Only 50 Muslims sign up for armed forces

FEWER than 50 Muslims have been persuaded to join Britain’s armed forces in the past year, despite a high-profile recruitment campaign in areas with high ethnic Asian populations, The Herald can reveal.

Faced with the problem of steadily-declining manpower, the Ministry of Defence had hoped to tap into the pool of 1.6 million British Muslims who traditionally shun military careers.

But the campaign has been a dismal failure and there are now just 330 Muslims across an Army, Royal Navy and RAF, numbering almost 200,000 men and women.

The Muslim contingent is almost outnumbered by the 300 Christian chaplains appointed to take care of the spiritual welfare of the bulk of the UK’s fighting services.

They do, however, have their own full-time imam, Asim Hafiz, who is based at Wellington Barracks in London.

According to figures obtained by The Herald, the highest number of Muslim volunteers enlisted last year was 10 in each of two single months. Fewer than five signed up in each of four other months.

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Only 50 Muslims sign up for armed forces
The Herald