Revealed: Islam officially Manchester's fastest growing religion, expanding more than twice as fast as Christianity
Revealed: Islam officially Manchester's fastest growing religion, expanding more than twice as fast as Christianity
Exclusive by Marios Papaloizou
Islam is officially Manchester’s fastest growing religion and is expanding at more than double the rate of Christianity, MM can reveal.
University of Manchester data analysed by MM revealed that Islam is out-growing every other religion in the city.
According to the data 12.5% of those identifying themselves as Muslim in the 2011 census were aged between 0-4.
This is more than double the 5.6% of Christians aged 0-4 and significantly larger those of no religion at 6.8%
Ludi Simpson, Professor of population studies at the University of Manchester, said that while the stats do indicate a much faster growth they only tell part of the story.
“Immigrants tend to be young adults and have children in the few years after they come to Britain, but don’t get old enough to die at the same rate for many decades,” he told MM.
“Of course it might also be that some adults are happy to say their children are brought up as religion X, and others are not.
“In Northern Ireland most children are catholic or protestant whether they like it or not!”
Dr Hassan Alkatib director Manchester Islamic Centre told MM that Muslim’s tend to bring up children within the religion which can differ from modern European ways of bringing up kids.
“Islam does not allow people to have sex outside marriage,” he said.
“So people get married into the religion and then their children are brought up in it.
“The size of Muslim families in general is double that of the European family and we have waves of Muslim immigrants coming to the UK.”
This explanation was echoed by Professor Simpson: “Maybe Christian parents consider religion as something their children will choose later, while Muslim parents consider their religion as an identity of origin, that their children have without choice,” he said.
According to Dr Alkatib the prospects available to immigrants in Manchester mean that the trend of rapid growth for Islam will continue.
“Islam has a positive message and I think there is a duty on Muslims to promote the message which helps the religion to grow,” he said.
“There are more job opportunities in Manchester just like in London which makes it an appealing place to go to.
“I think because of this the trend will continue.”
While Islam is rapidly growing the numbers of young Christians is, comparatively, rather small.
Reverend Jane Barraclough, minister of Cross Street Chapel, believes that this is due to the fast-pace of city life that has diminished the power of religion.
“Traditional ways of worshipping are not suited to modern life,” she said.
“We draw a lot of students and young post-graduates who are a mobile population; they don’t come to church every Sunday so it’s a different model.
“You can’t deny the reality, you have to deal with it and be imaginative and creative.”
However, while the growth of Islam is largely down to large-scale immigration, Reverend Andy Braunston of the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester believes that the growth of Islam is accentuated by people of western backgrounds converting to the religion.
“Sometimes it is people who were raised Christian that convert and sometimes from people with no real religious background,” he said.
“This isn't too surprising as there are many areas of agreement between the two faiths.
“Add to this the contemporary search for authentic spirituality which wants more than nominal religion and Islam provides that.
“Islam can affect how you dress, how you eat, how, and when you pray and gives a framework of certainty – for some – in a very uncertain world."
Image courtesy of Ranoush, with thanks
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Comments
"When forty years of age, Joseph married a woman called Melcha or Escha by some, Salome by others; they lived forty-nine years together and had six children, two daughters and four sons, the youngest of whom was James (the Less, "the Lord's brother"). A year after his wife's death, as the priests announced through Judea that they wished to find in the tribe of Juda a respectable man to espouse Mary, then twelve to fourteen years of age, Joseph, who was at the time ninety years old, went up to Jerusalem among the candidates; a miracle manifested the choice God had made of Joseph, and two years later the Annunciation took place."
2. First of all, it is important to know:Aisha's parents were the ones who married her to our Prophet, and that no Muslim or even pagan objected to the marriage because it was widely practiced. The reason no one objected was to the Prophet's marriage was People used to have very short life-spans in Arabia. They used to live between 40 to 60 years maximum. So it was only normal and natural for girls to be married off at ages 9 or 10 or similar.
3.Sayyidah Aisha was fit for the marriage, considering the puberty factor and physical bearing:She was a grown up girl.according to her own words,Sayyidah Aisha said: ‘When a girl is nine years old, she is a woman (meaning, she has attained puberty).’ (Tirmidhi, Hadith 1109)So this makes it absolutely clear that Sayyidah Aisha’s marriage was consummated at an age, she herself says was that of puberty. The general tone of her statement also conveys that it was normal in those times and in that environment.
About Sayyidah Aisha playing with dolls etc:
Another issue concerning this marriage is the fact of Sayyidah Aisha playing with dolls and other toys. The question raised is that playing with toys is an innocent child act, and it proves that she was a child when she was married to the Holy Prophet (PBUH). This much is true but the point missed is that Holy Prophet (PBUH) did have an understanding of this fact and he did not expect or force her to behave like his other wives e.g. like aged Sayyidah Sawda (RA). Infact we find that Holy Prophet (PBUH) gave her ample chances to fulfill her desire of playing with her friends and made her feel comfortable.Sayyidah Aisha narrates: ‘I used to play with the dolls in the presence of the Prophet, and my girl friends also used to play with me. When Allah's Apostle used to enter (my dwelling place) they used to hide themselves(thinking that playing with dolls may be considered forbidden due to resemblance with idols etc), but the Prophet would call them to join and play with me.’ (Bukhari, Hadith 5665)Sayyidah Aisha reported: ‘By Allah, I remember the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) standing on the door of my apartment screening me with his mantle enabling me to see the sport of the Abyssinians as they played with their daggers in the mosque of the Messenger of Allah (PBUH). He (the Holy Prophet) kept standing for my sake till I was satiated and then I went back; and thus you can well imagine how long a girl tender of age who is fond of sports (could have watched it).’ (Muslim, Hadith 1481)These narrations show that Holy Prophet (PBUH) did care for the natural urge of his young wife for amusement. And this is also a proof that her marriage at the age of nine did not bar her from the enjoyment craved for at that age.And this day too! We see so many grown up women having dolls and pillows and stuff like that! A normal girly thing.Wisdom behind this marriage:We know that Sayyidah Aisha (RA) was considered the most learned among the all the Companions of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). The following testifies to this.Abu Musa al-Ashari says: "Never had we (the companions) any difficulty for the solution of which we approached Aisha and did not get some useful information from her". (Tirmidhi, Hadith 3883. Albani classified it as Sahih)She narrated some 2210 Ahadith from the Prophet (PBUH) and this was possible only because she lived with him for nine years and that too at a young age when people have a sharp memory and great sense of observation. Then she lived for about 46 years after the death of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and continued to teach the people matters of religion especially those related to household affairs and marital life. No other wife of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) did the similar job that may be compared with her blessed endeavors. This shows the Divine Wisdom for this marriage.And the issue of Blood shed? You didn't read the biography well if you did. You should have read the complete biography from authentic sources not just few hadiths out of context. Most Battles were in self defense and justice was adequate when studied deeply the torture earlier Muslims went through in early days of rise of Islam.And, i guess you didn't read what happened at the Conquest of Mecca! He was in power at that time and he could have ordered to kill all the pagans especially those who tortured him! But he forgave all of them! saying "Today is a day of Mercy!"Word Islam means: Peace acquired by Submission to "GOD".It is a peaceful but not pacifist religion, it allows you to fight in self defense or to remove oppression.624 Narrated Anas: Allah's Apostle said, "Help your brother, whether he is an oppressor or he is an oppressed one. People asked, "O Allah's Apostle! It is all right to help him if he is oppressed, but how should we help him if he is an oppressor?" The Prophet said, "By preventing him from oppressing others." (Bukhari) Read the Quran again. And the Hadith with proper context and background. Consult scholars. May God guide everyone.Age of Mary (PBUH) at the time of marriage*pardon other typing mistakes
Everyone who makes this claim, cite the same New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia page. What they do not mention is that this page begins by warning readers, "the apocryphal literature is full of details, the non-admittance of these works into the Canon of the Sacred Books casts a strong suspicion upon their contents".
According to Wikipedia, apocrypha is defined as "spurious", "of questionable authenticity", and "Christian texts that are not canonical." Thus they can be considered as the Christian equivalent of da`if (weak) or maudu (fabricated) hadith.
Something that is non-canonical is not binding on a follower and can be ignored. There is no authoritative Christian text which state Mary's age. Claims about her age are, at best, educated guesses, but guesses none-the-less. Bukhari and Muslim, on the other hand, are canonical Islamic writings of the utmost religious authenticity, accepted by approximately 90 percent of the world's Muslims.
shut up you wrong person your Quran tells how it was a man paedophile child rapist marrying a 6 year old child mearly more than a toddler then has sex with her at 9 years of age a child, Joseph and nary were around the same age 30's don't try and tell us Christians that he was an old man they were Jewish hard working people not a 50's child molester he would be in prison now getting a long thick one off bubba who guns the wing.
For nitpickers, apologies for the spelling mistakes, but if I was writing a novel or blockbuster for you I may have cared a bit more.
Firstly, I am surprised that non-Muslims are so jealous and hurt that Islam is growing or growing fast - whatever the real trend is who really knows - academics, politicians and journalists always need to create "news" because real news is too inconvenient to talk about. In my mind it is all hype; for Muslims it is not a competition to win souls; the belief being that no matter what the argument is, if someone is not going to believe they are not going to believe - that is the will of God. So one can have a legion of co-religionists but do they really believe?
Most religionists dont care. What ever their faith they just want to notch up another soul or just win or have another follower. Aetheists are no different and they just hide behing false science, personalities and made up theories from their limited logic. I also believe that it is these aetheists that use religion to further their own geopolitical goals and then conveniently blame religion. Enough stories exist in history for this to be denied.
I think that the argument here is a red herring and one that is being used by certain insidious people in power (the ones with wierd hand shakes) to create a clash between normal hard workign tax-paying people so that the ruling class can continue to shaft the masses and steal their taxes. I mean, did you hear about Cameron who has stood by Maria Miller - the Cabinet Secretary who stole tax payers money for mortgages - selling her own house for close to 1.5 Million quid? But hey, like sheep the British public prefers to hate non-melatonin challenged people under the guise of other words (like child marriage - forgetting the prevalence of paedophilia in their own general culture and within the church) - words that have been made acceptable by their backward theiving politicians. Yeah that's right, the Government goes to war in foreign lands in illegal wars. Thats costs money so we get austerity cuts to free up more money for defence budgets and more illegal wars. Look at Syria; our Tory infested parliament is supporting terrorists in Syria who are murdering Christians and Muslims. Yet you sheep who criticize Islam find it convenient to overlook these policies as long as you big up your patriotic nature, driving around in your german or french made cars, watching US movies on your japanese TV's whilst eating a curry or chinese. Hyprocrisy doesnt quite make it into your vocabulary does it? You turn around and hypocritically scapegoat Europe and Muslims. Europe - the super-burearocratic red taped un-elected government that is pushed on Britain by Germany - the country you make rich and powerful by buying its cars....I can't go on. If you can't see it by now, then you never will. However I do want to comment on Religion, Islam Christianity, and Mumbo Jumbo Evolution - this last fantasy riddled story that says that somehow things just come together randomly to form life or anything else. I mean, imagine a car coming together from loose components to form a car by mere magic. That is evolution. The alternative is that everything needs a creator to be created.
So......
Muslims worship the One that Christians call God. In the original place where the Christian's religion started, they use the word Allah or its aramaic version. Only in European nations around the world do they use the word "God". Later after the invention of Christianity, some cave-dwelling fantasists from Europe, re-created their god in their own caucasian image and included a tale of 3 for one and one for 3 - a bit like the muskateers story. That was not helpful because now some European Christians believe that because their god is in their own image, they are all gods. Indeed the KKK and its varieties (eg BNP, EDL, UKIP etc) in other European nations around the world actually believe that their god is white and created them to defend the name of their white god. Other non-religious christians believe that a chimp was an ancestor....and through their theory of non-molecular non-evidence based "evolution" some current humans on this planet evolved. Please note that whilst there is substantial scientific evidence for molecular evolution there are only theories that "prove" non-molecular evolution. I guess in a debate between those who evolved (from whatever they evolved from) and those who were created, there are always going to be fireworks. The evolutionists believe they are superior to the creationists and the creationists know they are superior to the evoloutionists because, at least the creationists were still thinking like humans when the evolutionists were single celled organisms.
It is clear to see that for European UKIP voters who deny their European-ness, being melatonin-challenged equates to superiority whether they believe in one God, or 3 gods, or mumbojumbo evolution. It is this aspiration that makes them spew the venomous comments that can be seen above this very fair minded comment from myself.
If Europeans want to break themselves of the burden and chains of racism and false gods and mumbojumbo evolution I would reccomend them to read and listen to the works of a learned Muslim Scholar called Imran Hossein. Just sayin'
For those racists who like to hide behind respectable words and state that Islam has done this or that in history I have a question. Was it Islam or the Christian Europeans who killed nearly every race on this planet, evicted and possessed their countries - US, Austrailia, New Zealnd etc. not to mention the sore thumb in the middle east. Oh yeah, Christianity is all about turning the other cheek isn't it? Also please note that if you believe in God and submit to his Will then you are a Muslim and that is Islam. If you beleive in one for 3 or 3 for one (Muskateeranity) or mumbojumbo evolution magic then...well, get a grip on reality in this world and think about what happens after this reality.