Muslims will overtake churchgoers in UK

Much has been writen recently about the rise of Muslim converts in the UK and the increase of Muslims worldwide.

Today Telegraph blog editor and specialist religious writer Damian Thompson says practising Muslims will very soon overtake weekly churchgoers in Britain.

He writes:

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revise predictions that practising Muslims will outnumber practising Christians by 2035, which were based on the outdated 2001 census figure of 1.65 million (which was too low even at the time).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. On a good Sunday. Include the Free Churches and independent evangelicals and we’re looking at, what, two and a half million?

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.