Tim Dieppe
Tim Dieppe is head of public policy at Christian Concern.
In case you hadn’t noticed, we are in Ramadan now. The evidence is clear in certain parts of London where ubiquitous Islamic Relief banners and posters urge people to “Give Zakat”. Ramadan lights are on display in Piccadilly Circus and other parts of the West End. On Sunday an open Iftar was hosted in Windsor Castle’s State Apartments. The Prime Minister tweeted Ramadan Mubarak. You could be forgiven for thinking we live in an Islamic country.
Indeed, at an event in 2023, British Islamic scholar and jurist Haitham Al-Haddad, who is chair of the Fatwa Committee for the Islamic Council of Europe, said in a panel discussing “Muslims in the West” that the situation of Muslims living in the UK is a lot better than it was 20 years ago. He said:
Our brothers and sisters, if you go outside you think that you are in a second Afghanistan, but you are in Londonistan. So it is really amazing, overwhelming. Don’t ever, my brothers and sisters, look at yourselves as a subjugated minority. We are the leaders of humanity. We should look at ourselves as we have something to offer.
During Ramadan in particular it can feel like London has become Londonistan. It is certainly the case that Islam is growing in influence in what was once Great Britain.
Islam’s political influence
Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman didn’t hold back in a Telegraph article in February 2023:
The truth is that the Islamists, the extremists and the antisemites are in charge now. They have bullied the Labour Party, they have bullied our institutions, and now they have bullied our country into submission.
This is a crisis. And the fightback must start now, with urgency, if we are to preserve the liberties we cherish and the privileges this country affords us all. If we are to have any chance of saving our country from the mob.
She was commenting following security concerns in parliament which led the Speaker of the House of Commons to break with parliamentary convention amidst extraordinary scenes in parliament.
In 2021, Sir David Ames MP was stabbed to death by a Muslim who was unashamed of his Islamic motives in court. Ali Harbi Ali told the court:
If you encourage someone to an act of Jihad it is a good thing.
Harbi Ali also stated plainly: “I killed him in the cause of Muslims and for the sake of Allah.” Back in 2010, Stephen Timms MP was stabbed by a Muslim woman with Islamic motives. He was fortunate to survive the attack. Last year Mike Freer MP announced that he would step down as an MP at the next election because of serious threats to his personal safety. He mentioned attacks by Muslims against Crusades.
After the debates on Gaza in the House of Commons last year, journalist Dan Hodges said that an MP told him “he had weighed up his own physical safety when deciding how to vote”. How many other MPs did this? Islam is now influencing our democracy, but not with benign intentions or means.
Last year we saw for the first time a clear Islamic agenda openly influencing a UK General Election. A group calling itself The Muslim Vote (TMV) made 17 political demands and endorsed various candidates. Five independent candidates backed by TMV were elected as MPs. Overall TMV claimed that 50 candidates they had endorsed won seats in the general election and are now MPs. I expect to see a national Islamic political party by the next election. We already have one local council that is run by an Islamic political party. Tower Hamlets is controlled by Aspire, whose councillors are exclusively British Bangladeshi Muslim men. The party has no website and no publicly available constitution.
Labour politicians in particular, many of whom had their majorities slashed by TMV, are very aware of the Islamic vote. Timing her announcement to coincide with the start of Ramadan last week, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner MP launched a new working group tasked with defining “Anti-Muslim Hatred/Islamophobia”. Any such definition is likely to privilege Islam over all other religions in the UK by officially labelling criticism of Islam as Islamophobic and thus damaging free speech when it comes to Islam. As I have written elsewhere, there is no need for the government to define ‘Islamophobia’. The term ‘anti-Muslim’ is clear and sufficient.
The fastest growing religion in the UK
At the last census in 2021 there were 3.9 million Muslims in the UK, or 6.5 per cent of the population. This has risen quite rapidly from only 105,000 in 1960. The previous census in 2011 showed a Muslim population of 2.7 million. Islam was therefore the fastest growing religion in the UK over the 10-year period from 2011–2021, showing growth of some 44 per cent.
The average (median) age of Christians in England and Wales is 51-years-old. This compares to the average age of Muslims at 27, and the average age of the population as a whole at 40-years-old. Already in 2015 8.1 per cent of all school age children were Muslim. The name Muhammad, when allowing for spelling variants, has been the top boys name for babies in Britain every year since 2011.
The influence of Islam extends well beyond politics into finance, education, fashion, food and festivals. People have been arrested for criticising Islam and some have been convicted for such. I don’t think anyone insulting any other religion or religious leader has been arrested or imprisoned for a very long time. Islam is bold, confident and assertive. The trend so far in Britain has been to gradually concede cultural ground to Islam. As the influence of Christianity has declined, Islam has stepped in to fill the spiritual and moral vacuum. Britain is gradually becoming more Islamic year by year.
This poses a challenge. Islamic ethics and values are not what made Britain great. That was Christianity’s role. Britain has a choice. Do we bow to Allah and gradually allow Islam to gain more and more influence until we finally find ourselves living in an Islamic culture? Or do we find a way off this track to another destiny?
As a Christian I lament the decline of the influence of Christianity in Britain. I can only blame the church for its failure to boldly and unashamedly proclaim the truth of the gospel. There are signs that people are waking up to where we are heading. Even Richard Dawkins, perhaps the most famous atheist in the country, openly says he prefers the type of culture that comes from Christian values to one from Islamic values. Who would disagree? Many Muslims for a start. This poses the challenge. My view is that we can only really recover our belief in Christian values through belief in Christianity itself. We can follow the true religion, or a false one. At the moment we are moving towards a false one. I hope, for the good of the country, we change course.
This article was originally published by the Daily Sceptic.
