A T ONE O’CLOCK in the afternoon, a handful of young Muslims gather for prayers in Blackburn, Lancashire. They are not meeting in a purpose-built mosque, however, but in a couple of sparsely furnished rooms above a chemist’s shop—a kind of startup prayer room. Everyone is welcome, says Mohammed Lorgat, a congregant, for “a chat and a brew”. There are “no questions at the door”, he says; the gathering is non-denominational and non-sectarian.

Haroon Sidat (pictured above), the 32-year-old imam who leads the prayers, clubbed together with his friends’ families to buy the premises. They wanted a place to practise their faith in a way that reflected the cultural and linguistic norms of their generation, rather than those of their parents and grandparents. They are demanding a new way of following Islam, and a different type of imam. The consequences for British Islam could be profound.

Many British Muslims are young. Their median age is 25, compared with 40 for all Britons. British-born Muslims do not see a trade-off between their nationality and their religion, says Shelina Janmohamed, vice-president of Ogilvy Noor, an advertising agency specialising in Muslim consumers, and author of “Generation M”, a study of young Muslims. Many are more pious than their elders. But they want a religious experience that reflects their daily lives, delivered in a language that they understand.

Whereas the governments of other European countries exert strict control over mosques, Britain generally allows them to manage themselves. Mosque committees, which are often dominated by old men, tend to import imams from South Asia. The majority are poorly paid Urdu-speakers, says Riyaz Timol of Cardiff University’s Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK . Mr Lorgat, aged 34, complains that the imam in the mosque he attended as a child came to Blackburn from India and just lived in the mosque, enjoying little exposure to British society.

Younger Muslims tend to prefer younger, British-born imams such as Mr Sidat. Mr Timol says that many of Britain’s 1,700-odd mosques have already been forced to bring in second, English-speaking imams, if only to stop their youthful congregants leaching away. These younger imams are more likely to have been to university, and to have had other jobs before becoming imams. Mr Sidat worked at EY as an accountant. Another wanted to be a sports coach. This gives them a worldliness that aspirational young Muslims appreciate.

Mr Sidat argues that his generation is also more accepting of gay or alcoholic Muslims. He gives advice to both. In his sermons he urges Muslims to understand local English culture better, particularly their neighbours’ obsessive attachments to dogs, pubs and gardening.