It is a common assumption that the presence of Muslims in Britain and the influence of Islamic culture and history on British society is a recent phenomenon, confined mainly to the post-Second World War era. The period after 1945 is certainly distinctive in terms of the scale of Muslim migration to Britain, but the history of Muslim settlement here, and wider British engagement with Muslim majority countries, goes back much further. The extent to which the first two chapters of this book explore this history is a reflection of the fact that ideas, impressions and encounters from the past have a considerable impact on apprehension and understanding in the present. The first chapter offers an overview of some key aspects of the complex history of Muslims in Britain and, particularly, English perceptions of Islam, from the earliest times to the mid nineteenth century.

During the later nineteenth century and early twentieth century, there was a qualitative and quantitative shift in the nature of Muslim settlement in Britain. The character of Muslim communities began to change with the rapid expansion of the British Empire. Large numbers of unskilled Muslim labourers came to Britain as part of the colonial enterprise and by the late 1800s a distinctive Anglo-Muslim community had begun to emerge in Britain (Murad 1997). In some cases this was led by notable British converts to Islam. Discussion of this, and the subsequent arrival of Muslims to Britain after the Second World War, is the focus for the second chapter.