Lausanne World Pulse – Muslim Growth in the United Kingdom and Worldwide
By Peter Brierley
Again, this average figure is about double the size of an average Christian church, but strict comparisons are not completely valid as there are more than forty-eight thousand churches in the UK, many of which are in rural areas drawing small congregations. The Muslim philosophy of location is much more akin to the Roman Catholic strategy of having relatively few churches or meeting places, and expecting each place to cater to many people. The Catholics have 4,700 churches in the UK with an average mass attendance of 360 people.
Muslims Worldwide
The number of Muslims, like the number of Christians, is growing worldwide. In 2006, there was an estimated 2.2 billion Christians and 1.3 billion Muslims, both figures including many nominal adherents. These are respectively thirty-three percent and twenty-one percent of the world’s population. More than half the people on planet earth are in one of these two major religions. However, the rate of increase of Muslims at 1.9% per annum is greater than the rate of increase of Christians at 1.3%, which in turn is greater than the rate of increase in the general population at 1.2%.
On the assumption that present trends continue, the number of Muslims is set to become more than the number of Christians, but not until well into the twenty-second century. It should, however, be noted that present trends very rarely continue into the future, and this is as true of the UK as it is of the world figures. Completely unknown factors can radically transform the numbers. Additionally, a number of Muslim lands are liable to environmental catastrophes such as tsunamis, earthquakes and rising sea levels.
Evangelical Growth
Christians worldwide (and in the UK also) divide into two broad groups: evangelicals and non-evangelicals. In both the Developing World and the Developed World, the proportion of evangelicals is increasing, although this is happening for different reasons. In the first, especially Africa, evangelicals are growing because of the number of conversions being seen. In the second, the proportion of evangelicals is growing because the number of non-evangelicals is decreasing faster than the number of evangelicals.2
This increasing evangelical growth, as a percentage of all Christians, is significant. It may be compared with the rate of increase of Muslims (taken as a percentage of non-Christians in the world), as given by David Barrett in the most recent edition of the World Christian Encyclopedia. They are plotted together in Figure 2 above. A small amount of Muslim growth will probably be from the Christian community, but this is discounted as being too few to show.
Why Is All this Important?
Space does not allow us to show the decreasing trends in the non-evangelicals nor the general population who are neither Christians nor Muslim. The only two growing religious movements at the beginning of the twenty-first century are the evangelicals and the Muslims. Their zeal is similar; their devotion is real. Clashes between the two groups have already been seen in places such as Indonesia, India, Nigeria and Pakistan. It is very likely such clashes will continue and even intensify.
How do we prepare Christian people for this challenge to basic religious ideology and how do we best enable people to follow examples such as Martin Luther who said, “Here I stand; I can do no other?” Christians are called by the Apostle Paul to stand for the faith, contesting for the truth seen in a risen and living Jesus Christ, in an uncompromising yet gracious manner both at national and local levels.
Endnotes
1. Holway, Jim. 1986. “Mosque attendance” in UK Christian Handbook, 1987/88 Edition. London: MARC Europe and Evangelical Alliance, 150.
2. For more details, see the article in Religious Trends, no. 5, 2005/2006, edited by Peter Brierley. London: Christian Research, 1, 5.
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Dr. Peter Brierley is the Senior Lausanne Associate for Church Research. He attended Lausanne I in 1974 and has been involved with the Lausanne movement since 1984. Formerly a government statistician, he is currently executive director of Christian Research, a UK charity which produces resource volumes like Religious Trends and the UK Christian Handbook. Brierley can be reached at [email protected]. |