Islam in East London

London Boroughs

Tower Hamlets, a local authority area in East London, is sometimes nicknamed “The Islamic Republic of Tower Hamlets” due to its large Muslim population and the effect this has had on local politics in the borough. According to the 2011 census, 34.5% of Tower Hamlets residents were Muslim, followed by Christians at 27.1% and those of no religion at 18.7%. From 2010 to 2015 the mayor of Tower Hamlets was Lutfur Rahman, a former Labour Party politician of Bangladeshi origin, who was elected as an independent. He was accused of appealing only to the borough’s Bangladeshi Muslim residents and having Islamist leanings. In 2015, following his re-election as mayor the previous year, he was removed from office after being found guilty of corruption and illegal practices.

Tower Hamlets; wards where Muslims make up more than a third of population or biggest group shaded green.

Tower Hamlets is not the only area of East London with a high concentration of Muslims. This was highlighted by the recent London Bridge attack, whose perpetrators lived in an area a few miles east of Tower Hamlets, around East Ham, Barking and Ilford. Like Tower Hamlets, this area contains a cluster of contiguous council wards where Muslims either make up the largest religious group or more than a third of the residents. In contrast to Tower Hamlets, these Muslim dominated wards are not concentrated in one London borough, but straddle three; Barking and Dagenham, Newham and Redbridge.  This fragmentation explains why local government sectarianism on anything like the scale of Tower Hamlets has failed to emerge in this area; although there is a large concentration of Muslims around their intersection, the boroughs themselves have lower percentage Muslim populations than Tower Hamlets .

As it stands, sectarianism seems to have receded in Tower Hamlets, which now has a multi-ethnic council leadership in contrast to the all-Muslim cabinet that served under Lutfur Rahman. The borough, which borders London’s main financial district and also contains Canary Wharf, an American-style cluster of skyscrapers housing Barclays and other banks, has been “gentrifying” and soaring property prices look likely militate against increasing sectarianism.

Newham: wards where Muslims make up more than a third of population or biggest group shaded green.

Next door to Tower Hamlets, multi-ethnic Newham’s Muslim population is only slightly lower than that of Tower Hamlets at 32% according to the 2011 census, but it has since 2002 been run by a Labour mayor who has sought support from people of all ethnicities and accused Lutfur Rahman of creating apartheid-style communities in Tower Hamlets. Although property prices are lower than in Tower Hamlets, they have been growing fast, particularly around the park created for the 2012 Olympics. Newham’s growing number of pop-up bars, trendy cafes with names such as “Pie Republic”, and other signs of gentrification suggest it is unlikely to elect an Islamist mayor anytime soon.

Redbridge: wards where Muslims make up more than a third of population or biggest group shaded green.

The same is true of Redbridge for other reasons. Its 23% Muslim population reported in the 2011 census is largely concentrated in three  council wards south of Ilford, a main urban centre in the south of the borough. The north of the borough is largely comprised of leafy suburban areas that still retain a large “white British” population (and, interestingly, a significant Jewish population).

Barking and Dagenham: wards where Muslims make up more than a third of population or biggest group shaded green.

More working-class Barking and Dagenham has the highest white British population of the four boroughs and according to the 2011 census had a Muslim population of just 14%. It accounts for just one of the cluster of largely Muslim-populated council wards it shares with Newham and Redbridge. Lower property prices and other factors could lead to continuing growth in the Muslim population in the borough but it is still a long way off the levels reached in Tower Hamlets and Newham.