The number of Muslims in the Great Britain is around three million. The population of Great Britain as a whole is heading towards sixty-seven million people. Around five percent of the population is Muslim, therefore. The converts amongst them number no more than 0.15 percent of the population.
Over fifty percent of the population self-identify as Christian, while forty percent claim to be non-religious. In the slither between these two groups sit the minority religions: Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Hinduism, Buddhism and assorted others. The number of people that self-identify as Jewish in Britain is just 300,000!
Going on numbers alone, it should be self-evident that the Great Replacement narrative so popular across the rightwing of UK politics nowadays is a complete myth. It has absolutely no basis in fact whatsoever, and yet nobody seems willing to challenge assumptions that it is based on some sort of reality.
We need a replacement theory to account for what is happening here. The obvious theory is that tiny minorities — be they Muslims, Jews or others — are being scapegoated for the woes of society. The left-behind need someone to blame for the predicament they find themselves in, and it is easier to blame other disenfranchised and powerless groups than to seek redress from those who actually have the power to help them.
Last modified: 11 December 2019
