Britain’s Active Muslim Council
 

The umbrella group representing the Muslim community in Britain is playing a very active role in public debates than the Archbishop of Canterbury, a new study has found.

“We have seen religions become more vocal in apparent reaction to their belief that religion is being sidelined in British life,” Hannah Stuart, the co-author of the study released by Henry Jackson Society think-tank, told The Sunday Telegraph on December 30.

Monitoring statements by religious groups and media coverage of religion in the past decade, the study found that the Muslim Council of Britain has a more prominent role in public debates than the Archbishop of Canterbury.
It found that the Muslim Council of Britain, which calls itself the representative body of British Muslims, was involved in 410 statements ahead of the Archbishop of Canterbury with 393.

Muslims accounted for 31 percent of public statements, the study, which will be published this week, revealed.

The percentage was far out of proportion to their representation in the population as a whole – just under 5 per cent – in 2011.

The report also found that the Roman Catholic Church had a more prominent role in public debate about religious issues than the Church of England.

It showed that while the Catholic Church focused heavily on pro-life issues and personal morality, statements made by the Archbishop of Canterbury were more likely to be about overseas aid, foreign policy and poverty.

The findings followed the release of the 2011 census which found that the proportion of Muslims rose from 3.0 percent to 4.8 percent, becoming the fastest growing faith in Britain.

British Muslims are estimated at 2.5 million.

Religious Role

The study, however, found a bigger involvement of Christians in public debates in the country.

“Even if religion has become less popular, that does not mean it has become increasingly silent,” Stuart said.

It found that Christians still dominated the debate overall, taking part in two thirds, 67 percent, of all religious statements.

There are more than 47,000 churches in Britain, and 42 million Britons, more than 70 percent of the population, consider themselves to be Christian.

The 2011 census showed a 13 percentage-point drop in people identifying themselves as Christian, from 72 to 59 percent.

In a study released in 2005, the British-based association Christian Research expected the number of Christians attending Sunday service to fall by two thirds over the next three decades.

The study, The Future of The Church, predicted that the total membership of all the Christian denominations to fall from 9.4 percent of the population to only five percent by 2040.

The study also expected that the poor attendance will force some 18,000 churches to close.
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