ABSTRACT
The semantics of cultural diversity incorporate the concept of otherness in a number of ways. Differentiation is a prerequisite for inclusion. On the one hand, cultural identity is an expressive, non-purposeful, non-rational emanation of the personal. On the other hand, it is a construct, invoked to articulate and recreate itself assertively and continuously in the social and institutional context. Religion is indeed experiencing something of a renaissance in the discourse of cultural diversity and is becoming an ever more important form of self-identification. Classical Islamic law comprises a system of rules whose development had been more or less completed by the end of the ninth century. Freedom of religion is primarily a matter of individual conscience, but it also implies freedom to manifest one's religion alone or in community with others and in public or in private. The history of the United Kingdom's Muslim communities can be traced right back to the activities of the East India Company.
