Practising Muslims will very soon overtake weekly churchgoers in Britain

Telegraph blog ^ | January 28, 2011 | Damian Thompson

[NYer]

Only a third of churchgoers actively practise their faith, as opposed to 80 per cent of Muslims, according to new research by the Office of National Statistics (above, and it can’t spell “practising”). As I reported last month, the number of British Muslims has grown at an astonishing rate, from 1.65 million to 2.87 million since 2001. This figure, from the respected Pew Forum, means we must radically revise predictions that practising Muslims will outnumber practising Christians by 2035, which were based on the outdated 2001 census figure of 1.65 million (which was too low even at the time). It will happen much sooner than that.

If there are 2.87 million Muslims in Britain and 80 per cent of them practise their faith, then there are already 2.14 million practising Muslims. Admittedly, we should treat these figures with caution: 2.87 million may be an overestimate, so may 80 per cent, and in any case there’s no common yardstick to to measure the practice of two such different religions. Still, I was wondering how the numbers of devout Christians compares to the number of devout Muslims.

Let’s consider weekly churchgoers in Britain. The Church of England dislikes this measure being used and has moved the goalposts more than once. A few years ago it was widely reported that the number of weekly C of E churchgoers had fallen below a million; now we’re asked to believe that it has risen just above it. Hmm. Catholic weekly Mass-going has stabilised at just below a million and that I do believe, though the stabilisation is entirely due to immigration. Add together Catholic and Anglican weekly churchgoing in the UK and you probably reach a figure of two million.

[NYer]

Damian Thompson is Editor of Telegraph Blogs and a journalist specialising in religion. He was once described by The Church Times as a "blood-crazed ferret". He is on Twitter as HolySmoke.

[NYer]

Compare this to the ONS/Pew figure of 2.14 million Muslims who “actively practise” their religion. I can’t decide from the ONS survey what this means – presumably it just reflects people who say they actively practise. But, however you define practising Muslims, if the community has grown by up to 75 per cent since 2001, then the moment when they outnumber weekly churchgoers is not far off.

[Armaggedon]

The cult of Islam will ban Guinness Stout. The old world is passing away quickly. We do not have to worry about 2030. We got Obama on our plate now. The crunch is at hand.

[SECURE AMERICA]

Great Britian goes out with a wimper instead of a bang.......
islam is an evil cult that is destroying Western Civilization

[MissMack99]

The Muslim Brotherhood has long ago taken the UK.

[Tennessee Nana]

Another reason to thank God for His mercy in moving my Anglican ancestors out of England...

[Tennessee Nana]

Anglican PING

[diamond6]

And we are aborting ourselves out of existence.

[Chode]

Ungland...

[SuziQ]

Not surprising since an increasing number of putative Christians haven't darkened the doors of a church for years. Even some of those who DO go to Church don't really believe in it anymore; they do it out of habit, or to socialize.

Muslims are DEAD SERIOUS about their religion.

[TheDingoAteMyBaby]

It seems to be deeply ingrained in Islamic culture that they ought to marry young and have large families. I don’t see this so strongly in U.S. Evangelical churches. If anything, Christians tend to elevate what they call the “gift of singleness” as a high spiritual calling.

[NYer]

We are also not reproducing.

[diamond6]

I have unfortunately been beset with fertility problems and have only been able to bring to babies to full term, lost three others. I have cried out to the Lord so many times and filled so many buckets full of tears because of this.

At least I can go to my deathbed knowing that I tried, and was always open to life.