www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall In ten years, Islam may become dominant religion in UK

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/70263.htm

ISLAM IS ACTIVELY FORCING OUT CHRISTIANITY IN THE UK
London, April 25, 2014

Islam is rapidly forcing out Christianity in the UK, reports Sedmitza.ru. As Christian churches in the United Kingdom are quickly losing parishioners, the Muslim community is growing with unprecedented speed. And though the society sometimes sees a threat in Islam, British Muslims lay claim to an active role in the country's life. Analysis of results of the population census has shown that Islam may become the dominant religion in the country as early as in ten years.

Over the last decade the number of British Muslims has doubled, and the name "Muhammad" has become the most popular name in London. The average age of a British Muslim is about 26 years old. The Muslim population in the UK is extremely young; it is full of energy, life and dynamics. Great Britain is an innovator in many areas. It will become the first non-Muslim country to introduce financial bonds, available for purchase by Muslim investors.

The English Law Society has recently issued a manual on will making according to sharia laws since there is a great demand for such documents. A new analysis of the latest census, carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), has shown that the Church of England is losing its importance half as fast again as it was supposed earlier. Increase of the average age of parishioners means that the official religion of Great Britain has lost over four million of its followers since 2001. "The decline that churches in Great Britain have been experiencing for a long time, has now apparently reached its critical point. 95% of the people do not go to the church on Sundays. Christian services are attended by a minority of the population," comments the chief executive of the British Humanist Association Andrew Copson. These figures have prompted the British prime-minister David Cameron to attempt to support the fundamentals of the Church of England institution. He has called upon Christians to be more ardent in preaching their faith and noted "the healing power of the Church".

There is a tradition among Christian communities all over Great Britain to perform a "Passion Play" on Great Friday before Easter. Suffering (passions) and death of Christ in the crucifixion are glorified in this play. One of such performances took place on the Trafalgar Square in London this year, but in Oxford the performance was cancelled: the official responsible for considering applications thought that the "Passion Play" was an erotic performance. This once again proves that even individuals invested with power are not always aware of what Christians all over the world in fact celebrate.

Pravoslavie.ru 28 / 04 / 2014 SEE ALSO:

Source: http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/70263.htm
� Pravoslavie.Ru

Alice:

Christ is Risen!!

Are you surprised? I'm not. Christians have become ambivalent about what they believe and seem to be afraid of speaking, teaching, and living the demands of the Gospel IMHO. We don't seem to see the threat that Islam is because we've got that "cumbaya" attitude from the 1960s that seems to see everyone is "just like us" underneath it all. Just look at the failure to build a democratic society in Iraq or Afghanistan as a result of this short-sightedness.

We also seem to think we can be secular and be like veryone else all week and touch base with Faith on the weekends--those of us who still even bother. Attendance at so many houses of worship is so low that in many places it doesn't seem to be worth turning on the lights.

We seem IMHO to be similar to Russia at the turn of the last century. Officially we call ourselves Christians but really give only an arm's length relationship to what that has meant in the past, espcially in the age of the martyrs. Speaking of martyrs, the fact of our brethren being slaughtered in so many places today doesn't even draw a "ho-hum" from many. And most don't even get upset when a vocal minority can shut down Christmas displays and other public displays of our Faith.

Bob

Are there any statistics on these Muslim converts regarding mosque attendance and faithfulness to daily prayers? Or are ehse lukewarm Muslims just as they were lukewarm Christians?

Most likely the Muslims are the immigrants and the Brits just quit Christianity. The churches in Britain have become cultural museums.

BOB,

Truly He is Risen!

You make some very good points...unfortunately!

Regards,
Alice

Christ is Risen!

It has been said that "Islam is stuck in the seventh century".

It has endured because it has not fallen prey to revisionism, to various scholarly "cricism" of its sacred text, or to moral relativism.

The "isms" which have all but destroyed Western Christianinty seem to be absent from Islam.

A similar tone was taken towards Catholics in XIX Cent. US. Until recently Catholic worshippers outnumbered others in the UK, though Catholics were still a minority.
Who is to say that as time passes future Muslim populations would not be secularised as well, just as Catholics are in the US and the UK. -- intermarriage and the general slacking off. A steady arrival of Muslim newcomers would retard secularisation, however.
Western Christianity and Judaism were at the epicenter of modernity and thus have a self-critical mechanism, unlike Islam. Who is to say such a thing may not develop in the future, as Muslims acclimatise to Western living and scholarship. (Some corners of the Orthodox world in the West have trouble with this acclimatising as well, but some of that is often an affectation, as readers on this forum know.) As it is, many Muslims in the West are very bad Muslims, smoking and drinking alcohol and such.
What can Christians do but be more Christian. Arguing and the thing that passes for apologetics often do more harm than good.
I consider much of what is characterised as Islamic fundementalism a sign of Islam's weakness and fragility rather than its strength.
What would St. John the Russian do?

St John the Rusyn (Agios Ioannis O Rossos) would have done exactly as he did when he was alive and a captive of a Turkish family.

He would have lived a holy life to the point that those around him took notice of him and his religion and of his Saviour.

The family that once held St John captive later contributed to the building of the first church/shrine in his honour . . .

Alex

Nobody is forcing it out, I disagree with that part of the headline. It is being willingly given up, either through indifference or people stifling their own heritage in the name of multiculturalism.