2001
The 9/11 terror attacks using hijacked planes to fly into the Twin Towers, New York, and the Pentagon, Washington, kill thousands and precipitate the War on Terror. Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda Muslim terror group claim responsibility with a number of Yemeni-origin Arabs connected with both to the attacks and the organization.
2005
The 7/7 terror attacks on the London transport system kills over 50 people. The British government increases its security and surveillance of the British Muslim community with a particular focus on British Arab (including Yemeni) communities.
2010
The pro-democracy movement inspires the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ across the Arab-Islamic region.
2011
The revolutionary pro-democracy movement in Yemen eventually forces President Ali Abdullah Salih from office after hundreds of civilians are killed by his forces and he survives an assassination attempt. In Britain, Shaykh Said Ismail Hassan passes away after a long illness, ending his 55 years of service as imām to the Cardiff Yemeni community at the South Wales Islamic Centre.
2012
The Yemeni community in Cardiff revives street parades originally organized by Shaykh al-Hakimi and continued by Shaykh Hassan Ismail and Shaykh Said Hassan. Their reinstitution by the ˓Alawī ṭarīqah is done in honour of the recent passing of Shaykh Said Hassan Ismail.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
| Frontispiece | Map of modern Yemen |
| 0.1 | Saeed Hassan (‘al-Hubabi’) and wife. |
| 0.2 | Muhammad al-Hubabi and car. |
| 0.3 | Gadri Salih and his Children |
| 1.1 | British stamp from the Aden Protectorate. |
| 1.2 | Bab al-Yaman. |
| 1.3 | Water tanks at al-Tawāhī. |
| 2.1 | Colonial Aden. |
| 2.2 | Seamen’s registration certificate. |
| 2.3 | British Port Authority building at Steamer Point. |
| 2.4 | Seamen’s record book and certificate of discharge. |
| 2.5 | Mohammad Sayaddi. |
| 2.6 | Seamen’s registration certificate. |
| 3.1 | An Arab fireman. |
| 3.2 | The 1919 Mill Dam Riots, South Shields. |
| 3.3 | Retired ‘stoker’, Obeya. |
| 3.4 | One of the last of the lascars, Abdul Rahman |
| 4.1 | Shaykh Aḥmad Muṡṭafā al-˓Alawī. |
| 4.2 | Shaykh Abdullah Ali al-Hakimi. |
| 4.3 | Prince Hussein, the son of the Zaydī Imām, Yahya. |
| 4.4 | Cardiff Mosque Trustees. |
| 5.1 | A British Yemeni muwalladah. |
| 5.2 | A maqṡūrah. |
| 5.3 | Shaykh Hassan Ismail officiating a wedding. |
| 5.4 | Shaykh Hassan Ismail’s farewell. |
| 6.1 | A Yemeni steel worker in Sheffield. |
| 6.2 | Shaykh Muhammad Qassim al-Alawi. |
| 6.3 | Josephine Hassan and daughters in Yemen. |
| 6.4 | Yemeni Ambassador visits Nur al-Islam Mosque. |
| 6.5 | The last of the lascars. |
| 7.1 | A ‘Geordie’ Yemeni. |
| 7.2 | Chewing qāt. |
| 7.3 | Ifṭār at the Al-Azhar Mosque, South Shields. |
| Table 8.1 | Breakdown of ‘Arab’ categories in the UK, 2011 Census. |
| Table 8.2 | Breakdown of relevant ‘Arab’ categories in Salford, 2011 Census. |
| 8.1 | British Yemenis in Eccles, Greater Manchester. |
| 8.2 | Meeting the Yemeni Ambassador to the UK. |
| 8.3 | Gadri Salih in traditional Yemeni dress. |
TRANSLITERATION TABLE
Arabic Consonants:
Initial, unexpressed medial and final:
Vowels, diphthongs, etc.
| Short: |
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| Long: |
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| Diphthongs: |
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‘TO BE ROOTED is perhaps the most important and least recognised need of the human soul’, wrote the philosopher Simone Weil. The popular perception is that Muslims lack roots in British soil: they have arrived only recently, and, as a consequence, they do not possess deep historical and organic links with the customs, traditions and values of British society. This perception has been damaging for communal harmony since it has been deployed to set boundaries that, arguably, categorize, alienate and exclude Muslims, by calling into question their emotional ties, loyalties and claims of belonging to this country; namely, a version of ‘this is our country and by implication not yours’, through which claims to greater entitlement are frequently, if not always explicitly, asserted. In this discourse, British Muslims are viewed as a huge problem in need of a solution, and much media, political and academic energy is focused upon attempts to understand them.
The difficulty in achieving this understanding, however, is that British Muslims have come to be portrayed inaccurately as undifferentiated, isolationist, opposed to modern, secular norms and values, and as immune to processes of change. Generalizations abound, and the diversity of Muslim life is cast aside, creating a homogeneous and monolithic image instead that throws up negative stereotypes that militate against constructive interaction. Instead of mutual goodwill, division, distrust and Islamophobia have resulted. But such perceptions ignore visible evidence of the on-going fusion that is taking place between Muslims and British society, each drawing inspiration from the other to enhance the future cultural development of us all. They also belie historical scrutiny and deny Muslim legitimacy, ownership and a stake in Britain.
By looking at the historical evolution of one of Britain’s
