Some rather astonishing religious news hit the headlines yesterday here in the UK and I want to
focus on how it affects Christians and Muslims here the BBC reported quote for the first time
fewer than half of people in England and Wales describe themselves as Christian the census
2021 has revealed the proportion of people who said they were Christian was 46.2 percent down
from 59.3 percent in the last census in 2011 that's 10 years ago in contrast the number
who said they had no religion increased to 37.2 percent of the population up from a
quarter and interestingly those identifying as Muslim Rose from 4.9 in 2011 to 6.5 last year
now the census is carried out every 10 years by the office for National statistics
Professor Linda Woodhead commented ticking no religion does not mean having no beliefs she
said and Linda is Professor of religious studies at King's College here in London
she said some will be atheists a lot would be agnostic they just say I don't really
know and some will be spiritual and be doing spiritual Things She Said Scotland's census
by the way was due to take place last year but was delayed by a year due to the covid pandemic
now in another report in the guardian we read the census revealed a 5.5 million
four in the number of people who describe themselves as Christian now that's a 17 full
and a 1.2 million rise in the number of people who say they follow Islam bringing the Muslim
population to 3.9 million now that's a 43 increase in the number of people who identify as Muslim
uh the guardian says it's the first time in a census of England and Wales that fewer than
half the population have described themselves as Christian so it's the first time in history that
uh less than half the population call themselves Christians it's a very significant watershed
moment so according to the new census to summarize there are nearly four million Muslims in England
and Wales and all this despite the negative media coverage of Islam in the popular press
Five Pillars the Muslim news site in the UK says and I quote that London
is the place London is the place with the highest concentration of Muslims
15 percent of malandanas describe themselves as Muslim up from 12.6 in 2021 that's just
last year from 12 to 15 this means that over 1.3 million Muslims are living in London alone
commenting on this uh latest Census Data the Muslim Council of Britain Secretary General Zara
Muhammad said and I quote while our nation has an increasingly aging population the contribution to
the workforce of a youthful Muslim population remains a strategic National Asset the last
decade has seen more second and third generation Muslims confident of our faith and place in
society contributing immensely to the economic recovery and vitality of our nation and quote
now why should this matter to The Wider Muslim population what relevance does Islam have well
I'd like to introduce you to a man called Henry stubb and I'm going to be reading uh from this
marvelous book called uh traveling home essays on Islam and Europe by Abdul Hakeem who teaches
uh Islam at the University of Cambridge and um in his book on page 85 he introduces us
to Henry's stub he was a physician a doctor to James the first James the first who died in 1625
was King of England and he famously of course produced the King James version of the Bible
that's why it's called the King James version of the Bible so Henry stubb was his uh his physician
and he wrote uh Stubbs wrote the first according to Tim winter here Abdul Hakim
Murad the first appreciative biography of the Prophet ever written by a Christian
and this indicates he writes the real convergence of which the real conversions which
his contemporaries noticed between Islam and a certain kind of puritanism puritanism was the the
kind of movement of the day of kind of Evangelical renewal in the church and um Henry Stubbs writes
the following and it's kind of the Old English but I'd like to share it with you he writes this
is the sum of muhammadan religion that's what he means by Islam on the one hand not clogging
men's Faith with the necessity of believing a number of obtrusive Notions which they cannot
comprehend and which are often contradictory to the dictates of reason and Common Sense nor on
the other hand loading them with the performance of many Troublesome expensive and superstitious
ceremonies yet in joining a Jew observance of religious worship as the surest method to keep
men in the bounds of their Duty both to God and man end quote now the uh this is taken from his
book Stubbs book which is amazingly entitled an account of the rise and progress of muhammadanism
and a Vindication of him and his religion from the culminaries of the Christians now comrie is
as a way of saying the malicious misrepresentation the lies of the Christians now he is a Christian
of course himself it's interesting the this idea of Christian lies what one perhaps can still find
this at Speaker's Corner where Islam is routinely misrepresented uh quite often maliciously by uh
the Christian missionaries there I don't mean to say that all missionaries are like that of course
so this is a fascinating uh insight into the earliest appreciation in England we have of
Islam from a very senior and distinguished scholar physician to the king himself I
wonder if he had conversations with King James about uh Islam who knows so this tells us that
he was aware stops US aware of the similarity between the beliefs of Islam and his own
Unitarian Christianity and he can be seen as part of a growing Tradition at this time
expressing a dissatisfaction with the intellectual inconsistencies of trinitarianism as he saw it and
he's seeking to discover the original Unitarian roots of the Christian tradition in the Middle
East and this is very interesting because he identifies Islam with this and of course
we can go back to Moses and then to Jesus and to Muhammad peace be upon them all all of them from
the Middle East from the same part of the world and so even this early on there was a awareness
in some courses in England or the authenticity and the truth of Islam so this is the relevance
really of Islam it's a calling back uh to the ab the faith of Moses Abraham Jesus and Muhammad of
course peace be upon them all I believe in one God a Unitarian Faith a god of Mercy a
God of Justice a god of love and so on and this is part of English History it's not alien to it
um and all of these religions as I say find their Roots the historical roots in the Middle East
so if we have accepted Christianity as part of our history in England then Islam is no less a
part of the historical uh Heritage as well so um there we are I just wanted to share with amazing
news Islam is the one religion uh major world religion in Britain that is Bucking the trend
and is increasing its adherence quite dramatically mainly of course through immigration but not just
through immigration also through uh conversion there are hundreds of thousands at least of
English people who have converted to Islam and there's a steady stream of people who
are converting to the faith particularly and interestingly amongst women who are attracted
to the values of the faith the Dignity of women of course is a key theme in Islam spoken of in
the Quran and in the death of the Prophet himself upon whom be peace and this attracts many women
um over against the materialism and the sexualization of gender and and their own
sex of course that they see in wider Society so um this census result is a very interesting news um
the the inexorable I think the inexual decline of Christianity in Britain and the rise of Islam and
other um spiritualities as well not just Islam but Islam is by far the most significant um increase
I think of all and uh and it remains it will in the future I think become the main um focus
of monotheistic energy in Britain as the other abrahamic faiths uh decline anyway till next time