Christianity is in Decline
The total number of Christians fell by 5.5 million between 2011 and 2021. 46.2% of England and Wales now identify as Christian, down from 59.3% in 2011. This figure does not account for a complete ethnic breakdown, including White British people, so the native population identifying as Christian will be lower than that.
Many churches have closed, some left abandoned, and many others converted into mosques and Islamic centres. Church attendance across the country is also down overall, though there is something of a quiet but significant revival amongst 18 to 24-year-olds. 16% of them reported going to church on a monthly basis in 2024, up from just 4% in 2018, according to the Church Times.
There are many factors responsible for this decline, including an ageing population, the faith not being carried over from one generation to another, and the increasing sweep of secularisation. The No Religion camp accounts for at least 22.2 million people, according to the recent census. We also cannot ignore the rapid impact of what has now become the second-largest religion in Britain, Islam. Its growth has been steady for decades, with over 1,800 mosques now across Britain. 15% of the capital’s population now identify as Muslim, and one of the areas with the highest number of Muslims in the country, nearly 40%, is Tower Hamlets.
It is also worth noting the government recently announced record funding to protect mosques and synagogues. £40 million for mosques and Muslim schools, £28.4 million for Jewish faith sites and schools and only a paltry £5 million for other faith sites.
Tower Hamlets Still a “No-Go Zone”
I covered the UKIP protest in 2024 in a previous article on Outpost. The so-called Mass Deportations Tour had to be rerouted from the Whitechapel area due to fears of serious disorder, according to the Metropolitan Police. However, more recently, a far more benign ‘Walk with Jesus’ march was also planned by UKIP, but that too was blocked over fears of the exact same thing. The advert for the march simply stated: “Join our parade in Whitechapel worshipping Jesus Christ on 31 January, the month dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus.” Deputy Assistant Commissioner James Harman said that “we have encouraged UKIP to consider the very real likelihood that their presence in Whitechapel could lead to serious disruption or serious disorder and to consider an alternative proposal”.
Two banned marches, both for very similar reasons. If this was not a clear enough indication that Tower Hamlets is still effectively a no-go zone and has essentially become a Bangladeshi-Muslim colony, then a recent video that went viral in Whitechapel should leave very little doubt.
The short clip that was widely shared shows a group of predominantly young and angry Muslim men surrounding a British policewoman, Police Constable Moule, demanding that a Christian street preacher be removed, with many of them accusing the preacher of hate speech, tantamount to a hate crime. In the longer video posted by Auditing Britain on YouTube, it is revealed that the preacher was using a loudspeaker and caught the attention of many Muslims standing outside a nearby mosque before prayer, with one saying the preacher was giving false information about Islam and other things that were not true, according to him. The two men featured agreed to go and confront the preacher and “sort him out” after prayer.
At this point, after Friday morning worship, many other local Muslims descended on a corner of Whitechapel Road, where more information was revealed regarding the hateful words said not just by the preacher but, according to them, by other passers-by. Such complaints included describing the Kaaba, the most sacred site in Islam, as a box, and likening the Prophet Muhammad to a donkey. Another police officer was informed of this and assured them multiple times that no offence had been committed.
It is here that we encounter PC Moule again, who first speaks to the preacher, an American, who clarifies that the donkey accusation was not correct and that he was simply quoting from their own Hadith in the spirit of free inquiry. “Why do you come here and want us to worship a Jewish man?” one local says. Another tells the preacher that he is in a Muslim area and should not be spreading hatred.
Moule stands up to the growing crowd, who make similar heated accusations and demands. She reacts professionally throughout, calmly telling them that it is the preacher’s right under this Western notion of free speech to say what he likes in Whitechapel and that they should simply walk away if they do not like it. Whitechapel, of course, is named after the 14th-century parish church, St Mary Matfelon, built in 1329 and dedicated to St Mary herself, which stood for 670 years before it was destroyed in the Blitz.
The men are left standing confused, grimacing and becoming visibly annoyed and angry with the officer. They assert their claim to the area many times to her, with a revealing exchange in which one of them asks whether the preacher is even allowed to do what he is doing, to which she confirms that he is. The Muslim man goes on to say, “There is a difference between hate and freedom of speech. What he is doing is hate.” This is a mindset shared by all of them, who cannot seem to grasp what the officer is saying and has already said repeatedly.
Street evangelism, as we know, is perfectly legal and currently protected under the Human Rights Act 1998. Whitechapel Road, like all roads, is a public space, yet this was not evident to the wider Muslim community. Not only that, but there is an apparent double standard at play here, since it is considered perfectly acceptable to chant Allahu Akbar on the streets of England and acceptable for Muslim residents to hold open prayers in the middle of a public street in Whitechapel during the first UKIP protest, a strange sight, I am sure, for many British people passing through the area.
Why “British Values” Mean Nothing to Them
This revealing example, and many others like it, highlight a disconnect between those of foreign origin who come here and not only expect but demand that Britain emulate and honour their own culture and homegrown blasphemy laws. Bangladesh itself has blasphemy laws through the Penal Code of 1860, which includes maliciously outraging religious feelings, an offence that can lead to up to two years in prison.
Free speech, equality and religious toleration, the invention and backbone of most liberal democracies, are being gnawed away and consciously subverted by foreign interest groups who know the parlance and loopholes within our own laws and seek to assert their own dominance. The entitlement is evident, and as Thomas Sowell famously wrote, “When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination.” From their reactions, it is evident that they come from an alien culture, with tribal attitudes and sensibilities, despite living here. That is because they have essentially replicated their ancestral homeland in our own backyard, aided by what the author characterises as soft laws, a neutered culture and institutions, and immigration policies over the last three decades.
This is why a problematic, nebulous term like “British values” simply is not enough, as many not only do not subscribe to it, but do not even have a vague understanding of what it means. Values are too broad, easily ignored and can be moulded into whatever the prevailing attitude of the time is, such as multiculturalism and diversity, very recent phenomena. If the umbrella becomes too wide, those under it will eventually become overcrowded, including the British people.
That is why something as fixed as ancestry and parentage, something immutable, will always be stronger. This latest indictment of the current state of affairs, certainly not the last, will not change unless something fundamental and radical is proposed. Values do matter, of course, but where those values come from, and who tightly holds the reins over which ones should be discarded and which restored, will matter more going forward.
Values, as we know, are downstream from a people. It is ultimately our people, the British people, who should decide, no one else, and be unafraid to say so. It is our country, after all.