London’s Mayor Ken Livingstone and Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, today published a new report, ‘Muslims in London’.
The report draws on a range of data to illustrate the diversity of London’s Muslim communities and barriers faced by Muslims in everyday life and comes ahead of the first ever Eid celebrations in Trafalgar Square.
Launching the report this morning Mr Livingstone said the capital’s “success and prosperity” depended on welcoming people from across the world but said all Muslims, who represent one in 12 of Londoners “must play an essential part in the life of our city.”
‘However Muslims in London face serious discrimination and prejudice. London’s Muslims have the lowest rates of employment of all the faith groups. Only 15 per cent of Muslim women aged 25 and over work full time compared with 37 per cent of women in the general population. Muslims are disproportionately victims of religiously aggravated crime, more so than any other faith.”
Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, described the report as “ground-breaking” and said it brought together “statistics and information from a variety of sources in a single, easily accessible volume”
Dr Bari paid tribute to Mayor Livingstone “for this initiative and the GLA team that has done the hard work.”
“I welcome the first ever ‘Eid in the Square’ event in Trafalgar Square on Saturday 28 October 2006. The Muslim Council of Britain is delighted to be working with the Mayor of London in welcoming Londoners from all backgrounds to the Eid in the Square event to commemorate the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.”
The report is also available from the GLA website.
