By IANS
London/Lahore : Half of the clerics heading mosques in the United Kingdom are from Pakistan, says a British study that says that the Muslim clergy is "overwhelmingly" qualified in the traditional Islamic curriculum that has "changed little since medieval times."
A study of 300 mosques in the UK found that 50 percent of the head clerics were from Pakistan, 20 percent from Bangladesh and 15 percent from India, the state-owned Pakistan Press International (PPI) reported.
It said the study, carried out by Chester University on behalf of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), was aimed at gauging the ability of the clerics to adapt to the needs of modern Britain.
Around 66 percent spoke Urdu as a first language with 52 percent delivering sermons in Urdu. Only six percent of those preaching in the UK spoke English as a first language.
The study also said only eight percent of the clerics preaching in British mosques were born in the UK.
The report acknowledged that the use of English was becoming more prevalent in Friday sermons in the country, but said that more research was required to assess frequency and quality, Pakistani newspaper Daily Times reported Saturday.
Professor Ron Geaves, the author of the report, said, "The study reveals a deeply conservative body of individuals maintaining traditional languages and qualifications, and still largely recruited from their place of origin." The clerics were "overwhelmingly" qualified in the traditional Islamic curriculum that has "changed little since medieval times."
The study comes amidst reports of growing involvement in Islamic militancy by Muslim youth, both migrants or British-born, over the last few years.
The governments in Britain, as also other European nations, have taken serious note of these trends surfacing after 9/11, with British-born, Pakistani-origin youth charged with or suspected of involvement in the 7/7 London train explosions and the aborted explosions on board trans-Atlantic flights.
British-born Sheikh Mohammed Khalid has been convicted for the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
Earlier this year, the authorities in the US too have sought to evict imam of a mosque who is a brother of Lashkar-e-Toiba chief H M Saeed.