An exploration of spiritual healing methods amongst the south-asian muslim community in the north of England

After Christians, Muslims represent the largest religious grouping in the UK. According to census statistics, there are approximately 1.6 million Muslims in the UK, approximately 54% of who were born outside of the UK. There has been emerging interest in the use of traditional healers by South Asians in the UK. Early studies by Aslam3 and Healey & Aslam4 focused upon health seeking behaviour among the UK Muslim community. These studies revealed that people called upon traditional cultural or religious healers when suffering from mental or physical ill health, sometimes attributed to misfortune. Similar patterns of petitioning pirs (holy men or saints) for miracle cures were found in other cities in the UK, Birmingham,5 and Leicester.6 Dein7 and Littlewood8 studies show consistent patterns in the Bangladeshi Muslim Community in East-London accessing spiritual therapies from Muslim Healers.