The Woking Mosque Muslims: British Islam in the Early Twentieth Century

This paper discusses the views and social character of the group of British Muslims, centred round the Woking Mosque in the period immediately following the First World War. It argues that this group had four distinctive characteristics. First, it formed its own cultural community, rather than joining a pre-existing ethnic community. Second, it espoused an orthodox but modernistic Islam, influenced by-while not sharing the distinctive doctrines of-the Lahore Ahmadiyya. Third, it faced a leadership problem. Other than Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din (who played a key role in the group's early days, and who was a leading member of the Lahore Ahmadiyya, but had been given a specific brief not to spread their distinctive doctrines), the group was in many ways thrown upon its own resources. Here, Marmaduke Pickthall-subsequently the author of The Meaning of the Glorious Quran-played a major role. But while he had good colloquial and subsequently classical Arabic, his knowledge of Islam was largely self-taught. A final problem here was posed by the fact that the group attracted some converts-including Lord Headley-who exercised considerable influence because of their social standing, but whose knowledge of Islam was limited.