RE: UK - Christianity declining, Atheism rising, but so is Islam...
June 10, 2015 at 11:50 am
(This post was last modified: June 10, 2015 at 11:56 am by Regina.)
I think the figures for Islam growing are blown out of proportion
Firstly, people who leave Islam or dissent from Islam are heavily stigmatised within their communities. Considering this, surely there must be a lot of Muslims who want to leave the religion but actually can't? If you take into consideration the amount of Muslims who are Muslim in name-only, but don't practice, I think the figures would be much smaller. There are quite a lot of Muslims my age who aren't really that into it, who "break the rules" or want a secular form of the religion.
The figures for Christianity are also trumped up too. nobody my age (early 20s) in the UK regularly goes to church, literally nobody, I don't know anyone my age who seriously practices Christianity anymore. Because they were raised Christian though, they'll still identify as Christian, even though nothing about their lifestyle is in accordance with the faith. The same is true for a lot of young Muslims too, even if they are still practicing the religion it may only be because of pressure from their families. One of my friends was raised Muslim and is a gay atheist, but he won't dare tell his family that.
I feel like "irreligious" best describes these kind of people, they may still have a casual or questioning belief in God, or may not believe in him. They may not associate with the "atheist" label, because "atheist" is still quite a charged term that, to many people, has political themes. "Irreligious" better describes their passiveness. I think the figure for atheists is far higher and both religions lower.
Firstly, people who leave Islam or dissent from Islam are heavily stigmatised within their communities. Considering this, surely there must be a lot of Muslims who want to leave the religion but actually can't? If you take into consideration the amount of Muslims who are Muslim in name-only, but don't practice, I think the figures would be much smaller. There are quite a lot of Muslims my age who aren't really that into it, who "break the rules" or want a secular form of the religion.
The figures for Christianity are also trumped up too. nobody my age (early 20s) in the UK regularly goes to church, literally nobody, I don't know anyone my age who seriously practices Christianity anymore. Because they were raised Christian though, they'll still identify as Christian, even though nothing about their lifestyle is in accordance with the faith. The same is true for a lot of young Muslims too, even if they are still practicing the religion it may only be because of pressure from their families. One of my friends was raised Muslim and is a gay atheist, but he won't dare tell his family that.
I feel like "irreligious" best describes these kind of people, they may still have a casual or questioning belief in God, or may not believe in him. They may not associate with the "atheist" label, because "atheist" is still quite a charged term that, to many people, has political themes. "Irreligious" better describes their passiveness. I think the figure for atheists is far higher and both religions lower.
"Adulthood is like looking both ways before you cross the road, and then getting hit by an airplane" - sarcasm_only
"Ironically like the nativist far-Right, which despises multiculturalism, but benefits from its ideas of difference to scapegoat the other and to promote its own white identity politics; these postmodernists, leftists, feminists and liberals also use multiculturalism, to side with the oppressor, by demanding respect and tolerance for oppression characterised as 'difference', no matter how intolerable." - Maryam Namazie
"Ironically like the nativist far-Right, which despises multiculturalism, but benefits from its ideas of difference to scapegoat the other and to promote its own white identity politics; these postmodernists, leftists, feminists and liberals also use multiculturalism, to side with the oppressor, by demanding respect and tolerance for oppression characterised as 'difference', no matter how intolerable." - Maryam Namazie
