Posted on 09/28/2013 4:32:01 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
The UKs official religion is dwindling at a record speed, with the decline of the Church approaching rock bottom, experts warn. While Christian congregations age, most British mosques are bringing more and more young people on board.
Public mosque services attract thousands of British Muslims, but when you check out a church, there are hardly a dozen participants at Sunday morning worship, RTs Polly Boiko reports from London.
The decline of churches in the UK is long term, now it just happens to be approaching rock bottom. So 95 percent of people dont attend church on an average Sunday. Christian worship is already the concern of a tiny minority of people, Andrew Copson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association, told RT.
I think over time even the weak cultural identity that still seems to be associated with Christianity will banish away, probably all over Europe, not just in the UK, Copson added.
The British Muslim population has surged dramatically over the past 15 years, increasing by 75 percent. According to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics, Muslims have the youngest age profile of the religious groups, with 48 percent (1.3 million) aged under 25.
Dr. Muhammad Abdul Bari, Honorary Chairman of one of the largest mosques in the UK, the East London Mosque, believes thats because Islams family values are really bonded, and families really try to nurture young people in the folds of Islam.
He told RT that the Mosque he goes to, founded in 1910 and accommodating 7,000 worshippers for congregational prayers, has a congregation over 50 percent young people, who feel part of the Mosque establishment these days.
Contrary to Islam, Christianity showed the oldest age profile among the leading religious groups in 2011. And while the main reason for Christians being economically inactive was retirement, for Muslims economic inactivity was mainly because they were students, or because they were looking after the home or family.
Some argue that unlike Islam, which gives security to people, Christianity isnt helping young Brits to survive on the violent streets of England.
In fact, the UK had a greater number of murders in 2007 than any other EU country, making it the most violent place in Europe, according to Eurostat. By comparison, there were over 2,000 crimes recorded per 100,000 of population in the UK, and 466 violent crimes per 100,000 in America.
Latest figures from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimate that in the year ending March 2013 there were 8.6 million crimes in England and Wales.
The passivity that Christianity promotes is perceived as alien and disconnected to Black youths growing up in often violent and challenging urban environments in Britain today, the former chairman of Brixton Mosque, Abdul Haqq Baker, wrote in the Guardian. Turning the other cheek invites potential ridicule and abuse, whereas resilience, strength and self-dignity evokes respect and, in some cases, fear from unwanted attention, he said.
At some point in his life, Baker, raised as a Roman Catholic like his father, converted to Islam. Turning the other cheek has never been an option since then. The majority of young people he had interviewed converted from Christianity to Islam for similar reasons, he says.
With my newfound faith, there existed religious guidelines that provided spiritual and behavioral codes of conduct. Role models such as Malcolm X only helped to reinforce the perception that Islam enabled the empowerment of ones masculinity coupled with righteous and virtuous conduct as a strength, not a weakness, the founder of Street UK, Strategy to Reach Empower and Educate Teenagers program, explained.
According to academics, the total obedience that Islam demands from its followers has made it more appealing to worshippers and converts from other religions. Islam says no to drinking, smoking, gambling, pornography, helping those who truly follow its laws and values become complete and firm in their decisions.
Islam says NO this is no and full stop. And people find a sense of direction in it, because their religion of origin has lost that, and not because it never had it in the first instance, Dr. Sara Silvestri, Senior Lecturer at City University, told RT.
Demographers say that if current trends continue, Islam could eclipse Christianity as the dominant religion in the UK, in as little as a decade.
The 2011 census puts the Muslim population of the UK at around 5 percent, a total that has been boosted by around 600,000 Muslim immigrants who have arrived in the UK over the past decade. Nearly half of all Muslims were born in the UK.
US-based religious think tank the Pew Forum estimates that if the current trend continues, the Muslim population of the UK would swell to almost double within the next 20 years, totaling 5.5 million. So, by 2030 Britain may have more Muslims than Kuwait. (RT.com)
I was puzzled that the average age looked about 65 -- and I was living in Brighton, a young person's place
I then went to the Catholic Church (St. Mary Magdalen's) and it was packed, with young people -- the priest was an ex-Anglican (wonderful man). And that was true for the other Catholic Church in Kemp's town. And true for CCs in other parts of England and Scotland that I went to.
But most of those attending were either not-English or part-English. the part-Irish were the largest components but there were many Poles, Indians, spaniards etc.
The English-English I met were sadly ignorant of their religion -- they only went for weddings and funerals.
vpin —> that’s in the Anglophone world. Come to Poland and you’ll hear strident songs of old!
At some point in his life, Baker, raised as a Roman Catholic like his father, converted to Islam. Turning the other cheek has never been an option since then. The majority of young people he had interviewed converted from Christianity to Islam for similar reasons, he says.
With my newfound faith, there existed religious guidelines that provided spiritual and behavioral codes of conduct.
According to academics, the total obedience that Islam demands from its followers has made it more appealing to worshippers and converts from other religions. Islam says no to drinking, smoking, gambling, pornography, helping those who truly follow its laws and values become complete and firm in their decisions.
Islam says NO this is no and full stop. And people find a sense of direction in it, because their religion of origin has lost that, and not because it never had it in the first instance, Dr. Sara Silvestri, Senior Lecturer at City University, told RT.
One of the largest complaints made against the Catholic Church is the "rules", yet when it comes to Islam, the "rules" are viewed as reason to join?!
I think the appeal of Islam has more in common with the appeal of football hooliganism. It’s a license to abuse others. Yes, it has “strict rules,” but they exist mostly to give the stronger a “justification” to abuse the weaker.
Daniel Greenfield (Sultan Knish) is right: it’s just a gang.
Watching a cycling race on TV yesterday, I think it was in Belgium. They showed a huge mega mosk on the side as the riders went by. Danged thing was a big as Cowboys stadium.
Were there any muslims competing in the race? In fact, I don't recall any cycling races in the middle east, do you? With the spread of islam through western culture, what impact will it have on such sporting events?
That's an excellent observation. IOW, a sordid reason to convert.
No doubt there are some idealists, but when they find that the “NO - FULL STOP” rules are more like “as long as you don’t get caught by someone with more power,” then what? And abuse of women is 100% within the “strict rules.”
That alone may be incentive for some men. What I fail to understand, though, is the naivete shown by western nations towards allowing this infiltration of extremists, under the guise of religious rights. From construction of a mosque near the site of the twin towers to the nuns turning over a catholic school ... yet they have no qualms about berating christians.
A lot of Christianity right now comes across as very girly. I used to wonder how the dignified, grown-up men in our nondenom congregation could STAND to worship to the banal, happy-clappy, soft rock music.
Many of the churches have that same soft-masculine, feel-good, approach that we see in society at large. Whatever happened to Manly Men? Did Jesus really condemn that? No, it’s Feminism, insinuating its threads. Whatever happened to the Church Militant here on Earth? ‘Oh, that’s too mean. God is love.’ Whatever happened to the stalwart hymns - Onward Christian Soldiers, Faith of Our Fathers? Why aren’t the Crusades taught as the Crusaders saw them?
Well, God is love alright, but He is also fierce, and until Christianity is again taught in its fullness, it will not attract those who only hear ‘turn the other cheek.’
No. I don’t know of any muslins in the pro cycling teams. I am sure there probably is one. The Pro Cycling Tour does go to the Middle East very early in the spring, while it is still very cold in Europe and have races in Qatar, UAE, etc. They come back to Europe in about late March and April and start what they call the Spring Classics, which are ridden in cold, wet, sometimes snow, lots of times rain. But the early season starts with the Tour Down Under and then goes to the middle east. As for what the muzzie impact on the races will be, I think they, the muzzies as they take over, will allow the races to continue. Since they sponsor and bring the big teams and big name riders down to the middle east each spring, I would assume they like cycling and would allow it to continue in some form. I basically like cycling because at my age (over 60 okay!!), it is something I can still do with less pain than other sports. I have had five surgeries in the past six years, so rehabbing on the bike is helpful and better than say running. You can choose an easier gear to peddle and ride fairly smooth roads with no hills. We do have some nice hills here in east Alabama and North Georgia Mountains are nice to ride in.
Well there are some places around, mostly small churches with conservative tradition who do place reverence about feelings. You just have to look hard for it!
I really don’t know I hearing there small evangical Christian churches open up in the UK all the time
Thanks to TBN and Daystar
Hmm let’s see. Inundate the country with unbridled immigration, browbeat whites, Christianity and Western Civilization. Why would there possibly any concern over defecting Christians?
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