Case No. UKUT-00286-(IAC)

7. Reliance was placed by the appellant and AICC on the general conditions in which the Afghan Muslim community lives in the United Kingdom. A report entitled ‘The Afghan Muslim Community in England - Understanding Muslim Ethnic Communities’ is one of 13 reports on England’s Muslim ethnic communities commissioned by the Cohesion Directorate of Communities and Local Government (CLG). It describes the Afghan community in these broad terms: In Afghanistan the dominant religion has traditionally been the sect of Sunni Islam following the Hanafi School of Jurisprudence. A large proportion of the Sunni population in Afghanistan also adheres to the Deobandi tradition, which is believed to have had a strong influence on the Taliban. The majority of Afghans in the UK are also Sunni Muslims, but there is a significant minority of Shi’a, particularly those of the Hazara ethnic group. There are also reported to be some ‘important Sufi families’ in London and a large Afghan Sikh community. Views about religion are contradictory. Some sources suggest that there is a ‘stricter’ form of Islamic practice driven by people who have arrived during the later stages of the recent conflicts in Afghanistan, as well as a visible tendency towards greater religiosity among young people. Others however suggest that most Afghans in the UK are more culturally Muslim than devout in their religious practice, and that there is a sizeable part of the community with communist sympathies that does not subscribe to any form of religion at all. Culture and ethnicity appear to play a more significant role in the way Afghans identify themselves than religion. Most respondents expressed their relationship with Islam as something personal and in the background, something that informs their values and attitudes to life, but which does not play an outwardly visible role. In the past, Afghans attended mosques established by other communities, including contributing to the building of mosques in collaboration with other Muslim groups. However Afghan cultural practices, particularly funereal rites, differ substantially from those of other Muslim communities, and this factor is thought to have contributed significantly to the development of separate mosques for the community. It certainly seems to have been a strong influential factor in the decision to build the Afghan mosque in Neasden, along with pressure from other communities concerning accepted rituals and forms of worship. 8. Reliance, in particular, is placed on the passage above which refers to the differences in practice between Afghan Muslims and others: ‘ Afghan cultural practices, particularly funereal rites, differ substantially from those of other Muslim communities ’.