Islam is the world’s fastest-growing religion, as you’ve surely heard. According to present trends, the Pew Research Center predicts that by the year 2050, there will be almost as many Muslims as there are Christians worldwide.
This suggests to some that Muslims are becoming more numerous and that Islam draws large crowds every year. When Christians come across such analyses, they often take it as fact and get demoralized—especially when we contrast it with data on nominal Christians who have given up their faith.
Many people believe that Islam is the dominant world religion and that Christianity is in decline. They also believe that Islam is more compelling and persuading than Christianity.
But given that the increase isn’t the result of more people converting to Islam, these statistics may be deceptive. Furthermore, the rising number of Muslims renunciating their faith is not reflected in these statistics.
The number of Muslims in Tasmania increased from 2,449 in 2016 to at least 3,000 now, according to Mostafa Seleem, the architect of Launceston’s Masjid Mosque.
813,392 Muslims were identified as living in Australia as a whole by the Bureau of Statistics in 2021.
The religion with the quickest growth rate is Islam. It makes sense because of globalization, immigration, and increased birth rates, as reported by Pew Research Centre.
Also read: Christians now a minority in England and Wales for first time
It’s interesting to note that a steady stream of Westerners are converting to Islam.
According to a 2023 research by Cambridge University Press, there has been an increase in interest in the West, with 15.8% of the 1,034 Australian Muslims questioned declaring themselves to be converts in 2020.
In addition, one in five of the 1,001 Muslims questioned in the United States were converts, with 57% of them having been Protestant or Orthodox Christians before.
Pew, on the other hand, also shows that around the same number of persons leave the faith as join it, indicating that conversion is not directly affecting the expansion of Islam.
Since his mosque opened last year, Dr. Seleem has assisted 10 northern Tasmanians—nine from traditional Western backgrounds—in converting to Islam.
He claimed there were at least 700 people living in the mosque.
“At least every three or four months we have someone of Caucasian background who’s lost in a way or are looking for some answers to very deep and specific questions,” Dr Seleem said.
But there are difficulties involved.
One newcomer to his community, according to Mr. Randall, was still getting used Muslim customs like five daily prayers and fasting throughout Ramadan.
“Diving into five times a day is probably a pretty huge undertaking for someone who’s coming from a pretty traditionally Western background,” he said
While Dr. Seleem acknowledged that daily prayer may seem like a burden to some, it actually promotes attention and a sense of spiritual connection for others.
“You get to let go of what’s on your mind, what’s occupying you,” he said.
“Every time you feel you’ve been overwhelmed with work or life, praying organises life, it organises work, it organises everything you do
“We talk about social, work and academic intelligence. Nobody ever tells me about spiritual intelligence, and that’s exactly what Islam does.”
