Salafi Da’wah in 1990s Birmingham

In order to protect the Muslims in the UK and the West from the ideas of these extremist ideologues, Salafi du‘āt continued to place a heavy emphasis on giving regular da‘wah in places like Birmingham University, Aston University, and the University of Central England, along with other universities in the UK such as University of Central London, University East London, South Bank University, Bradford University, Manchester, Salford, UMIST, Sunderland, Teesside, and Liverpool etc., not to mention community halls such as Durning Hall in East London (Al-Athariyyah).

In Birmingham specifically, the du‘āt also gave regular lectures at Witton Road Mosque—a Green Lane Mosque (GLM) affiliate, the significance of which is to follow—and Norton Community Hall in Alum Rock. Although attendance at these events was low at first, ranging anywhere from 2–20 attendees, these numbers rose between 1996 and 1998 as others who shared the same zeal for learning about Islam joined the audience. Consequently, SalafiPubs went on to establish da‘wah stalls on some of the busiest main roads in Birmingham such as Ladypool Road, Stratford Road, Alum Rock Road, and Lozells Road, and had soon gathered a more substantial following, numbering around 70 or more.

Clearly, Salafism as a ‘new’ revivalist jamāʿah had begun to provide a perfect juncture—a different type of space for the intersection of immigrants with ‘narratives of fluid, hybridized, and multiple identities’[1] from differing diasporic flows to generate public expressions of religious faith and activity.[2] In doing so, the postcolonial and postsecular city of Birmingham served as an ideal site wherein a mix of Salafis from ethnic minority enclaves such as Sparkbrook, Small Heath, Alum Rock, Handsworth, Aston and Lozells were able to challenge and disrupt ‘colonial, modernist narratives based on static, stratified and essentialised hierarchies of value’—in other words, they were able to challenge the status quo.[3]

[1] Beaumont, 2011:34. 

[2] The concept of multiple identities purports that individuals have various identities depending on their gender, religion, caste, ethnicity, or nationality (which are mostly inherited at birth), and other identities (which are acquired by the individual through education, political beliefs, and their professional and other accomplishments) (Dominic, B., 2016). This concept is useful in understanding how people come together (intersect) based upon one (or more) of their identities.

[3] Ibid.