Middle East: Are people losing their religion? | Middle East| News and analysis of events in the Arab world | DW | 04.02.2021The increasing rejection of religion which we have seen in most of the predominantly former Christian Western industrialised world since the mid 20th century, is now also being seen in the predominantly Moslem parts of the Middle East according to a poll conducted by the Arab Barometer, a research group based in Princeton University and the University of Michigan. The poll was the subject of a recent article in The Economist.
Coincident with, or maybe because of, this loss of faith, there is a corresponding fall in the trust of political parties and religious leaders who, in some countries are one and the same.
Starting from a relatively high point, Tunisia, possibly the most westernised of North African countries, the percentage of non-believers increased during the period 2012-2014 to 2018-2019 from around 18% to a very impressive 26%! Libya, which was second to Tunisia in 2012-2014 at about 10% increased to about 22%. All the other countries in the survey recorded some increase in no-belief, albeit only marginally in the case of Lebanon and Iraq.
Perhaps strangely, Iraq, which recorded only marginal increase in disbelief saw the biggest decrease in trust for Islamic parties, although a footnote explains that the 2013 figure was for trust in the Muslim Brotherhood and the 2019 figure for trust in the Iraqi Islamic Party.
Similar to the decline in attendance at places of worship seen in Western states, there has been a decline in attendance as mosques in the Islamic countries surveyed. Unsurprisingly, Tunisia recorded the biggest fall from about 46% attending Mosque in 2012-2014 down to about 30% in 2018-2010. These figures are now below those recorded for regular church attendance by Christians in the USA.
Admittedly from a very small sample base, I can vouch for Kuwait where I have a nephew and niece, both brought up as Moslems, who are both now Atheists. This is far from unusual in their peer-group of modern, highly educated and well-travelled young adults. Both have married outside their faith and reject the fundamentalist parts of Islam completely.
And it seems that the Moslem world is not the only place to be losing faith at an accelerating rate. Mexico too has seen a big increase in 'Nones' as those who self-identify as having no religion are known, as a recent survey has revealed.
Census 2020: Fewer Mexicans declare themselves Catholic, those without religion increase.
In figures which should give American racist evangelicals mixed emotions this will have two consequences for the USA:
- Of the Christian churches in the USA, the only one which was holding its numbers was the Catholic Church as those leaving the faith were replaced by Catholic immigration from Latin America, chielfly Mexico, so a reduction in the proportion of 'new' Catholics coming in will reduce this replacement whilst adding to the number of 'Nones'.
- The thought of 'Godless' Mexicans coming into the USA will very likely send evangelical white supremacist Trumpanzees into an even greater frenzy of anti-Hispanic xenophobia.
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| Change during the period 2010-2020 Source[PDF] |
The biggest losers in this shift in religious opinion has been the Catholic faith, unsurprisingly give the recent problems the Catholic Church has faced, falling 5 percentage points from 82.7% to 77.2%, followed by the 'Other religions' (Judaism, Islam, Native and African religions and Spiritualism) which have collectively lost 2.2%. The main gainers have been Protestant/evangelical Christian which gained 3.7% and 'No religion' (as opposed to religious but unaffiliated - Nones) which increased to 8.1% from 4.7% in 2010! The 'Nones' rose from zero to 2.5%, giving a combined total for non-affiliation (Nones and Atheists) of 10.6%!
Mexico is of course not the only country where the Catholic Church is haemorrhaging members. There have been massive falls in Ireland, Spain, Germany and France in recent years. In the UK, as in the USA, Catholic numbers have only been maintained by immigration from Catholic countries, in the case of the UK, from Poland and other former Eastern Bloc countries. This is likely to be reversed now the UK has left the EU, possibly one of the very few good things to come out of Brexit - not the loss of the immigrants, but the religion they bring with them.
Hat-tip to Infidel753 for alerting me to these articles. If you don't already follow his blog, do so now!
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