The huge vacuum created by the growing secularisation of the UK in particular and the West in general cannot of course remain as is. It must be filled with something, and that is exactly what is happening with the rise of Islam. For much of its history the UK was the home of Christianity, and was a major source of Christian missionaries who were sent around the world.
But like most of the West, the UK has for quite some time now been becoming less and less Christian and more and more secular. But faith and spirituality and religion are still very important to most people, so instead of folks embracing the vacuous worldview of atheism and secularism, many are turning to what has now become the second largest religion in the UK: Islam.
As of 2011, the total Muslim population there had reached some 2.7 million, or 4.8 per cent of the total population. And it continues to rise. This is largely due to three factors: immigration; demographics (with Muslims having larger families than non-Muslims); and some folks in the UK converting to Islam.
Other figures can be mentioned. Back in 1960 there was one mosque in London. Today there are around 400 in the greater London area. Even more astounding, many of these mosques are former churches. Indeed, the church where William Carey the “father of modern missions” was sent to be a missionary in India some 220 years ago is now a mosque.
The facts and figures are also buttressed by anecdotal evidence. Consider two recent developments which speak to not only the rise of Islam in the UK, but the slow death of Christianity. The first concerns a church in Scotland which is sharing its worship services with Muslims.
This is not the first time such things have happened in the UK, but it is a disturbing development nonetheless. This is how one news item covers the story: “A church in Scotland opened its doors and welcomed hundreds of Muslims for Friday prayers, reported the BBC. Worshippers from the neighboring Syed Shah Mustafa Jame Masjid mosque share St. John’s Episcopal Church in Aberdeen with Christians up to five times a day.
“The church’s rector opened his doors to Muslims because many were forced to pray outside on the streets due to lack of space in the mosque. ‘It was a very cold day, like today, and when I walked past the mosque I saw dozens of male worshippers praying outside, on the streets, right near the church,’ Reverend Isaac Poobalan, who grew up in India surrounded by Islam, told the BBC. ‘Their hands and feet were bare and you could see their breath in the freezing cold. Jesus taught his disciples to love your neighbor as yourself and this is something I cannot just preach to my congregation, I had to put it into practice’.”
Now it is of course one thing if any individual Christian wants to look after anyone else, whether feeding them, giving them shelter, and so on. And to an extent churches can do this as well. But to turn a Christian church into some interfaith vehicle in which all religions are basically treated as equals is quite another.
Would the same church allow Satanists to come into their premises and do their thing when the building is not being used? Will it allow atheists to hold their conferences there? Will it open wide its doors to orgiastic sexual religious cults to frolic in the pews on the church’s off days?
The sad thing is, one suspects that they probably would. Forget the distinctiveness of the Christian faith. Forget the exclusive truth claims of Jesus Christ. Let’s all just be one big happy family by playing down any differences we might have, and by playing up the “let’s just all get along” mantra.
Sorry, but I am just not buying this. In Isaiah Yahweh spoke to the prophet saying, “I will not share my glory with another” (Is. 42:8 and 48:11). And when Paul walked through the multi-faith city of Athens, he did not applaud the “religious diversity” on display there, or seek to engage in interfaith dialogue.
Instead we read this: “While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols” (Acts 17:16). He certainly did not think to have a big ecumenical party in the interests of merely getting along. Nor did he endorse the sharing of competing religious worldviews as a way of “loving your neighbour”.
The second alarming indication of the rise of Islam comes from Ireland where plans are underway to construct one of the biggest mosques in all of Europe. Here is how the story has been reported: “The Emir of Qatar, who has long cultivated an image as a pro-Western reformist, has vowed to ‘spare no effort’ to spread Wahhabi Islam throughout Europe. Wahhabism — which not only discourages Muslim integration in the West but actively encourages jihad against non-Muslims — threatens to radicalize Muslim immigrants in Ireland.
“City planners in the Irish capital, Dublin, have given the go-ahead for the construction of a sprawling mega-mosque complex that will cater to Ireland’s burgeoning Muslim population. The massive €40 million ($50 million) ‘Islamic Cultural Center’ will be built on a six-acre site in Clongriffin, a new and as yet unfinished suburb at the northern edge of Dublin.”
Fears about this project are not misplaced: “But critics worry that Clongriffin is in danger of becoming an exclusively Islamic suburb on the outskirts of Dublin where Muslims will establish a parallel society rather than integrate. An Islamist website called ‘Islamic Vanguards: Spearheading Ireland’s Transition’ recently warned that Gannon’s greed would be Ireland’s undoing: ‘If there’s one thing the west yearns, it is money. For it has worshiped this false god without fail for as long as they have departed from the worship of the true God. And it is this weakness, nay addiction that will see what they hold precious being wrenched from their spindly hands. Already as we speak vast swathes of the London metropolis are in Muslim hands, Dublin is set to follow as the wealth that Allah has blessed His servants with is used to reclaim the land for His glory.’
“In any event, the Clongriffin Mosque will not be the only mega-mosque in town: the new mosque on the northern edge of Dublin will compete with another mega-mosque, located in Clonskeagh on the southern edge of Dublin. The mosque complex at Clonskeagh, which also goes by the name ‘Islamic Cultural Center,’ has been in operation since 1996. Its sprawling four-acre campus was financed by Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the deputy ruler of Dubai.”
So while Christian churches are disappearing and existing ones are declining in number, we see massive mosques being built in the same vicinities. This is not just a war over real estate, but a war of worldviews. Islam is of course an expansionist religion which aims to see every person fully submit to Allah. It brooks no rivals, and views Christianity as an apostate and false religion which cannot coexist with Islam.
At best, because Christians are “people of the book,” they can exist in the condition of dhimmitude, or second class citizens – if they are lucky. As we speak, where this policy is already in place, Christian churches and homes are being destroyed all around the Muslim world, from Indonesia to Egypt.
Europeans like Geert Wilders have sought to warn us of these matters, but most of the secular left elites in the West choose to ignore such warnings, while foolishly and gullibly teaming up with the Islamists. This is a recipe for disaster, and it is only a matter of time before we witness the complete disintegration of the Christian West – unless we wake up real quick and start doing something about it.
Thanks for the article Bill. It would be good to hear your thoughts regarding the sort of response a semi-secular, largely Christian, mulit-faith, partly atheist society might make to these sorts of large cultural changes. Given that our democracies do not wish to discriminate, and that many secular people may not want to return to, or reclaim their Christian heritage [the best option as I see it].
Is there a suggested calm, thoughtful, but deliberate path that is a sort of mid-way response – somewhere between (i) a Christian re-awakening, and
(ii) a total change of government policy, disallowing, or formally resisting, the strong expansionary movement of Islam, for the sake of preserving our present, more enjoyable, cultural dynamics?
Trevor Faggotter
Thanks Trevor
Actually if you don’t mind, such a big topic cannot easily be answered in a short comment. That is why an entire section of my website is devoted to this, complete with 39 articles:
The German Chancellor Angela Merkel obviously has some good leadership qualities – frank wisdom being one of them; and coupled with genuine concern for society, the future and freedom, she points to the need to revisit and adjust the weaknesses, of the sort of multi-culturalism that has been adopted. Thanks, Bill. Hope we can get a scurry on, here.
Trevor Faggotter
Sleep with the Devil, die with the Devil is all I can say.
Leigh Stebbins
People here in the UK have been too complacent and “tolerant” about these things. They’ve bought into the idea that Christians have to be kind, compassionate and tolerate everything and love everyone, therefore as soon as someone objects to the growth of Islam, they are rebuked by others for being “intolerant”.
We really can’t win, can we? Whichever way we go, we are criticized for being either intolerant, racist or uncaring. If only people could see the creeping dangers, they would be out on the streets today, rioting. But it’s as if they are asleep, believing that everything will be ok and that the country isn’t really being consumed by foreign culture as we “doom-mongers” are constantly pointing out.
I hope….just hope…that something really drastic will happen to shake people out of their stupidity, before it’s too late. And I think it’s coming, in the form of global financial meltdown; one only has to follow what’s happening in the EU to see what’s in store for many other countries.
Britain has been eaten from within for many years now. Us ordinary folk have shouted loudly to try and stop it, but it carries on regardless. Is this what God intends for the future of the UK? Or is it a wake-up call that, so far, many are not heeding? Christians are seen as spineless and weak-willed, a pushover for any alien religion or political regime…..and so far, that’s exactly what is happening.
Chris Dark, UK
Dear Bill, Many of my ancestors came from Britain. Some of them were devout Christians. It is obvious the Christians in Britain have to wake up to the facts about Islam, and work accordingly.
Regards, Franklin Wood
The church in the UK is reaping exactly what she’s sown!! Her wholesale acceptance of Darwinism (remember Darwin’s hypothesis was mostly embraced by the clergy when it first appeared after they’d already capitulated to Lyell’s geology. the majority resistance to Darwin’s ideas came from the academy), German higher criticism, and it’s daughter modernism, has resulted in her becoming an irrelevant footnote in UK history. When you reject God and His revealed word He knows when He is not wanted and has left the UK church to her own devices. And she hasn’t fared well without Him, looking at the state of the UK today!!
Joel van der Horst
Wake up UK! We are throwing everything away our forebears fought and died for. We are descending into barbarism. We are making up the truth as we go along. We persecute Christianity to extinction but when it is gone we will not know what has hit us if the severe regime of Islam rushes in to fill the void. Only today it is reported that a Saudi man convicted of paralysing his best friend in a knife attack is being threatened with having his spinal cord cut in a tit-for-tat punishment based on the strict Islamic law of an eye for an eye.Twenty eight people have been beheaded in Saudi Arabia this year.
In the UK, six children were burned to death in a house fire by their parents and an accomplice in a cynical plan. The two men had sex with the wife/mother before and after the fire.
In the UK political correctness brings us PSE areas, or Public Sex Environment areas where one can go, if so inclined, to indulge in “dogging”, watching and participating in sex with strangers, such designated areas policed with a light touch. When someone complained to the police about these repugnant activities, they were told to speak to the police Diversity Officer or LAGLO (Lesbian Gay Liaison Officer).
These are hideous pointers as to what is trending in the UK. There is a vacuum in political sphere guarded by the Left who will not tolerate anything that deviates from political correctness. There is a vacuum in our spiritual sphere, as we seem to be cut off from God since Adam was persuaded to reject the Tree of Life. We await the appointed time when God’s kingdom will be ready to come to Earth.
Rachel Smith, UK
Islam may well become to the remnants of Western Christendom what Assyria and Babylon proved to be to the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The last book of the Bible mentions a false prophet as the right-hand man of that eschatological antichrist, the Beast.
The outworking of Nietzsche’s philosophical revolt from Christianity goes beyond a Western embrace of the violence, sexual hedonism and intoxicated anarchy of the Bacchanalia of Dionysus. It includes an enthusiastic embrace of that “masculine principle” the will to power, a doctrine which is entirely in harmony with the ideals of jihad in classic Islam.
Islam is right in its rejection of Western culture’s retreat from family purity and sexual modesty. However, the classic Islamic tyranny of men over their and their neighbours’ mothers, wives, sisters and daughters is no answer to the suspect neo-liberal Sexual Rights agenda preached by Western advocates of sexual diversity.
John Wigg
JESUS won the victory over the devil & his cohorts at Calvary; Jesus is the power of God & the wisdom of God.
Holy Ghost was given to the disciples of Jesus to embolden them to be witness to the TRUTH = JESUS
Christians have got to start proclaiming the TRUTH – Islam is a lie from the pits of hell. It is a political ideology wrapped in religion!
The ENGLISH people need to stand up & proclaim the name of JESUS – they need to take a hold of the incredible CHRISTIAN heritage that they have.
One way to stop Islam continue it’s foothold in England is to BAN SHARIA Law & ban ISLAM – stop payments to Muslim immigrants.
Have a HUGE BLITZ on the TRUTH: Recapture the TV & Radio Stations & have 24/7 talk/programs about England’s Christian Heritage & Proclaim the Gospel.
Barb Hoc
Thanks for these well informed comments from you Bill, and also from the readers here. I feel a glimmer of hope after reading Tony Abbott’s speech at the Institute of Public Affairs 70th Birthday dinner (hosted by Andrew Bolt).
In part, he said:
“In the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve could do almost as they pleased, but freedom turned out to have its limits and its abuses, as this foundational story makes only too clear. Yet, without freedom, we can hardly be human; hardly worthy of creation in the image of God. ”
He concludes:
“Do unto others as you would have then do unto you” is the foundation of our justice. ” love your neighbour as you love yourself” is the foundation of our mercy. Faith has weakened, but not, I’m pleased to say, this highmindness which faith helped to spawn.,
So, ladies and gentlemen this is a special night. This is a night to renew our commitment, to renew our faith. In a hundred years time, all of us will be gone, but, please God, not the ideals and the great causes for which we stand. May it be said of us that we have passed the torch of freedom to our successors; which we do by supporting an organisation than is bigger than any of us and that can outlive all of us.”
I do hope this man is elected as our PM!
Thanks for the article Bill. It would be good to hear your thoughts regarding the sort of response a semi-secular, largely Christian, mulit-faith, partly atheist society might make to these sorts of large cultural changes. Given that our democracies do not wish to discriminate, and that many secular people may not want to return to, or reclaim their Christian heritage [the best option as I see it].
Is there a suggested calm, thoughtful, but deliberate path that is a sort of mid-way response – somewhere between (i) a Christian re-awakening, and
(ii) a total change of government policy, disallowing, or formally resisting, the strong expansionary movement of Islam, for the sake of preserving our present, more enjoyable, cultural dynamics?
Trevor Faggotter
Thanks Trevor
Actually if you don’t mind, such a big topic cannot easily be answered in a short comment. That is why an entire section of my website is devoted to this, complete with 39 articles:
https://billmuehlenberg.com/category/multiculturalism/
All those articles would be relevant to your queries. Here is just one of them: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2010/10/18/islam-and-the-failure-of-multiculturalism/
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
The German Chancellor Angela Merkel obviously has some good leadership qualities – frank wisdom being one of them; and coupled with genuine concern for society, the future and freedom, she points to the need to revisit and adjust the weaknesses, of the sort of multi-culturalism that has been adopted. Thanks, Bill. Hope we can get a scurry on, here.
Trevor Faggotter
Sleep with the Devil, die with the Devil is all I can say.
Leigh Stebbins
People here in the UK have been too complacent and “tolerant” about these things. They’ve bought into the idea that Christians have to be kind, compassionate and tolerate everything and love everyone, therefore as soon as someone objects to the growth of Islam, they are rebuked by others for being “intolerant”.
We really can’t win, can we? Whichever way we go, we are criticized for being either intolerant, racist or uncaring. If only people could see the creeping dangers, they would be out on the streets today, rioting. But it’s as if they are asleep, believing that everything will be ok and that the country isn’t really being consumed by foreign culture as we “doom-mongers” are constantly pointing out.
I hope….just hope…that something really drastic will happen to shake people out of their stupidity, before it’s too late. And I think it’s coming, in the form of global financial meltdown; one only has to follow what’s happening in the EU to see what’s in store for many other countries.
Britain has been eaten from within for many years now. Us ordinary folk have shouted loudly to try and stop it, but it carries on regardless. Is this what God intends for the future of the UK? Or is it a wake-up call that, so far, many are not heeding? Christians are seen as spineless and weak-willed, a pushover for any alien religion or political regime…..and so far, that’s exactly what is happening.
Chris Dark, UK
Dear Bill, Many of my ancestors came from Britain. Some of them were devout Christians. It is obvious the Christians in Britain have to wake up to the facts about Islam, and work accordingly.
Regards, Franklin Wood
The church in the UK is reaping exactly what she’s sown!! Her wholesale acceptance of Darwinism (remember Darwin’s hypothesis was mostly embraced by the clergy when it first appeared after they’d already capitulated to Lyell’s geology. the majority resistance to Darwin’s ideas came from the academy), German higher criticism, and it’s daughter modernism, has resulted in her becoming an irrelevant footnote in UK history. When you reject God and His revealed word He knows when He is not wanted and has left the UK church to her own devices. And she hasn’t fared well without Him, looking at the state of the UK today!!
Joel van der Horst
Wake up UK! We are throwing everything away our forebears fought and died for. We are descending into barbarism. We are making up the truth as we go along. We persecute Christianity to extinction but when it is gone we will not know what has hit us if the severe regime of Islam rushes in to fill the void. Only today it is reported that a Saudi man convicted of paralysing his best friend in a knife attack is being threatened with having his spinal cord cut in a tit-for-tat punishment based on the strict Islamic law of an eye for an eye.Twenty eight people have been beheaded in Saudi Arabia this year.
In the UK, six children were burned to death in a house fire by their parents and an accomplice in a cynical plan. The two men had sex with the wife/mother before and after the fire.
In the UK political correctness brings us PSE areas, or Public Sex Environment areas where one can go, if so inclined, to indulge in “dogging”, watching and participating in sex with strangers, such designated areas policed with a light touch. When someone complained to the police about these repugnant activities, they were told to speak to the police Diversity Officer or LAGLO (Lesbian Gay Liaison Officer).
These are hideous pointers as to what is trending in the UK. There is a vacuum in political sphere guarded by the Left who will not tolerate anything that deviates from political correctness. There is a vacuum in our spiritual sphere, as we seem to be cut off from God since Adam was persuaded to reject the Tree of Life. We await the appointed time when God’s kingdom will be ready to come to Earth.
Rachel Smith, UK
Islam may well become to the remnants of Western Christendom what Assyria and Babylon proved to be to the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The last book of the Bible mentions a false prophet as the right-hand man of that eschatological antichrist, the Beast.
The outworking of Nietzsche’s philosophical revolt from Christianity goes beyond a Western embrace of the violence, sexual hedonism and intoxicated anarchy of the Bacchanalia of Dionysus. It includes an enthusiastic embrace of that “masculine principle” the will to power, a doctrine which is entirely in harmony with the ideals of jihad in classic Islam.
Islam is right in its rejection of Western culture’s retreat from family purity and sexual modesty. However, the classic Islamic tyranny of men over their and their neighbours’ mothers, wives, sisters and daughters is no answer to the suspect neo-liberal Sexual Rights agenda preached by Western advocates of sexual diversity.
John Wigg
JESUS won the victory over the devil & his cohorts at Calvary; Jesus is the power of God & the wisdom of God.
Holy Ghost was given to the disciples of Jesus to embolden them to be witness to the TRUTH = JESUS
Christians have got to start proclaiming the TRUTH – Islam is a lie from the pits of hell. It is a political ideology wrapped in religion!
The ENGLISH people need to stand up & proclaim the name of JESUS – they need to take a hold of the incredible CHRISTIAN heritage that they have.
One way to stop Islam continue it’s foothold in England is to BAN SHARIA Law & ban ISLAM – stop payments to Muslim immigrants.
Have a HUGE BLITZ on the TRUTH: Recapture the TV & Radio Stations & have 24/7 talk/programs about England’s Christian Heritage & Proclaim the Gospel.
Barb Hoc
Thanks for these well informed comments from you Bill, and also from the readers here. I feel a glimmer of hope after reading Tony Abbott’s speech at the Institute of Public Affairs 70th Birthday dinner (hosted by Andrew Bolt).
In part, he said:
“In the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve could do almost as they pleased, but freedom turned out to have its limits and its abuses, as this foundational story makes only too clear. Yet, without freedom, we can hardly be human; hardly worthy of creation in the image of God. ”
He concludes:
“Do unto others as you would have then do unto you” is the foundation of our justice. ” love your neighbour as you love yourself” is the foundation of our mercy. Faith has weakened, but not, I’m pleased to say, this highmindness which faith helped to spawn.,
So, ladies and gentlemen this is a special night. This is a night to renew our commitment, to renew our faith. In a hundred years time, all of us will be gone, but, please God, not the ideals and the great causes for which we stand. May it be said of us that we have passed the torch of freedom to our successors; which we do by supporting an organisation than is bigger than any of us and that can outlive all of us.”
I do hope this man is elected as our PM!
Joan Davidson