CENTRE FOR RESEARCH AND EVIDENCE ON SECURITY THREATS BRITISH MUSLIMS: SECTARIAN MOVEMENTS 20 MINUTE READ This guide provides an overview of British Muslim sectarian movements and networks. GENERAL It is important to distinguish between Islam and Islamism. The former refers to the global religion in all its unity and diversity, and the latter to what is often referred to as ‘political Islam’. KEY POINTS • In the UK today, a large number of Islamic • South Asian reform movements include the movements and networks are represented, most Deobandis, Tablighi Jama‘at, the Barelwis, and with their origins in either South Asia or the Jama‘at-i Islami. Middle East. • The chief Middle Eastern influences on Islam in • In the initial stages of community development, Britain have been the Salafi beliefs and practices Muslims in Britain made little reference to associated with the 18th century scholar, Ibn different schools of thought or Islamic traditions. Abd Al-Wahhab, and the Muslim Brotherhood Once communities were able to finance and (founded in 1920s Egypt). support more than one mosque, traditional • Since the 1990s a number of Salafi groups with divisions began to have an influence. their roots in the Middle East have appealed to • Eighty-five per cent of British Muslims are Sunni; young British Muslims. 15 per cent are Shi‘a. • Although Salafi movements share a commitment • There is a difference between Islam and Islamism, to reviving ‘authentic’ Islam, their views have the former referring to the global religion as a differed on issues such as khilafah (an Islamic whole in all its unity and diversity, and the latter state or society based on shari‘ah), jihad, and to ‘political Islam’. In the UK, the terms ‘Islamism’ engagement with Government and wider society. and ‘Islamist’ are generally of the revivalist Islamic Despite being considered extreme in their movements, Jama‘at-i Islami and the Muslim personal piety and desire to pursue a pure form Brotherhood. of Islam, only a small minority have been violent. CENTRE FOR RESEARCH AND EVIDENCEWWW.CRESTRESEARCH.AC.UK ON SECURITY THREATS BRITISH MUSLIMS: SECTARIAN MOVEMENTS 1 • The promotion of violence is predominantly More recent Muslim migrants, from different ethnic, associated with nomadic jihadis, such as Abu national and sectarian backgrounds, have started out Qatada, Abu Hamza, Omar Bakri Muhammad, by attending existing mosques near to their homes. Abdullah al-Faisal and Anjem Choudary, some However, as they have become more settled and of whom had served in conflicts abroad and all organised, they too have opened their own mosques of whom used extremist rhetoric sanctioning and community centres. violence against those they considered to be In the UK today, a large number of Islamic movements apostates. and networks are represented, most with their origins • Neither al-Qaeda nor Islamic State were formally in either South Asia or the Middle East. This not only constituted in the UK, although their ideologies reflects the historical presence of Muslim migrants were disseminated in person by extremist from different parts of the world, but – in the case preachers and activists, and online via websites, of Middle Eastern reform movements particularly forums and social media. Despite the absence – of young Muslims’ search for Islamic purity and of a physical base, they were able to recruit and authenticity. mobilise potential supporters. Muslims prefer the term ‘school of thought’ (maslak) to ‘sect’. Different schools of thought have emerged A BRIEF HISTORY for social, political and theological reasons, including In the 1960s, in the initial stages of community differing attitudes to the law or society, divergent development, Muslims in Britain made little reference views on Islamic or secular governance, and to different schools of thought or Islamic traditions. differences of opinion about Qur’anic interpretation, What happened is that when we came to Britain, the authority, what constitutes authentic Islam and how people who were praying in the mosque, I remember, to be a good Muslim. we were praying together. There were no Deobandis, It is important to distinguish between Islam and no Barelwis, no Ahl-i Hadith, nobody. We were glad Islamism. The former refers to the global religion in all to have a mosque and to be able to pray. Whoever its unity and diversity, and the latter to what is often established it usually was going to do it his own way, referred to as ‘political Islam’. in his own tradition… We didn’t mind what it was as long as Islam was practised. Adopted in North Africa in the 1970s to refer to (Sher Azam, Bradford Council of Mosques, in political ideology and activity inspired by Islam, the Ron Geaves Sectarian Influences within Islam in term Islamism has been applied to a wide-range of Britain, p. 159) very different groups, often pejoratively. In the UK, ‘Islamism’ and ‘Islamist’ have tended to be used Once communities were able to finance and support of groups and individuals informed by two broad more than one mosque, however, traditional divisions revivalist movements, Jama‘at-i Islami and the Muslim began to have an impact. This was most noticeable Brotherhood (see below). Islamist groups range from in areas of South Asian Muslim settlement where non-violent to violent extremist movements as well Deobandis and Barelwis began to found separate as those closer to mainstream Sunni Islam. community organisations and mosques. In the 1970s and 1980s the first generation of British Muslims in One thing all Islamic sects or movements have in many ways sought to recreate the Islamic institutions common – including those referred to here as Islamist of their homelands. – is their claim to be authentic and to represent correct Islamic practice and interpretation. CENTRE FOR RESEARCH AND EVIDENCEWWW.CRESTRESEARCH.AC.UK ON SECURITY THREATS BRITISH MUSLIMS: SECTARIAN MOVEMENTS 2 SUNNI AND SHI‘A ISLAM IN THE UK The most basic distinction within Islam – in the work of four Islamic scholars, and are known by their UK and beyond – is between Sunni and Shi‘a. The names: the Hanafi, Maliki, Hanbali and Shafi‘i schools. majority (85 per cent) of British Muslims are Sunni, Those groups associated with Salafism, however, and their movements will be discussed below. The make direct reference to the sources of Islam (the remainder are Shi‘a, the majority being of Pakistani Qur’an and sunnah), and by-pass the schools of law heritage, with others originating from Iran or Iraq. In and their leaders. 2017, around six per cent of the UK’s mosques were Sunni movements in the UK can be categorised run by and for Shi‘as. Key organisations included according to their origins in South Asia or the Middle the Al-Khoei Foundation, which represented Shi‘a East and, within that, their Islamic orientation (for interests and ran several schools, the Institute for example, whether they are Sufi, Salafi or Islamist). In Ismaili Studies, the Khoja al-Mahdi Institute and the discussion that follows, reference will be made the Hawza Illmiya, a further and higher education in each case to the type of movement, its origins, college. The renowned Iranian marja or religious theological and political ideas, attitudes to wider authority, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, had his European society, presence and location in the UK, factions headquarters at the Imam Ali Foundation in north- and divisions, and, where relevant, any history of west London. violent extremism. A traditional marker in Sunni Islam has been the principal Islamic law school (madhhab) with which a group identifies. These schools emerged from the SOUTH ASIAN REFORM MOVEMENTS IN THE UK including some for girls. Their major centre is the THE DEOBANDI MOVEMENT daru’l-ulum in Bury (founded in 1979), but their The Deobandi movement was a reformist but presence is also significant in other northern towns conservative Islamic movement founded in 19th and in the city of Leicester. Although Deobandis in century India as a response to British colonialism. It Britain come from Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Indian emphasised scholarship and education, and accepted heritage communities, the leadership tends to be the authority of the ulama (Islamic scholars), and Gujarati. They are highly conservative in terms of their scholarly and legal traditions. Although it has their attitudes to women and dress, yet committed engaged in polemical disputes with the Sufi Barelwi to engaging with the broad base of Muslims in the movement, it continues to perpetuate a shari’ah- UK through well-educated leaders with a command centric Sufism that is often mistakenly conflated with of English. the anti-Sufi doctrine of the Salafis. Deobandis in the UK are largely a-political at the The Deobandis are one of two major South Asian national level, though there is some involvement in Islamic movements in the UK (the other being local affairs. In Pakistan, there are historical links with the Barelwis). They control the largest number of the Taliban and with Kashmiri jihadi organisations, mosques, and have more than twenty seminaries but Deobandi leaders have condemned al-Qaeda and (daru’l-ulum) for male students, two female-only Islamic State. There is no evidence of any association boarding seminaries, and a number of schools, with violent extremism in the UK. CENTRE FOR RESEARCH AND EVIDENCEWWW.CRESTRESEARCH.AC.UK ON SECURITY THREATS BRITISH MUSLIMS: SECTARIAN MOVEMENTS 3 TABLIGHI JAMA‘AT in terrorist plots in the 2000s. The public concern Tablighi Jama‘at is a pietistic revivalist movement has not been that the movement promotes violent known for its missionary work among cultural and extremism, but that it may have been susceptible to lapsed Muslims. Founded by Muhammad Ilyas infiltration by extremists looking for new recruits or a Kandhlawi in the 1920s in India, it was an historical cover for international travel.