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Islam in the UK

River Thames

Islam’s influence in the UK is 1000 years old:
Offa, an Anglo-Saxon king in the 8th century made a gold coin with the Kalimah in Arabic.

On the other side it has "Muhammad is the Messenger of God." Maybe there was a need to align with Muslim powers and facilitate trade with Muslims.

200 years later King John quarreled with the Pope and fought land barons. He sent to the Muslim ruler of Spain, An-Nasr, offering to accept Islam provided An-Nasr sent an army to help against the barons. An-Nasr declined.

John Ward, a famous pirate in the 16th century, accepted Islam and lived in Algiers. There were 15,000 converts living there then.

The 17th century saw increased trade with the East and the introduction of coffee by Muslim traders, which saw more than 350 coffee houses in London by 1650.

In the 19th century there’s Abdullah William Quilliam who accepted Islam in Morocco in 1889 and studied Islam at the University of Fez. He established a mosque and an orphanage in Liverpool named Medina Children’s Home.

In the 20th century, there’s Robert Rashid Stanley, twice mayor of Staylbridge and Marmaduke Pickthall, who accepted Islam in 1917 and became imam at the first purpose-built mosque in England. He produced an English translation of the Qur’an in 1928.

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