ISLAM’S BRITISH ASCENDANCY PROCEEDS APACE
The Telegraph ran an article this week notifying its readers that Ramadan lights are to be on display in London’s West End this Easter weekend, the second year that the Islamic holy month has been acknowledged in lights over some of the British capital’s busiest streets.
This came hot on the heels of viral images on social media, which showed Islamic messages –
hadith – on the departure board of one of Britain’s busiest train stations, London King’s Cross. Thousands of travellers were greeted throughout March by Islamic teachings as they undertook their daily commutes, and those who
were taking part in Ramadan were offered the additionally supportive: “If observing Ramadan and need support opening your fast please speak to Staff.”
Unfortunately for hadith appreciators, rail operator Network Rail was forced to end the Ramadan campaign after receiving heavy criticism from a variety of places. Humanists UK reportedly took issue with public venues “urging ‘sinners’ to repent” (a phrase used in one of the messages). Britain being the welcoming and inclusive place that it is, though, the vast majority of commentary took no issue with the prominent place afforded to Ramadan – it simply expressed confusion that other significant faith events weren’t being likewise commemorated.
The Islamic calendar is aligned with the moon, and so Ramadan occurs at a different time every year. Despite this, Ramadan, Easter and Lent have overlapped the past two years as well, in 2023 and 2022. The fact that the most important times of year for both Islam and Christianity are coinciding in recent years has served to illustrate Islam’s growing prominence in the UK well, as well as Christianity’s continued diminishment.
Islam’s place in British society is waxing, as has caught the attention of many in recent weeks, and Christianity’s is clearly waning. While Ramadan is firmly in the public eye, thanks in no small part to the self-confidence with which Islam’s adherents assert themselves, the last traces of Easter are being mopped up by a tired, old culture too weary to stand for, seemingly, anything.
For some time now, Easter eggs have been the sad, sole trace of Christianity in a near-completely secularised public square, and then only because of their name. However, even that is on the way out, with ‘gesture eggs’ becoming an increasingly common title in recent years.
To counterbalance what may sound to some like a load of alarmism, no doubt Christianity’s effects upon British culture continue to significantly outweigh those of Islam’s. There, as elsewhere, people who have long since stopped practicing their faith may well still identify as such, and even if they don’t, many of their humanistic views and sentiments are simply Christianity without God. It takes a long time for a culture to swap generators.
But it doesn’t take forever. The most recent census data for England and Wales (2021) revealed that for the first time in a census of those countries, less than half of the population described themselves as Christian – 46.2%, or 27.5 million people. This was a 13.1% decrease from 59.3%, or 33.3 million people, in 2011.
Meanwhile, there was a significant increase in the number of people identifying themselves as Muslim – 3.9 million, or 6.5% of the population in 2021. This was up from 2.7 million people, or 4.9% of the population in 2011. Clearly, while Islam is far away from being the numerically dominant religion in the UK, it doesn’t need to be in order to assert itself, as recent public displays have shown.
This is because a cultural space is opening up for Islam to expand into in the UK. Accompanying these census results was the finding that “no religion” was the second most common response in 2021, increasing by 12% to 37.2%, or 22.2 million people, from 25.2%, or 14.1 million people, in 2011.
What’s interesting, and relevant, about this is that “no religion” does not necessarily mean that a person doesn’t think that there’s a god or higher power. It simply means that a person is religiously unaffiliated. Indeed, polls in the US have revealed that the majority of people who describe themselves there as “no religion” believe in a god or a higher power.
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