Viral post about Muslims in England makes a number of incorrect claims

A post seen over 20 million times on X (formerly Twitter) and shared multiple times on Facebook makes a number of claims about Muslims in England. 

It’s very similar to a post we’ve seen and checked multiple times over the last seven years, and as we’ve written before, almost all of the claims are either wrong or lack evidence to support them. 

The post was shared on X by Laurence Fox, actor and leader of the Reclaim Party, on 4 May 2024. We’ve since seen versions of the post shared by numerous other X accounts, and it’s also appeared in other languages. 

We’ve asked Mr Fox to provide evidence for the claims included in his X post but have not received a response.

False or misleading claims about specific religious groups have the potential to harm individuals and groups. Online claims can spread fast and far and are difficult to contain and correct. Internet companies must take responsibility to ensure that they have clear and transparent policies on the treatment of misinformation on their platforms, and then apply them consistently.

Muslim mayors 

The post claims that the mayors of London, Birmingham, Leeds, Blackburn, Sheffield, Oxford, Luton, Oldham and Rochdale are all Muslim. 

All of these towns and cities have had Muslim mayors in the past, but only some currently have Muslim mayors. The religion of mayors isn’t generally a matter of public record, but the religion of some mayors, such as Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, is known. The Mayor of Blackburn with Darwen has publicly spoken about being Muslim, and Oxford City Council has said its Lord Mayor is Muslim. The current Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Chaman Lal, is from a Sikh family. 

Mayors in England can be directly elected, such as in London, or they are civic or lord mayors that carry out ceremonial duties but are not responsible for running local services.

Claims about the Muslim population 

The post claims there are “4 million Muslims out of 66 million people in England”. 

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates that England’s population was 56.5 million in mid-2021. The most recent census shows there were around 3.8 million people who identified as Muslim living in England in 2021. 

While the census does ask people about their religion, answering the question is voluntary so there is some uncertainty about the figure. Around 94% of people in England and Wales answered the question about religion in the 2021 census. 

The post also includes claims about the proportion of Muslim women specifically and Muslims generally who do not work and receive state support—“78 percent of Muslim women do not work, receive state support + free accommodation”, and “63 percent of Muslims do not work, receive state support + free housing”. 

The 2021 census found 37% of Muslim adult females were in employment, as were 51.4% of all Muslims aged between 16 and 64, meaning the figures in the post are incorrect. 

We’ve not found official data breaking down those claiming Universal Credit and benefits by their religion. The government says that this data is unavailable, as while questions on claimant’s religion are included in an equality survey made available to claimants, this survey is optional and providing information on religion is not compulsory. 

Of those who responded to the 2021 census and said all those in their household identified as Muslim, 27.8% in England lived in social housing, although this doesn’t mean the accommodation is free. 

The post also says: “State-supported Muslim families with an average of 6 to 8 children receive free accommodation.” 

We asked the ONS about this claim, as we couldn’t find information from the 2021 census on the number of children by household and religion. 

The ONS told us that working out the average number of children per household is not straightforward. The ONS said, to the best of their workings, that in Muslim-only single family households with dependent children, there were an average of 2.6 children at the time of the 2021 census, though this figure excludes multi-generational households, and assumes that households of eight people or more include exactly eight people. 

Mosques, sharia courts and councils

The post claims: “Today there are over 3,000 mosques in England.”

The ONS does not collect data on the number of places of worship, including mosques.

In 2018, the government said it estimated there were “1,500 mosques and prayer halls in England”, and in 2020 the Muslim Council of Britain said, in written evidence to a Lords select committee, there were “about 1,200 mosques” in Britain. 

The organisation Muslims in Britain maintains a database of mosques in the UK. It says there are 2,143 premises across the UK that are used for Islamic worship, 1,987 of which are in England. This figure includes spaces such as hired halls, chaplaincies or dedicated prayer rooms, as well as temporary premises, those still under construction and those that are planned or proposed. Muslims in Britain report there are 1,858 masjids (mosques) in the UK, 1,717 of which are in England. 

The post then states that “there are over 130 sharia courts. There are more than 50 Sharia councils”. 

Sharia councils (sometimes referred to as sharia courts) have existed in the UK since the 1980s, but there is no official count of how many are in existence. They are usually a group of local religious scholars who advise on issues of marriage and divorce in accordance with the religious rules of Islam. These are not formal courts of law, and have “no legal status and no legal binding authority under civil law”, according to the Home Office. A 2018 Home Office review found that there were between 30 and 85 sharia councils in England and Wales. 

Religious education 

The post also claims: “Now every school in the UK is required to teach lessons about Islam.”

All state-funded schools in the UK do have to teach a form of religious education (RE). In England, it’s not part of the national curriculum and parents have the legal right to withdraw their children for all or part of the lessons, as they also do in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Once pupils in England reach the age of 18, they can also choose to withdraw from the lessons. Local councils determine the RE syllabus, but schools that are academies and faith schools can set their own syllabus. 

Government guidance states that the law doesn’t define what the principal religions of Great Britain are, so those who set the syllabus in local authority schools “can decide which are the principal religions represented in Great Britain, other than Christianity, to be included in their agreed syllabus.”

Other claims 

Some versions of the post we’ve seen circulating on Facebook include additional claims that we’ve previously written about. 

One of these is that “now all UK schools are ONLY serving HALAL MEAT. [sic]”

This doesn’t appear to be correct. The government does not hold information on the number of schools that only provide halal meals. Government rules on school food don’t specify that food which meets religious dietary requirements must be served. Individual schools may choose to provide halal meat if they wish, but there’s no obligation for all schools to do so. We’ve found examples of schools in Scotland and England with pork—which is not halal—on their menus. 

Another repeat claim is that there are “Muslims-Only No-Go Areas Across the UK [sic].” As we’ve explained before, there are no areas in the UK where UK law doesn’t apply or where police can’t do their work (except perhaps diplomatic premises), and no evidence of geographical areas that exclude individuals on the basis of religion.

Image courtesy of N Chadwick.