From Planet 168

Islam in Wales

by Paul Chambers

Although the Islamic community is small, it has an important part to play in the diverse mosaic of contemporary Welsh culture.

In a recent article in The Independent Ismail Patel, chairman of a Leicester-based human rights organisation, voiced his concerns about the ways in which British Muslims and their communities have been repeatedly subjected to popular prejudices and libels about Islam. Within the context of post-war immigration, the events of 9/11 and against a broader historical background where Islam in Europe has always been viewed as the “other”, Muslims have been accused in the media and by politicians as posing a potential threat to both public order and social harmony. Muslims are routinely described as “foreigners” and accused of a failure to integrate into western societies while their religion, despite widespread public ignorance about Islam, is frequently described as a threat to the “British way of life”. Recent efforts on the part of Muslims and Muslim organisations to display their willingness to integrate into British society have often been treated with suspicion and Patel suggests that these efforts always mysteriously appear to fall short of the Home Secretary’s “citizenship requirements”. Indeed, as Patel further notes, in Blunkett’s many pronouncements on Islam and ethnic minorities, not only are all Muslims inevitably subsumed into an artificial homogenous unit but “Britishness” is invariably equated with “Englishness”, something that causes considerable annoyance to Scottish and Welsh Muslims and indeed, many non-Muslims who are familiar with “for Wales see England”.

According to the latest census, which was the first to ask a religious question, there are approximately 24,000 Muslims in Wales, including migrants and Muslims born here. Islam in Wales has in fact a long, albeit at times largely hidden, history. Anecdotal evidence from Muslim communities in Swansea and Cardiff suggests that as early as 1870, prayer rooms had been established in private houses situated near the docks to serve the religious needs of Muslim sailors who were of predominently Yemeni origin. In Cardiff’s Butetown, by the late 1930s a Yemeni mosque had been established and this subsequently became the South Wales Islamic Centre. In 1947, Wales and Cardiff’s first purpose built mosque, the Peel Street Mosque, partially funded by public monies, was opened in a full civic ceremony attended by the then Lord Lieutenant, heralding the official recognition of Islam here. Oral histories gathered by the Butetown History and Arts Centre, paint a portrait of a local culture where diverse religions sat easily with each other and where local people, Christians and Muslims lived side by side without rancour, often publicly participating together in major religious festivals. Swansea followed rather later in that it was not until 1971 that the first purpose built mosque, the Swansea City Mosque and Islamic Centre, also known as the Central Mosque, was erected in the St Helens Road.

These initiatives were followed by the incremental growth of Islamic places of worship and Wales now has 33 mosques, the newest of which has recently opened in Bridgend. Places of worship tend to be concentrated in the major cities, with Cardiff having 11 mosques, Newport 7 and Swansea 4. Mosques are also to be found in Bangor, Barry, Haverfordwest, Lampeter, Llanelli, Neath, Pontypridd, Port Talbot and Wrexham. Wales is also served by three Islamic bookshops and one full-time Islamic primary school located in Cardiff. As the profile of Islam here has grown, a number of indigenous Islamic institutions have emerged with a remit to support of Muslim community and to educate the wider public in Wales about Islam. Emerging from the Association of Muslim Professionals Wales, the largest and most recent of these is the Muslim Council of Wales, an umbrella organisation that claims to represent 53 Muslim organisations and mosque associations throughout the country. The last decade has also seen the establishment of a number of smaller organisations such as the Cardiff University Islamic Society, the Swansea Muslim Youth League and the New Muslims Network Wales who constitute a lively presence on the internet, notably through the IslamWales.com website. These groups have also established close working relations with many varied groups at local and national level and also with bodies such as local authorities and police forces and at the national level and through the Interfaith Council for Wales, with the National Assembly.