Few UK imams 'come from Britain'

Only eight per cent of imams preaching in British mosques were born in the UK, BBC-commissioned research suggests.

The research, for BBC News and the BBC Asian Network, also suggests that only 6% of imams in Britain speak English as a first language.

And almost 45% of imams have been in the UK for less than five years, the report adds.

Staff at 300 mosques were questioned for the research, conducted by the University of Chester.

Report author Professor Ron Geaves said the aim of the study was to look at the ability of imams to adapt to British culture.

Each mosque was asked a set of questions about imams including their place of birth, first language, qualifications and language of the Friday sermon.

The study also suggests that 50% of imams are from Pakistan, 20% from Bangladesh and 15% from India.

Some 66% of imams speak Urdu as a first language with 52% giving sermons in the language, it adds.

It also suggests that 6% of imams arrived in the UK in the past 12 months with 23% being in the UK for more than 10 years.

Professor Geaves said: "The study reveals a deeply conservative body of individuals maintaining traditional languages, types of qualification and still largely recruited from the place of origin."

The imams were "overwhelmingly" qualified in the traditional Islamic curriculum, which he said had changed little since medieval times.

He added: "Although there are social religious and political reasons that drive a need to transform the imamate to a 21st century British context there is as yet little sign of the mosque imams or their employers being ready to professionalise."

Mosque staff were interviewed between February and March 2007.

Ban foreign language imams - peer

Foreign imams who do not learn English should be banned from giving sermons in UK mosques, a Labour peer has said.

Lord Ahmed's comments come as a survey suggests imams lack professional and language skills to tackle the threat of radicalism among young British Muslims.

Only 8% of imams preaching in British mosques were born in the UK, it found.


Research at 300 mosques by Chester University for BBC News and the BBC Asian Network also indicated only 6% speak English as a first language.

The report acknowledges the use of English is becoming more prevalent at Friday sermons but says more investigation is required to assess the frequency and quality.

It concluded mosques often remained in the control of first generation migrants.

BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott says the survey does not contain evidence that imams are radicalising young British Muslims.

But he says imams face competition from groups who wait outside mosques to hand out leaflets and are prepared to talk to young people in English about issues such as discrimination and UK foreign policy in the Middle East.

Report author Professor Ron Geaves said its aim was to look at the ability of imams to adapt to modern Britain.

Lord Ahmed, who became the UK's first Muslim peer in 1998, said a new national advisory and training body was needed to train imans already in the country and impose bans on those who cannot speak English or understand the culture.

"They need to pass exams, they need to do more," he told BBC News 24.

"In fact, I would go as far as to say that if they don't learn English within a certain period then they shouldn't be allowed to deliver sermons."

If they can play their role properly and communicate with young people they can get the message across to wider society in a very good way
Muhammad Abdul Bari
Muslim Council of Britain

Muslim leaders are meeting this weekend to discuss ways of tackling radicalism in their community.

Dr Usama Hasan, an academic and an imam in London, said some mosques did not "serve the needs" of Muslims who were born and brought up in the UK.

The general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, Muhammad Abdul Bari, said imams should be able to "talk and engage" people of all age groups.

"If they can play their role properly and communicate with young people they can get the message across to wider society in a very good way," he said.

'Deeply conservative'

Each mosque was asked a set of questions about imams including their place of birth, first language, qualifications and language of the Friday sermon.

The survey found 24 imams were born and educated in the UK, but this did not reflect the percentage of British-born South Asian Muslims who represent more than half of the Muslim population.

The study reveals a deeply conservative body of individuals maintaining traditional languages, types of qualification and still largely recruited from the place of origin
Professor Ron Geaves
University of Chester

The survey found almost 45% of imams have been in the UK for less than five years.

The interviews conducted in February and March, also indicated that 50% of imams are from Pakistan, 20% from Bangladesh and 15% from India.

Some 66% of imams speak Urdu as a first language with 52% giving sermons in the language, it adds.

It also suggests that 6% of imams arrived in the UK in the past 12 months with 23% being in the UK for more than 10 years.

Professor Geaves said: "The study reveals a deeply conservative body of individuals maintaining traditional languages, types of qualification and still largely recruited from the place of origin."

The imams were "overwhelmingly" qualified in the traditional Islamic curriculum, which he said had changed little since medieval times.

He added: "Although there are social religious and political reasons that drive a need to transform the imamate to a 21st century British context there is as yet little sign of the mosque imams or their employers being ready to professionalise."

Are UK's imams modern enough?

A week after the failed attacks in London and Glasgow, the Muslim Council of Britain has called an emergency meeting of imams and Muslim community activists to work out a strategy for combating extremism.

Their particular concern will be young Muslims, and the radical groups trying to recruit them to their hard-line understanding of Islam, with all its disdain for the Western way of life.

Those meeting in London on Saturday - and in a separate gathering in Oxford - are likely to see imams as a vital part of the task.

They are the official interpreters of Islam, and the public officials of the Muslim world whose word should carry maximum authority.

But a BBC study has led some influential figures in British Islam to doubt their imams are equal to this most urgent of tasks.

Urdu sermons

The survey, carried out among 300 imams by the University of Chester, painted a picture of a rapid influx of imams from India, Bangladesh, and especially Pakistan, with limited ability in English, and rudimentary professional qualifications by Western standards.

The survey found that although half of Muslims in Britain were born here, nine out of 10 of their imams came from overseas, 70% of them within the last decade.

Getting on for 90% speak a South Asian language as their mother tongue, and, perhaps more significantly, more than half of sermons are in Urdu. English comes some way behind.

"Too many imams cannot speak adequate English", says Ajmal Masroor, an imam at Wightman Road Mosque in London.

"How can they expect to get the message across to young people, or to speak to people of other faiths?

"I'm worried, and the Muslim community is very concerned about it."

Isolation fears

Ajmal Masroor preached this week on the injustice of violent attacks against the innocent, a counterblast to terrorism that came straight out of the Koran.

His is a modern interpretation of the faith and its holy text suited to a modern, Western, secular, and multicultural democracy. It also included criticism of other mosques that restrict access for women.

But many other imams are failing to grasp the nettles growing on the fringes of their congregations.

Khayer Chowdhury, a student in east London, said of his imam: "To be fair he doesn't speak very good English... and he talks about things that interest older people, like the family.

"He doesn't talk about things that concern young people... like how to behave on the street, and integration."

Muslim leaders such as Muhammad Raza, the director of the Imams and Mosques Council, fear that the isolation of imams from young Muslims places the whole community in jeopardy.

"I fear, and it's a real fear, that they could become the tools for further violence", he says. "And for that we need imams who can show their ability... their authority."

'Medieval'

The author of the BBC report, Professor Ron Geaves of Chester University's department of theology and religious studies, says many imams lack that ability and authority because they were educated for a different world, and, arguably, a different era.

He says that overwhelmingly imams in Britain were educated only in traditional seminaries, nearly all of them in the Indian subcontinent.

"They're medieval, and provide learning by rote of the Koran, and other religious texts", he says.

"By their very nature they weren't designed for a 21st Century secular democracy like Britain, where Islam is a minority religion. Imams educated in them tend to see Islam as good, and everything else as bad." Prof Geaves says very few imams are making any effort to upgrade their academic or professional skills.

Mosques, often dominated by first and second generation immigrants to Britain, continue to seek imams from their ancestral countries rather than British-born imams.

Ajmal Masroor points out an uncomfortable reality about Islam in modern Britain.

"In the Ottoman times, an imam's job was highly respected and would attract a high number of extremely talented people", he says.

"Today, on the contrary, an imam's job is poorly paid and attracts the least talented people."

It may seem a harsh judgement on a body of people serving their communities - and the Almighty - to the best of their ability. But the social and political realities in which imams now operate are themselves increasingly harsh.