Muslims of Britain

[purpletigron]

Was King Offa of Mercia the first powerful Muslim in England? - "his coins have the inscription of the declaration of faith of Islam (There is no god but Allah) in Arabic." UK Islam Awareness Week 2006 will be Mon 20 - Sun 26 Nov.

History: "The sacking of the Muslim city of Lisbon in 1147 during which perhaps 150,000 Muslims were massacred, was largely the work of soldiers from Norfolk and Suffolk."

Future: "IAW aims to create an awareness of Islam in our society by involving everyone throughout Britain, irrespective of their school of thought or group affiliation. Everyone is invited to come forward and join hands in practical efforts to rid Britain of Islamophobia."

Thank you to fjm for the link.

Comments

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

I doubt very much that Offa was a convert to Islam (and the promoters of Islam Awareness Week don't say that he was). Only one known gold coin of Offa's carries the declaration of faith, and it is not on his more numerous silver coinage. A public conversion would surely have left some stronger trace in the historical record. One can, of course, argue (as this article does), that later Christians have deliberately expunged all reference to Offa's Islam, but I don't buy that sort of conspiracy theory. I think it is far more likely that the coins were done in imitation of Muslim coinage for circulation in the Muslim world, created by coin makers who didn't actually know what the inscription meant.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Yes. ... but it's an intriguing thought :-)

[overconvergent.livejournal.com]

I'd say also that the declaration of faith isn't a specifically Islamic one, but fits in to both Christianity and Judaism. It's the second half of the declaration that would make it Islamic.

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

One of the most powerful Ottoman eunuchs during the late 16th century, Hasan Aga, was the former Samson Rowlie from Great Yarmouth, while in Algeria the “Moorish King’s Executioner” turned out to be a former butcher from Exeter called “Absalom” (Abd-us-Salaam). There was also the Ottoman general known as “Ingliz Mustapha”; in fact a Scottish Campbell who had embraced Islam and joined the Janissaries.

I love this.

[mkillingworth.livejournal.com]

I have very mixed feelings about this. It smacks a little too much of the same sort of things that went on during the Civil Rights movement in the States. People were expected to take steps to "prove" that they were not prejudiced, instead of just letting it show in their day to day lives. It was an over-reaction to the situation. Are we also going to hold Jewish Awareness Week, Catholic Awareness Week (sure to be popular in NI), Hindu Awareness Week, Buddhist Awareness Week, Pagan Awareness Week.... The list is endless. All of these groups have been misunderstood and mistreated by someone in the past. I don't claim to know what the solution to the problem is, but I'm not convinced that this is it. I'm not sure there are enough weeks in the year to give everyone a fair shake.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Late reply here...

I see where you're coming from, and I don't see the point of 'top-down mandated' Week of the Whatever. I'm slightly more sympathetic to this idea as there's a lot of anti-Islam stuff going around at the moment, and this seems to more 'bottom up thing':

http://www.isb.org.uk/
"The Islamic Society of Britain initiated Islam Awareness Week."