conversion

Islamic Review

About: 

The Islamic Review was the organ of the Shah Jahan Mosque at Woking. It was inaugurated in 1913 by the then Imam of the mosque, Khwaja Kamaluddin, and ran until 1967. During its lifespan, the periodical had a series of editors who often also preached at the mosque or served as Imam there for a period of time. It had numerous regular contributors. It was widely distributed, free of charge.

There is much emphasis in the periodical on the misrepresentation of Islam in the British press and misconceptions about Islam on the part of the British people. Indeed, a key aim of the journal seems to be to challenge these by articulating the similarities between Islam and Christianity and the compatibility of Islam with British life. The journal suggests a progressive approach to Islam on the part of the mosque, with an emphasis on inter-faith dialogue and rational argument. Numerous pieces explain and defend Islam’s view on women, often in response to articles in the British press representing Muslim culture as polygamous and Muslim women as oppressed, as well as the religion’s attitude towards alcohol, fasting and prayer, for example. The similarity of their concerns to the concerns of British Muslims now is striking. The journal also includes several testimonials by English converts to Islam including Lord Headley whose conversion triggered numerous articles in the press. Further content includes articles on the celebration of Eid at the Woking mosque, as well as sermons and photographs, and reviews of books about Islam.

Example: 

Ahmed, K. S., ‘Islam in England’, Islamic Review 25.2 (February 1937), pp. 42-4

Other names: 

The Islamic Review and Muslim India

Secondary works: 

Ahmad, Nasir, Eid Sermons at the Shah Jehan Mosque, Woking, England, 1931-1940 (Lahore, Aftab-ud-Din Memorial Benevolent Trust, 2002)

Ally, M. M., ‘History of Muslims in Britain, 1850-1980’, unpublished MA dissertation (University of Birmingham, 1981)

Ansari, Humayun, ‘The Infidel Within’: Muslims in Britain since 1800 (London: Hurst, 2004)

Salamat, Muslim P., A Miracle at Woking: A History of the Shahjahan Mosque (London: Phillimore, 2008)

Content: 

This article describes the celebration of the Eid festival at the Shah Jahan Mosque at Woking. It is accompanied by photographs.

Date began: 
01 Jan 1913
Extract: 

As usual, nearly every member of the Muslim community in England had been informed several days beforehand of the Eid day. This enabled Muslims from different parts of the British Isles, representing various classes, races and countries, to congregate at the Mosque at Woking on this auspicious occasion.

Here in England, during the previous four weeks, we had been passing through a period of most uncertain weather and, on the eve of the Eid, rain fell in torrents continuing far into the night. However, as the darkness of the night gave place to the first rosy streaks of the dawn, the sun, for the first time for a full month, shone brightly and clearly in the azure sky.

This was indeed a happy sign, although admirable arrangements had been made for the comfort of the guests, to enable them to be independent, to a certain extent, of the English climate.

Special trains from London soon began to bring the devotees, many picturesquely and colourfully dressed, to their destination, and the Faithful began to assemble in groups on the rich carpets spread in the large electrically-lit and well-heated Marquee on the lawn of the Mosque grounds.

Here were Fezes in shades of red, top-hats, soft hats, turbans, caps and astrakhan hats, gorgeously covered robes and graceful saris, lounge suits, frock-coats and even ‘plus fours.’ Here were English Muslim ladies and gentlemen from different counties of the British Isles, representatives from Turkey, Iran, Russia, Nigeria, Egypt and India. Here were they all, rich and poor, ready to unite in prayer to Allah, and to prostrate themselves as one before the Almighty, testifying to that vast and all-embracing spirit of brotherhood which is Islam’s unique and peculiar gift to mankind.

It was indeed a demonstration of the common fraternity of mankind, unique in this land where not only political and social differences but also religious and sectarian schisms are rife.

Precise date began unknown: 
Y
Key Individuals' Details: 

Editors: Aftab-ud-Din Ahmad, Khwaja Nazir Ahmed, Khwaja Kamaluddin, Muhammad Yakub Khan, Abdul Majid, Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall.

Relevance: 

This extract emphasizes the commitment of Muslims to practising their faith in Britain as early as the 1930s, and probably before then. By describing Eid celebrations in the context of rainy English weather, the passage locates Islam firmly within Britain. The description of bright coloured clothing adorning the grounds of the mosque further suggests the ways in which this minority religion transformed the geography of a small Surrey town. The passage conveys a sense of the mosque as a focal point for Muslims in Britain, where divisions of ‘race’, class and nationality are transgressed through faith.

Connections: 

Contributors: Aftab-ud-Din Ahmad, K. S. Ahmed, Saiyed Maqbool Ahmed, Begum Sultan Mir Amir-ud-Din, W. B. Bashyr-Pickard, Abdul Karim, Edith M. Chase, Maryam A. Ghani, M. Fathulla Khan, M. Wali Khan, Mushir Hosain Kidwai, B. M. K. Lodi, N. C. Mehta, Syed Muzaffar-ud-Din Nadvi, R. S. Nehra, Khalid Sheldrake, M. Z. Siddiqi, C. A. Soorma, T. L. Vaswani, A. C. A. Wadood, H. G. Wells, Kenneth Williams.

Date ended: 
01 Jan 1967
Archive source: 

Islamic Review, SV 503, British Library, St Pancras

Precise date ended unknown: 
Y

Location

149 Oriental Road
Woking, GU22 7AN
United Kingdom

Pandita Ramabai

About: 

Pandita Ramabai was born in 1858 and orphaned in the famine of 1876-7. She came from a Marathi Brahmin family and was married in 1880 to a Brahmo Samajist, Bipin Behari Das Medhavi. He died nineteen months later, leaving her widowed with a baby daughter. Ramabai lectured on Sanskrit and the position of women in India and hence the title 'Pandita' was conferred onto her. Dr W. W. Hunter admired her work and spoke of her in lectures in Edinburgh, making her known in Britain. Ramabai was considering converting to Christianity and so the Society of St John the Evangelist at Poona made arrangements for her to go to England to answer her questions about the Christian faith.

In 1883, Ramabai arrived in Wantage to stay with the community of St Mary the Virgin. She also intended to study medicine. In September 1883, Ramabai and her daughter, Manorana, were baptized at Wantage. In 1884, Ramabai went to teach Sanskrit to women intending to become missionaries in India at Cheltenham Ladies' College, where she stayed until 1886. She then travelled to America and returned to India.

In March 1889, Ramabai opened a school in Bombay for women, and especially for widows. She received financial support from the Ramabai Association in America and from friends in England such as Dorothea Beale. In 1897, her daughter, Manorana, returned to Wantage to study medicine. Meanwhile, Ramabai moved her school to land she bought near Poona, now Pune. This place was known as Mukti Mission. Mukti was largely self-supporting with nearly 2000 people living there and with American and European helpers. Ramabai publicized the plight of the Hindu widow but also campaigned for Hindi to be the national language of India. Manorana died in 1921 and Ramabai died a year later in 1922.

Published works: 

The High-Caste Hindu Woman (London: Bell & Sons, 1888)

A Testimony (Kedgaon: Mukti Mission, 1917)

Date of birth: 
23 Apr 1858
Connections: 

Dorothea Beale, Sister Geraldine, Dr W. W. Hunter, Anandibai Joshi (cousin), Max MüllerKeshub Chunder Sen (in Calcutta).

Contributions to periodicals: 

The Cheltenham Ladies' College Magazine

Secondary works: 

Burton, Antoinette, At the Heart of the Empire: Indians and the Colonial Encounter in Late-Victorian Britain (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998) 

Dyer, Helen S., Pandita Ramabai. The Story of Her Life (London: Morgan & Scott, 1900) 

Kosambi, Meera, Pandita Ramabai Through Her Own Words (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000) 

MacNicol, Nicol, Pandita Ramabai (Calcutta: Association Press, 1926) 

Sengupta, Padmini S., Pandita Ramabai Saraswati: Her Life and Work (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1970)

Shah, A. B. (ed.), The Letters and Correspondence of Pandita Ramabai, compiled by Sister Geraldine (Bombay: Maharashtra State, 1977)

Symonds, Richard, ‘Ramabai, Pandita Mary Saraswati (1858–1922)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/56710]

Tharu, Susie and Lalita, K. (eds.), Women Writing in India. Volume 1: 600 BC to the Early Twentieth Century (Delhi: Osford University Press, 1991)

Archive source: 

Articles in Cheltenham Ladies' College Magazine and other material, Cheltenham Ladies' College Archive, Cheltenham

City of birth: 
Gangamul, near Mangalore
Country of birth: 
India
Other names: 

Pandita Mary Saraswati Ramabai

Locations

Cheltenham Ladies College GL50 3EP
United Kingdom
51° 53' 26.2788" N, 2° 5' 12.4656" W
Wantage OX12 8DZ
United Kingdom
51° 36' 33.3468" N, 1° 23' 59.6148" W
Date of death: 
05 Apr 1922
Location of death: 
Mukti, India
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1883
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1883-6

Location: 

Wantage (1883-4)

Cheltenham Ladies' College, Cheltenham (1884-6)

Liverpool Mosque and Muslim Institute

About: 

The Liverpool Mosque and Muslim Institute of Brougham Terrace was officially established in 1891. Prior to this, however, from as early as 1887, its founder William Quilliam, an English convert to Islam, led a small congregation of Muslims in premises on Mount Vernon Street. The Institute expanded rapidly, encompassing, by the mid-1890s, a madrassa, a library, a printing press, a museum, schools for boys and girls, a hostel and a literary society, as well as the mosque itself, enabling Muslims not just to worship but to conduct their daily lives according to the requirements of their faith.

Quilliam was keen for the mosque to be integrated into Britain and to engage with the British public – no doubt in part in an attempt to fulfil his aim of converting the British nation to Islam. Its orphanage, the Medina Home for Children, was open to children of any faith (who would then be brought up as Muslims) and was established in response to the increase of illegitimate births in the city. Further, the Institute undertook social work beyond its congregation, within the local community. Quilliam encouraged open debate and dialogue about the mosque by writing articles in the local press, also founding and editing two journals, The Crescent and The Islamic World, both of which had an international circulation. According to Ansari, Quilliam ‘was attempting to found an indigenous tradition that would be able to connect with the religious practices of potential converts and so create a sense of receptive familiarity’ (p. 125). Perhaps as a result of this, his congregation, dominated by middle-class converts, grew, with an estimated 600 conversions taking place over twenty years. While the majority of worshippers were English converts, there is evidence that some South Asians resident in Liverpool also attended the mosque. 

Published works: 

The Crescent (1893–1908) [journal of the LMI]

The Islamic World [journal of the LMI]

Example: 

Liverpool Review, 28 November 1891, p. 14

Secondary works: 

Ansari, Humayun, ‘The Infidel Within’: Muslims in Britain since 1800 (London: Hurst, 2004)

Wolffe, John (ed.), Religion in Victorian Britain, Vol. V: Culture and Empire (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997)

Content: 

This article was written in response to an article in the Liverpool Post and is critical of the latter for being too tolerant of the LMI’s activities. The article makes reference to an incident involving a crowd throwing fireworks and other missiles at the mosque. It defends this attack, arguing that its perpetrators had a right to feel alienated and antagonized by the presence of the incongruous presence of the mosque and its practices in an English city.

Date began: 
01 Jan 1891
Extract: 

[I]t is not the private and inoffensive worship of Mohammed that is objectionable, but the public advertisement of him. Travellers in the East expect to hear the 'Muezzin' call the faithful to their devotions, for there is nothing unusual or incongruous in the custom there, but the warning voice that fitly sounds from the midst of Eastern minarets and mosque towers is ridiculous from the balcony of a three-storey house in Brougham Terrace. Here it is most incongruous, unusual, silly and unwelcome, and the man who stands howling on a first floor balcony in such a fashion is certain to collect a ribald crowd, anxious to offer him a copper to go into the next street, or even ready to respond to his invitation with something more forcible than jeers. Such things cannot be done with impunity, for they may be expected to interfere with the ways and beliefs of the vast majority, more than one can expect a Catholic band to go scatheless through an Orange district, or an Orange band through a Catholic neighbourhood. It is all very well to preach that the law upholds what people have a right to do, but we are governed by custom as well as by law, and if prevailing customs are not sensibly respected, hard knocks are the inevitable consequence, and should arouse little sympathy.

Precise date began unknown: 
Y
Key Individuals' Details: 

Moulvie Barakat-Ullah (Imam of the LMI), William Quilliam (founder of the LMI).

Relevance: 

This extract is evidence of the hostile response by the press and British public to the practice of Islam in Liverpool. It highlights the dominance of cultural racism (as opposed to colour racism), even in this early period, and resonates with contemporary demands that religion should be confined to the private sphere – demands that entrench the exclusion and marginalization of minorities within the public domain. The extract also suggests the role of space as a site of struggle. It is interesting to contrast this with the positive response on the part of government officials to plans to build a London mosque in Regent’s Park, a central location where the mosque would be highly visible.

Locations

8 Brougham Terrace
Liverpool, L6 1AE
United Kingdom
Mount Vernon Street
Liverpool, L7 8
United Kingdom
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