LOCAL HERO
Abdulmaalik Tailor Abdulmaalik spent his formative years in Walthamstow including his conversion to Islam at 18. His faith and experiences combined with a passion for history led him to create the Muslim History Tours. Photography by Paul Tucker. You run something called Muslim History Tours. Tell us about it. The tours were established to try to counter the bad media coverage Muslims regularly receive in Britain. Too often, radical Muslims grab the headlines. Having a knowledge of British Muslim heritage, I wanted to showcase the positive image of British Muslims.
The tours cover central London and the City, but you also include places like Acton and Walthamstow. What made you choose these particular areas? I grew up in Walthamstow and now reside in Acton so both of these locations are close to my heart. The present climate of Islamophobia has parallels to the “Paki-bashing” era of the 1960s to mid-1980s. Anyone of South Asian appearance risked racial abuse and even having their homes fire bombed. In Walthamstow, groups of National Front followers had their regular hangouts. The NF would even rent council properties until they were banned. Their newspapers were openly sold in some newsagents and they tried opening a bookshop on Gosport Road but it was repeatedly bricked. I also see parallels to the 1930s, when the fascist Black Shirts held rallies and abused the Jewish community. Nearly a century on, racism still plays its part in Walthamstow – despite the origins of Walthamstow being recorded in 1075 as Wilcumestowe “the Place of Welcome”. I believe the first London Mosque was set-up at the end of the nineteenth century. I’m guessing there must have 28
been Muslims here long before that. Yes, indeed. The earliest mention of Muslims in Britain dates back to 774 when King Offa minted a gold coin bearing the Muslim declaration on faith, known as the Shahadah . (There is no deity worthy of worship except God).
begins at Verulam Avenue, where the first Walthamstow Mosque was set-up in a house in 1968. We then walk up Queens Road to the Masjid-e-Umar Mosque. The original mosque building here was in fact a synagogue and we show some pictures of the transformation.
The earliest known Muslim community on these shores was in 1641, eight years before the first translation of the English Quran was printed here.
The tour then covers the riots and tension of 1981, which included the deaths of Yunus Khan’s family on Belgrave Road. Yunus Khan himself survived and had a road named after him in 1986. Albert Road is also featured where the WFIA (Waltham Forest Islamic Association) was founded. The street was also home to an individual who suffered domestic violence in the 1990s at the hands of their parents after they’d converted to Islam.
The first Mosque in London was established in 1895 on Albert Street near Camden Town. Soon after, in the late 1890s, there’s a record of a group of Muslims holding prayers at the Royal Forest on Chingford’s Ranger’s Road. The first Mosque here in Waltham Forest was opened by the Pakistani High Commissioner in the 1960s. How were those early communities received? Early communities were not received very well. We know, for example, the early Liverpool Muslim community, who opened Britain’s first Mosque in 1889, were abused physically, psychologically and verbally. Describe for us the format of the Muslim History Tour in Walthamstow. The Walthamstow tour is a walk that
The tour takes in Walthamstow High Street, and we relate examples of how people protested against immigration. In 1981, for example, because of the protests, the High Street market had to be closed for the first time in its history. Before the establishment of a local Mosque, people prayed in some interesting places. That’s right. Back in the early 1960s, people were performing their prayers, and having lessons about the Quran, in houses on Folkestone Road, E17, then, soon after, on Albert Road.
Photo © paultucker.co.uk
How do you do your research? Mostly primary research; whether that’s digging into the archives, finding out about individuals or interviewing people. It’s a time-consuming process.