Practicing Muslims in Great Britain could outnumber worshiping Anglicans by 2013, according to a new survey.
In 2000, there were about 620,000 practicing Muslims in Great Britain, and they are expected to reach 750,000 by 2005, according to a study by the Christian Research organization, reported the Daily Telegraph.
Should the current trend continue, the number of Muslim worshipers in England would reach 800,000 by 2013, the survey found.
Sunday churchgoing among members of the Church of England and other British Anglicans, including the Church in Wales and the Scottish Episcopal Church, is expected to fall to an estimated 953,000 in 2005, according to Associated Press.
Since the 1960s, the number of registered mosques in Britain rose from 10 to almost 700 and the Muslim population is at about 1.5 million, according to Crosswalk.com. But not all Muslims practice their faith assiduously. A survey of mosque attendance in 1985 found that about half of Muslims attend the mosque for festivals and one-third attended on a weekly basis.
Alex Smirnov is BCE’s research associate.
