attacks on Bangladeshis. Racial tensions in the area had been simmering for 40 years, since Oswald Mosley incited attacks on the older Jewish communities in the 1930s. White power skinhead gangs began to roam the Brick Lane area, where they vandalised property and spat at Bengali children. In Bethnal Green National Front members handed out leaflets on the streets and assembled people at a pub in Cheshire Street. Bengali children were allowed out of school early, with their mothers walking to work in groups to shield them from potential violence. Parents began imposing curfews on their children. Later, Tower Hamlets council fitted their flats with fire-proof letterboxes to protect their Bangladeshi tenants from racially motivated arson.

Residents began to fight back against these attacks by creating committees and youth groups such as the Bangladesh Youth Movement, which were formed by young activists led by Mr Shajahan Lutfur. Even with these such resistance being formed, the types of conditions for the people still became even worse over the years. For example, in September 1978 the National Front moved its headquarters from Teddington in West London to the Great Eastern Street, a few minutes’ walk from Brick Lane. This move was to provoke more trouble following an incident when Altab Ali, a Bangladeshi factory worker in his mid 20s from Sylhet, was murdered by three men on 4 May 1978 in a racist attack against him as he walked home after finishing work at the factory in Wapping. His murder took place on a spot near the corner of Adler Street and Whitechapel Road by the St Mary's Churchyard. A photograph from the period shows a swastika scrawled on a wall above the message ‘We’re back.’

Altab Ali Park at Whitechapel.

The name Altab Ali has became widely known as a symbol of resistance against racism, and is associated with the struggle for human rights, more specifically in defence for the Bangladeshis in the UK after the Bengali community mobilised during the period of 1978 to defend each other against racist attacks by skin heads, that were represented in the murder of Altab Ali. It was the murder of Altab Ali that was the trigger for the first significant political organisation against racism. The organisation became a movement against racism around the East End of London. Today’s phenomenal identification and association of the collective social and community image of the British Bangladeshis with Tower Hamlets the East End of London Borough has everything to do with the campaign against racism that took place after Altab Ali’s murder.

Begum Syndrome

The children in the area during that time started to distance themselves away from their parents, because they have viewed them as passive which conflicts with their way of life. The women then started to suffer from a medical condition, which was called Begum Syndrome. Many women would had to visit the doctors for a analysis, the symptoms as said by the women was, ‘burning in my head’, ‘wind in my heart’, ‘heat in my head’, ‘life pressure’. The researchers finally concluded it was not a serious medical condition, in fact it was just a talk of pain, it was all a form of somatisation, an internalisation of the women’s depleted types of resources and cramped dwellings of which they lived in.

Culture

Community

Bangladeshi people in the UK have many origins from villages and towns across Sylhet.

The majority of British Bangladeshis originate from the Sylhet division in Bangladesh, with over 90% of people who can trace their roots back to this one district, with many thanas. There has always been rivalry between Bangladeshis from the mainly rural and peripheral Sylhet and those hailing from the major metropolitan areas like Dhaka and Chittagong. Sylhetis are usually stereotyped as being uneducated and cliquish for instance; preferring their children to marry within the Sylheti community. They are considered improper Bangladeshis by many non-Sylheti Bangladeshis, which the Sylheti community refer to them as 'Dhakaya'. The Sylheti are fiercely protective of their own language, the importance of family-orientated community culture and a conservative (religious) practice of Islam at all types of family aspects, such as marriage and the common wearing of the headscarf by the women.

The emergence of a second and a third generation of British Bangladeshis is another factor explaining the declining proportion of people’s income being invested in remittances. While many young British Bangladeshis still value Bangladesh as the ‘ancestral home’ where their cultural ‘roots’ are, it appears that very few of them are willing to invest, send money regularly, or stay for a long term. Many British Bangladeshis strongly believe they should keep roots with their culture. It is a fundamental duty of organizations such as GMBA to keep the Bengali heritage and culture alive and to ensure that it remains amongst the present and future generations. The people classify them selves as British, and also Bangladeshi.

Language

They mainly speak Sylheti, which is a dialect of the Bengali language, containing many differences to standard Bengali - which is the main written language used for administration and other purposes in Bangladesh. The language is also quite similar to the language of Assamese in India. The parents value this linguistic heritage and will encourage their children to learn Bengali by making them attend Bengali classes after school and to take it as a GCSE subject in secondary school . Today, the children living in Bangladesh would learn standard Bengali very well with no difficulties, however it is a very different task in Britain, the Bangladeshi children will probably enter the school with a degree of fluency in Sylheti, but with a very small limited knowledge of Bengali and often, with little exposure to the written word. Bengali is so different from Sylheti that, when dual language texts are read, it is quite possible that they will barely be understood by young children when read.

At the home, the families often use a combination of languages – Sylheti, Bengali and English. English tends to be spoken between brothers and sisters, but not always to parents, with whom Sylheti was more commonly used for communication. Many children, particularly the boys, also attend Madrassah (religious school) or the Mosque in the evenings to learn to speak Arabic and to memorise the Qur’an.

Festivals and celebrations

Fun fair rides at the Mela.

The major cultural event which is celebrated by the Bangladeshi community is the Baishakhi Mela, an annual event celebrating the Bengali New Year which is held every year in May. It is Europe's largest Asian open-air event which is attended by around 100,000 visitors, it starts from Allen Gardens to Weavers Field in the borough of Tower Hamlets in East London. It is celebrated with, women and children dressed in colourful traditional cloths and masks, musicians, dancers and community leaders also take part in the event. The event is broadcasted across the UK, Europe, Bangladesh and across the world where millions of viewers watch the event. In Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, the New Year is a national holiday when people traditionally dress in fine clothes and visit friends and relatives. Special foods are eaten and Baishakhi fairs selling handicrafts, sweets and toys are held. Four stages host music, theatre and dance displays throughout the day and there is a funfair, henna body painting (known as mehendi) and rickshaw rides.

Crowds at the Baishakhi Mela.

The Baishakhi Mela aims to enhance community relationships, increase skill levels for young people and improve the area’s identity while ensuring that a good time is had by all. It brings together the very best of Bengali arts, music and culture to the Brick Lane area and reinforces that ‘Banglatown’ is one of London’s most vibrant quarters. With activities for everyone, whatever their age, the Baishakhi Mela offers a sensational extravaganza to stimulate all the senses. Brick Lane is the destination for street stalls selling delicious curry dishes while Weavers Fields and Allen Gardens has everything from stages with dance and music groups, football matches and children’s fairground rides. Brick Lane will be pedestrianised throughout the day and will play host to al-fresco dining, street stalls and more entertainment. Families will be able to sample the delights of the famous Brick Lane curries and enjoy eating together. A real feast for the senses.

Religious festivals are also celebrated, these include the Eid al-Adha, the Eid ul-Fitr and Ramadan every year, when friends and families get together and celebrate with food and prayers. During Eid many Bengali people celebrate the day by first, the ‘religious moment’, with the prayers at the mosque when, for the occasion, everyone is dressed up in new clothes (Sharwani, Punjabi and Shalwar Kameez for the females). Then, after the prayers, there will be people visiting family members, followed by the traditional meal, such as Samosa etc. Finally, young people usually spend time with their friends either in their homes or outside, where they occupy visibly the public space, generally outside the gaze of the parents and morrubis (elders).

One of the most widespread practices of the British Bangladeshi youth during Eid day is to ‘go cruising’. It generally means for them travelling across London in cars usually rented and driven by the oldest teenagers of the peer group, listening to loud music (hip hop, RnB, Bhangra, etc.) and sometimes waving Bangladeshi flags. The British Bangladeshi boys and girls participate in the reinterpretation of tradition through this public experience of amusement, fun and ‘good time’ outside the sphere of the Bengali community social control (shomaj). In other words, the religious ‘tradition’ has been given a new signification through a specific urban social practice, the ‘cruising’, is very close to be called a subcultural use of public space. These types of celebrations are repeated in other events, such as weddings and secondary graduation, celebrated with limos and expensive vehicles mainly by the youth.

Society

Gang culture

Younger Bangladeshis’ response to those conditions faced by their first generations during 1970s, was to spend more time outside their council flats. They started to join gangs and hung around on estates, where they developed a sense of dominating 'their' territory. The hostility and social deprivation they faced – two more young men, Quddus Ali and Muktar Ahmed, were violently attacked in the early 1990s, and in 1993 a BNP councillor was elected in the Isle of Dogs – meant they didn’t feel accepted as British. Others turned to religion for a solution. In cases where local mullahs and maulvis are seen as an inspiration, the anger of young Bangladeshis has turned them into more religious Muslims than their parents ever were, a subject tackled by author Hanif Kureishi in his book The Black Album.

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A Bengali young youth gang in East London called 'Globe Town Massive'.

Bangladeshi teenagers involved with gangs are not afraid to show their alleigance to this kind of lifestyle. They favour heavily styled hair, expensive mobiles and fashionable labels such as Moschino, Ted Baker and Versace. These types of teenage street gangs have been around for a while but in recent years they have been responsible for sometimes lethal violence. It is estimated that in Tower Hamlets there are 2,500 youths affiliated to one of the myriad local gangs, 26 out of 27 which are Bengali.

When these youngsters take to the streets there are seldom white racists in the area to fight, which has partly led to Bangladeshi gangs fighting each other. The most well known gangs in Tower Hamlets include the 'Brick Lane Massive' - which controls a territory known to outsiders as the curry mile. Other groups, such as the 'Cannon Street Posse', the 'Stepney Green Posse' and the 'Shadwell Crew' are also gangs which originated in the 1970's. Until relatively recently, while Bangladeshi gangs had their criminal elements - from low level drug use to credit card fraud - they were not criminal gangs per se. When members reached their twenties they would usually grow out of the gangs. But today, as gang members mature, many are moving on to more severe criminality. Increasing numbers of Bangladeshi youths are taking hard drugs, in particular heroin.

Education

In comparison with all pupils nationally in the country, the Bangladeshi pupils have below average attainment at the end of each key stage, but the achievement by the pupils are steadily improving, mostly amongst the Bangladeshi girls. The attainment of Bangladeshi pupils at Key Stage 1 is considerably below the national average and this type of same pattern can be seen in Key Stages 2 and 3. The number of Bangladeshi pupils who are attaining five or more A*–C grades in the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) are also below the national average.

The greater role of fluency in the subject of English is playing a key part of education for the Bangladeshis, the progress of pupils through Key Stage 1 and 2 in English tends to be growing rapidly compared with other such subjects in school. At the end of Key Stage 2, they are attaining 11 percentage points, which is above the national average in English. This is a very considerable type of achievement when set against the fact that their peers who have English as a mother tongue are also improving their language skills from a very different starting point. 97 per cent of Bangladeshi students in Tower Hamlets mainly speak English as a second language, after Sylheti, but even by that facts, they can perform as well as or better than white pupils at GCSE. Two-thirds of all pupils in Tower Hamlets who receive free school meals are Bangladeshi.

Bangladeshi pupils make more progress than several other minority ethnic groups between Key Stage 3 and GCSE. Bengali speaking pupils with greater English fluency are closing the gap for GCSE average scores with other language groups. For example, 71% of Bangladeshi pupils who achieve level 5 at Key Stage 3 achieve five or more A*–C grades at GCSE, compared with 67% of Pakistani pupils and 48% of Black Caribbean pupils. Overall, the correlation between FSM eligibility and attainment at GCSE is less strong for Bangladeshi girls and boys than for other groups. Overall, girls are more likely to do better in education than boys, with 55% of girls achieving 5 or more A*-C at GCSE compared with boys at 41%, and the achievement rate overall is at 48% for Bangladeshi pupils compared with 53% for all pupils.

Health

The Bangladeshi men and women in England and Wales were reported to have the highest rates of 'not good' health in 2001. The age-standardised rates for Bangladeshis were 14 per cent for men and 15 per cent for women. These rates, which take account of the difference in age structures between the ethnic groups, were around twice compared to White British counterparts. Bangladeshi men were also three times as likely to visit their doctor than men in the general population after standardising for age. After taking account of the different age structures of the groups, Bangladeshi men and women had the highest rates of disability.

Bangladeshi men were the most likely group in England to smoke cigarettes at a rate of, 44 per cent in 1999. Although very few Bangladeshi women smoked cigarettes like men, a relatively large proportion of 26 per cent were to have chewed tobacco. This method of using tobacco was also popular among the Bangladeshi men at 19 per cent, but they tended to use it in conjunction with cigarettes. In the general population, men and women were equally likely to be smokers. However, among minority ethnic groups women were less likely to smoke than men. The sex difference was particularly marked among the Bangladeshi group, this is mainly due to cultural or religious rules. Part of the pattern of smoking among the different ethnic groups is explained by the socio-economic differences among the groups. For example, Bangladeshi men were over represented in the lowest socio-economic class (semi-routine or routine occupations), and these men also had the highest rates of smoking.

Economics

Curry and business

Chicken tikka masala served with rice, considered to be the creation of a Bangladeshi.

Bangladeshi grocery store, Bangla City in Brick Lane.

The British Bangladeshis have established themselves by creating new businesses throughout the UK. Today many of the Bangladeshi community are now part of the Curry Industry in Britain, more than eight out of 10 Indian restaurants in the UK are owned by Bangladeshis, the vast majority of whom - 95% - come from Sylhet. In 1946, there were 20 restaurants or small cafes owned by Bengalis; in 1960 there were 300; and by 1980, more than 3,000. Now, according to the Curry Club of Great Britain, there are 8,500 Indian restaurants, of which roughly 7,200 are Bengali. An awful lot of chicken tikka masala, apparently now Britain's national dish, has its origins here.

Chicken tikka masala is now served in restaurants around the globe, and a UK survey claimed it is the country's most popular restaurant dish. One in seven curries sold in the UK is a chicken tikka. The popularity of the dish lead the UK Foreign Minister to proclaim it as Britain's true national dish.

Other than the Curry business, local people also own Grocery shops or markets where it sells all Bangladeshi types of foods including, Fish, Meat, Vegetables and more to serve the local Bengali communities, and also Travel, Money Exchange services and traditional Bengali clothing stores such as the salwar kameez throughout East London. People have gone beyond by working in Media, where the first Bangladeshi channel abroad was created called Bangla TV in 1999, and later another channel called Channel S in 2004 where it broadcasts the Baishakhi Mela and the first Sylheti-speaking channel, ever since there has been bitter rivalry between both channels.

A Bengali wedding sari shop in Whitechapel.

Whitechapel is a long established, thriving local street market opposite the famous Royal London Hospital, right by the Whitechapel underground station. It offers bargains galore for people working in the area and the local Bengali community. People go to grab a bargain everyday from Monday to Saturday from over 80 stalls selling everything from fresh fruit to fish, clothing, bedding, carpets, jewellery and electrical goods, all at unbelievable prices. The nearby East London Mosque ensures a steady stream of visitors and many stalls now sell Indian spices and exotic vegetables as well as great quality silks and saree fabric.

In Brick Lane, Bengali staples such as jack fruit, betel nut and paan leaves and frozen fish caught in Sylhet's Surma River are for sale. Dozens of travel agents offer flights to Sylhet with the national airline Biman Bangladesh Airlines for around £500 and a new airline called, Air Sylhet was created by British Bangladeshis, offering low cost flights between both countries; the weekly Sylheter Dak - with a UK circulation of around 7,000 a week - has an office in the UK. There's a shop called Sylhet Stores, a lawyers' office called Sylhet & Co and a Bangladeshi Welfare Association. There are Bangladeshi banks and remittance shops, and a booming black market in money transfer. Almost everything, it seems, harks back to Sylhet.

The largest Bangladeshi and international grocer, Taj Stores.

In April 2001, Tower Hamlets officially renamed an electoral ward Spitalfields/Banglatown and a few years ago erected lamp posts made in a South Asian style and painted in green and red, the colours of the Bangladeshi flag. Each year, thousands throng the streets around the area for a massive festival celebrating Baishakhi Mela, the Bangladeshi new year.

One of the most well known stores and brands of Bangladeshi products is, Taj Stores. It has food delivered from all over the world with many products. Founded in 1936, Taj Stores is one of the oldest international grocers in the UK. Situated on Brick Lane, Taj Stores has a long tradition in serving the local community of London with only the finest quality seasonal produce, flown daily from Bangladesh. They are also the suppliers of quality goods, fresh food produce and spices to Retailers, Wholesalers, Shipping Agents, Caterers and the General Public, throughout London. It offers people with huge selections of freshly prepared food products from the world palate, for example, items such as Nan, Prawn crackers, Pitta-breads, samosa to delicious exotic sweets, beverages, halal meat, fresh fish and many more Bangladesh products.

Finance

The financial relationship between Bangladeshis in Britain and their kin in Bangladesh is changing, however. In 1995 a report indicated that 20% of the Bangladeshi families in East London were sending money to Bangladesh, whereas during the 1960s and 1970s approximately 85% were remitting their savings. Today the proportion may be even lower than 20%. For a large number of families in Britain the cost of living, housing, or education for the children severely constrains any regular financial commitment towards Bangladesh. Moreover, the family reunion process has resulted in the social and economic reproduction of the household in Britain and conflicts (over land for example) can arise involving the mutual or reciprocal relationship between members of a joint household divided by migration. This, in turn, can reduce even more the level of investment in Sylhet.

The emergence of a second and a third generation of British Bangladeshis is another factor explaining the declining proportion of people’s income being invested in remittances. While many young British Bangladeshis still value Bangladesh as the ‘ancestral home’ where their cultural ‘roots’ are, it appears that very few of them are willing to invest, send money regularly, or stay for a long term.

Housing

Households which were headed by a Bangladeshi person had the largest of all ethnic groups, with an average size of 4.5 people in each house, according to the 2001 census. Only 9 per cent of Bangladeshi households contained only just one person. 74 per cent of Bangladeshi households were to be contained by at least one dependent child. This figure was the highest proportion for any other ethnic group and was nearly three times that of White British households (28 per cent). The highest proportions of married couples under pension age, with or without children, were found in Asian households, and 54 per cent contained a married couple in a Bangladesh household. The proportion of pensioner households ranged from 2 per cent of Bangladeshi households to 27 per cent of White Irish households. These types of households made up 2 per cent of all households in Great Britain whereas among the Bangladeshi community they made up 17 per cent of households.

Typical Bangladeshi occupied housing.

Bangladeshis living London were to be 40 times more likely to be living in cramped and poor housing types of housing than anyone else in the country, according to a study, especially in the London borough of Tower Hamlets, where more than half of the UK Bangladeshi population lives. Families were to have twice as many people per room as white households and 43% live in homes with insufficient bedroom space - compared with a national average of just 3%. The desire to remain within a tight community is putting Bangladeshis off moving to new larger housing and to areas where larger properties and space are available. A third of Bangladeshi homes contain more than one family – 64% of all overcrowded households in Tower Hamlets are Bangladeshi.

Many of the Bangladeshi people are sending more money to Bangladesh to build luxury types of houses, rather in the United Kingdom many are living in poverty and facing deprivation and are spending less. In Bangladeshi villages, there are hundreds of luxury homes built, the financial support mainly sent from the UK. So many are returning to build homes in Bangladesh that they are fuelling a building boom in Sylhet, north eastern Bangladesh, the region which gave Britain most of the migrants who are now at the heart of the curry empire. The buildings rise elegantly above the palm trees, their marble sun terraces affording breathtaking views, these are the many reasons why many people live in these types of conditions.

Employment

The employment structure for the Bangladeshis in 2004 shows that, 3/5 of the men were employed in the distribution, hotel and restaurant industry, compared with 1/6 of their White British counterparts. Bangladeshi women also are concentrated in the distribution, hotel and restaurant industry as same as men. 1 in 3 Bangladeshi women worked in this industry in 2004, compared with one in five of all women in employment. In 2001 and 2002, among men, Bangladeshis had the highest unemployment rate in Britain at 20%, which is four times that for White British or White Irish men. The Bangladeshi women also had the highest unemployment rate of all at 24 per cent, and over 40 per cent of under the age 25 Bangladeshi men were unemployed.

Religion

The East London Mosque in Whitechapel.

The Bangladeshi population is dominated by one religion, Islam. No other ethnic group in the United Kingdom has such a majority in just one religion. There are approximately, 261,777 people (nearly 93%) who are Muslims of Bangladeshi origin in the UK according to the 2001 Census, and in London the 142,931 Bangladeshi Muslims make up 24% of all London Muslims, more than any other single ethnic group. Bangladeshis are mainly Sunni who follow the Hanafi school of teachings.

There are many mosques in the communities of Tower Hamlets, including the East London Mosque in Whitechapel, Brick Lane Jamme Masjid in Brick Lane or the Baitul Aman Mosque in Bethnal Green and many more, all which are co-ordinated by the local Bengali community. Some mosques are also known as a cultural centre, which is a local centre serving the needs of the local community i.e. daily prayer facilities, youth activites and clubs and teaching facilities provided.

Organizations have also been created mainly amongst the youth's to increase their Muslim identity, such as the MCB and YMO which are based at the East London Mosque. As in Tower Hamlets and other areas in London and outer, Hizb ut-Tahrir is active but very marginal among Bangladeshi youth, and some Salafi activities are also active which attract small numbers of people.

Religious awareness of the people are also taken notice, for example a program is organized by the East London Mosque anuallly to attract people to attend or join services, by providing services such as ICT Training and English classes, ISAP, Junior Muslim Circle, Saturday Halaqa (Islamic talks), Madrases', Islamic schools and many more. The projects which were created during Ramadan for the local community, which has been really successful for the ELM, during 2007 according to project reports, 'more people attend the five daily prayers, and the main hall is often full. It was difficult to accommodate the increasing number of people on Fridays during Jum'ah, and In Ramadan the prayer facilities attract between 4,000 to 5,000 people every evening, which has created a lively atmosphere.' Overall these works show much of the Bengali community work very hard to create an Islamic voice for the community.

Religions by percentage of Bangladeshis, found in the 2001 Census ;

Religious groups	% (2001)
Muslim	92.48
Not stated	5.83
Other religions	1.69

Islamic organizations

The London Muslim Centre.

The expansion of settlers from Muslim majority countries has been accompanied by the growth of Islamist organisations. They are set up in the UK to provide a Muslim voice at local and national level – for example, the long-established Council of Mosques, UK and Eire and the Union of Muslim Organisations, as well as the younger but higher profile Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). The MCB is probably the most successful lobby at the national level given the encouragement it has received from the government after the demise of the much more radical Muslim Parliament.

Youth groups are also active among Bangladeshi communities, such as the Young Muslim Organisation (YMO), which is affiliated to the Islamic Forum Europe (IFE) - an organisation based in Tower Hamlets with several branches across Britain, including Oldham and Birmingham. In Tower Hamlets, religious practice initially centred around small prayer rooms in council flats or private premises. During the 1980s a number of larger facilities became available in areas where Bangladeshis were heavily concentrated. The East London Mosque (ELM) moved into a purpose built site close to the Brick Lane Mosque, which occupied a former synagogue. Synagogues and community halls were also turned into mosques, while existing mosques sought to alter their sites in order to accommodate larger congregations. This process has continued down to the present day with the East London Mosque recently expanding into a large former car park where the London Muslim Centre is now used for prayers, recreational facilities and housing.

Islamic and secular politics

The intimate relationship between politics and religion has led to intense rivalry between secular and Islamist activists, who have taken a keen interest in the ways in which religious issues have entered the political arena in Bangladesh. This tension related to the 1971 Liberation War has been projected in British soil and re-interpreted through the struggle for community space and community ‘representation’.

The Shaheed Minar at Altab Ali Park in East London.

In Tower Hamlets, as well as Oldham, these leaders are also keen to shape the local urban community space through symbols of Bengali nationalism. One of these symbolic markers is the Shaheed Minar, a monument which commemorates the martyrs (shaheed) of the Language Movement in 1952. In Tower Hamlets, the Shaheed Minar was erected in Altab Ali Park, Whitechapel, after funds were collected among a large number of Bangladeshi community groups. In Oldham, it was built in the Bangladeshi area of Westwood and funded through a local council regeneration scheme. This illustration shows the Martyrs' Monument, which was set up in 1999. It symbolises a mother protecting her children with the orb of the sun in the background, and is a smaller replica of Shahid Minar (Martyrs' Monument) in Dhaka in Bangladesh.

Islamist activists, in Tower Hamlets and Oldham, stressed their moral commitment to an ‘authentic’ religious identity and opposed the nationalist initiatives of the secular leaders. In both places these critiques are legitimised by the increasing role they tend to play in the local arena and, above all, by their claim to represent the local ‘Muslim community’. In Oldham, forinstance, Islamist activists described the Shaheed Minar as a ‘waste of money’ and anencouragement to ‘stop the youth to think Islamically’. In Tower Hamlets, they described the Bengali New Year as a syncretic (shirk) event, which was influenced by Hindu traditions and promoted unrespectable behaviour and practices.

This tension between secularists and Islamists has been particularly prominent recently due the visits of Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, Jamaat-e-Islami MP in Bangladesh, who travels regularly to the Bangladeshi enclaves in Britain and elsewhere in the Bangladeshi diaspora. A member of Awami League in Oldham (also a journalist for the newspaper Surma and local correspondent for Bangla TV) was attacked in 2001 following an article he wrote about Saydee’s controversial speech in Oldham.

These incidents illustrate the competition for social and political control between Islamists and secularists in the community context. This competition revolves around the mobilisation of two different ‘imagined communities’ situated beyond the local ethnic enclaves - on the one hand, a Bengali cultural/nationalist diasporic space and on the other hand, a global religious space, the umma, the global community of Muslim believers. This sphere is highly dependent on collective memory and historical reinterpretations of the 1971 Liberation War and is shaped by the links between some British Bangladeshi groups and the Jamaat-e-Islami and by the participation of some Bangladeshi leaders within the Awami League and groups like the Nirmul Committee.

Demographics

Further information: Lists of U.K. locations with large ethnic minority populations

Bangladeshis in Britain are a largely young population, heavily concentrated in London’s inner boroughs and experience a range of socio-economic problems. According to the most reliable national enumeration – the decennial Census – in 2001; 283,063 Bangladeshis lived in the United Kingdom, forming 0.5% of the total population. 54 percent of the Bangladeshi population lived in the Greater London area and a high proportion of these London inhabitants were located within the inner boroughs.

Indeed, the ‘heartland’ of the London Bangladeshi community is to be found in Tower Hamlets, which contained 65,553 Bangladeshi residents or over 30% of the borough and 22.8% of the UK Bangladeshi population. More than half of Bangladeshis were born in Bangladesh compared with 46 per cent who were born in the UK. The percentage of Bangladeshis born in the UK has increased from 35 per cent in 1991. Bangladesh ranks third in the list of countries of birth for Londoners born outside the United Kingdom.

The table below shows the dispersity of Bangladeshi people in the United Kingdom. The figures for all of the English regions, cities and boroughs are based on 2005 estimates, whilst the figures for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are from the 2001 Census. The percentages include, the population percentage of the total population of the region itself, and the percentage of the Bangladeshi population in that region.

Region	Population of region	Bangladeshi population	Percentage of total population	Percentage of Bangladeshi population	Significant communities
London [1]	7,456,100	166,900	2.2%	54.37%	Tower Hamlets - 33% Newham - 10% Camden - 6%
West Midlands [2]	5,350,700	36,800	0.69%	11.09%	Birmingham - 2%
East Midlands [3]	4,327,500	9,900	0.29%	2.45%
South East [4]	8,184,600	22,000	0.27%	5.43%
North West [5]	6,839,800	31,500	0.46%	9.19%	Oldham - 5% Burnley - 1.6% Rochdale - 1.5% Manchester - 1.0%
East [6]	5,563,000	25,600	0.46%	6.54%	Luton - 4%
Yorkshire and the Humber [7]	5,107,500	16,300	0.32%	4.36%	Bradford - 1%
South West [8]	5,086,700	7,600	0.15%	1.70%
Scotland [9]	5,094,800	1,980	0.039%	0.70%
North East [10]	2,549,700	7,800	0.31%	2.18%	Newcastle upon Tyne - 1.1%
Wales [11]	2,903,085	5,436	0.19%	1.92%	Cardiff - 0.83%
Northern Ireland [12]	1,685,267	255	0.02%	0.09%

See also

• List of British Bangladeshis
• List of British Asian people
• Brick Lane, known as "Banglatown"
• British Asian
• Islam in the United Kingdom
• Sylhet
• Channel S

External links

• Bangladeshi Diaspora in the UK
• Bangladeshis in London
• British Bangladeshi Who's Who 2008
• Al Jazeera - Street Food - London's Brick Lane YouTube