A Changing World

Two years ago my best friend visited London for her spring break. Of course I was interested and wanted to know all about her trip. She said it was great but said it was a little different than what she had expected. Basically, what she was saying was that there was a very strong middle eastern influence.

Before I left my brother mentioned the same thing. He said I would be surprised because London’s demographics had changed a lot over the past few decades.

When I arrived in London, it didn’t take long for me realize that they were right. Muslim flyers are posted all around Imperial’s campus, I saw women wearing head coverings everywhere, Gaza demonstrations were on every block, and we even took a field trip to a mosque.
Don’t get me wrong- this isn’t a bad thing at all. But it’s plain to see that Muslim and middle eastern culture has greatly affected London in the 20th century.

I did some research and Islam, the predominant religion in the middle east, is the fastest growing religion in Great Britain. For a religion to be thriving now, when Britain is considered to be increasingly secular, says a lot about the religion and its followers. Not only has it grown within the 20th century, but it has grown immensely within the last 60 years. In 1945 there was only one mosque in Britain. By 1960 there were eighty and by 1976 there were 200 mosques in Great Britain.

This vast amount of immigration and Muslim influence has affected politics and culture in many ways. One example is Slumdog Millionaire, a recent film that won all kinds of awards. It storyline was based on the Muslim faith. Also, as far as politics go, Muslim education has recently been brought up as an issue. The government now funds a small fraction of public Muslim schools.
Also, job opportunities have changed as well. It seems as if the British are experiencing the same kind of frustration about job losses due to immigration as Americans are. Many jobs are going to the Muslim immigrants whereas in America many jobs are going to Mexican immigrants. This will be something the government will have to learn to deal with.

As I mentioned earlier, this isn’t a bad thing at all. It’s just a change of pace and structure within the British way of life.