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The history of the Middle East offers a warning the West increasingly refuses to contemplate.

There’s a strange habit in Western politics of treating history as though it were something that happened to other people.

Consider what has happened across the Middle East and North Africa.

Where Christianity Once Dominated

Egypt was once predominantly Christian. Today, around 90 per cent of Egyptians are Muslim.

Syria was once home to some of the oldest and most important Christian communities in the world. Today, around 87 per cent of Syrians are Muslim.

Anatolia and Constantinople were once at the heart of the Christian Byzantine world. Today, around 99 per cent of Turkey’s population is officially classified as Muslim.

The kingdoms of Christian Nubia survived for centuries in what is now Sudan. Today, roughly nine in ten Sudanese are Muslim.

Iraq was once home to some of the world’s oldest Christian communities. Today, around 95 to 98 per cent of Iraqis are Muslim, with Christians making up roughly one per cent.

These are not arguments for pretending history was simple. It wasn’t.

Religious change happened over centuries through conquest, conversion, migration, demographic change, persecution and political upheaval.

But the broad historical fact remains: places that were once major centres of Christianity are now overwhelmingly Muslim.

If you assume nothing comparable can occur in the United Kingdom, the historical record suggests you are mistaken.

Britain’s Christian Heritage Is Fading

All of this now raises some uncomfortable questions for Britain…

England was once unmistakably a Christian country.

Its calendar was shaped by Christian festivals.

Its institutions were influenced by Christian teaching.

Its cathedrals dominate its cities.

Its monarch is crowned in a Christian ceremony.

Its national history is saturated with Christianity.

Yet today, Christianity is no longer the unquestioned cultural centre of English life.

Church attendance has collapsed.

Christian belief has receded.

Alternative religions have grown.

And an increasingly large proportion of the population identifies with no religion at all.

None of this means England is about to become a Muslim country. History doesn’t work like a spreadsheet.

But it does raise a question that would once have sounded absurd:

How long before we stop saying England is a Christian country and start saying England was once a Christian country?

And when it is said of England that it was once a Christian country, what will it be?

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Republished with thanks to The James Macpherson Report. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.