Islam in London

There were 1,318,755 Muslims reported in the 2021 census in the Greater London area. In the 2021 census Office for National Statistics, the proportion of Muslims in London had risen to 15% of the population, making Islam the second largest religion in the city after Christianity.

The first Muslims to settle in London were Bengali and Yemeni people｜Yemeni sailors from the 19th century. Many Muslims from the Indian sub-continent served in the British Army and British Indian Army in the First and Second World Wars. In the wave of immigration that followed the Second World War, many Muslims emigrated to the UK from these Commonwealth countries and former colonies to satisfy labour shortages and seek new opportunities for themselves. Following the partition of India, many came from Pakistan especially the Punjab and Azad Kashmir in addition to the Indian state of Gujarat. This initial wave of immigration of the 1950s and 60s was followed by migrants from Cyprus, Sylhet in Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan. Many Muslims also arrived from various other countries, although the percentage is far smaller than from South Asia. Amongst those from other countries, Muslims from Yemen, Somalia and Turkey have significant numbers, whereas those from Malaysia Iraq, Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya represent smaller fractions. Today, London's Muslims come from all over the world and there is a small but growing group of converts.

Following waves of immigration over the previous decades, London now has one of the most diverse array of Muslim communities in the world.

London's Muslims are geographically dispersed with settlements principally shaped by earlier patterns of immigration. The greatest concentration can be found in the east London boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Newham and Redbridge, where Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, and Indians tend to predominate.

Outside of east London, Bangladeshi Muslims have settled throughout the city, in boroughs like Merton, Southwark, and Hackney.

North London's Muslims are concentrated in the boroughs of Haringey, Barnet, and Enfield, with older communities of Turkish Cypriots more recently being joined by Algerians, Somalis, and Persians.

Early settlement of London's Arabic-speaking Muslims is in the Kensington & Chelsea, Notting Hill, Edgware Road with the initial settlement around North Kensington since spreading to Hammersmith & Fulham, Lambeth, Brent, and Ealing. These six boroughs contain the highest proportion of Arabs in the UK, the majority of whom are Muslim - the recent 2021 census put the figure between 3 and 8%. In recent years, refugees and migrants from countries such as Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Algeria, Morocco, and Yemen have joined these various communities, in many cases setting up their own mosques, such as the Iqraa Foundation in Harlesden.

Indian and Pakistani Muslims have settled in significant numbers further west in Hounslow and Southall, but in a much smaller proportion to their Hindu and Sikh neighbours.