Douglas Murray Douglas Murray

Is the startling rise in Muslim infants as positive as the Times suggests?

Today’s Times has a lovely example of positive spin.  The headline is: ‘Rise in Muslim birth rate as families ‘feel British’. The story which gives rise to this headline is that:

‘Almost a tenth of babies and toddlers in England and Wales are Muslim, a breakdown of census figures shows. 

‘The percentage of Muslims among the under-fives is almost twice as high as in the general population. In an indication of the extent to which birth rate is changing the UK’s religious demographic, fewer than one in 200 people over 85 is Muslim. 

‘One expert said it was foreseeable that Muslims who worshipped would outnumber practising Christians.’ 

Incidentally – I have previously written about this story here and here.

I suppose that The Times should be congratulated for reporting at all a fact which most of our media  refuse to touch.  The majority still go along with an ‘expert’ quoted in the Times story who warns that ‘the one-in-ten birthrate statistic could “generate alarmism”.’

There are certainly a lot of people who go along with that line of thinking. Something big may be happening, and people can see it is happening, but best not to mention it in case people are ‘alarmed’. Elsewhere in the piece there is an account from Batley in West Yorkshire of how the growing young Muslim population there has led to ‘pubs, hospitals, houses and public buildings’ being turned into ‘Muslim private schools, madrassas, mosques and a Sharia court to satisfy rising demand from families.’

But it is interesting that even with these and similar stories the Times decided that it has to give a happy ending positive headline spin – with Muslim families allegedly feeling increasingly British.

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