By Rajiv Shah

Scanning through news items on the Google News app on my mobile — which is what I do almost every morning — I came across a story published on India.com, which I found somewhat misleading. The headline said, “Muslim population drops significantly in THIS country as over 25% Muslims leave Islam due to…, the country is…”

 I opened the link and found that not only was the percentage mentioned in the story — 25% — for the country in question, the United States, wrong (it’s actually 23%), but it also significantly underplays the percentage of those leaving Hinduism in the U.S. (18%). I can’t say what the reason could be, except that perhaps the portal doesn’t want to be called out as anti-Hindu.

However, I decided to look into the source of the story, which happened to be one of the most prestigious research organizations, the U.S.-based Pew Research Center: Its 62-page report, based on a survey of 80,000 people in 36 countries, said, “In many countries around the world, a fifth or more of all adults have left the religious group in which they were raised,” pointing out, “Christianity and Buddhism have experienced especially large losses from this ‘religious switching.'”

The Pew report uses the term religious switching instead of “conversion” because, it says, “The changes can take place in many directions — including from having been raised in a religion to being unaffiliated.” It underlines, “Most of the movement has been into the category we call religiously unaffiliated, which consists of people who answer a question about their religion by saying they are atheists, agnostics, or ‘nothing in particular.'”

I was immediately reminded of a blog I did in 2022 on visiting what is now called the biggest Swaminarayan temple in the world. Situated in New Jersey, I met one of its caretakers there, to whom I was introduced as a former Times of India political editor. He got immediately interested in me.

At that time, the temple was nearing completion. This gentleman told me about a “high-profile American visitor,” who asked him, given the lack of interest in religion in the U.S., what was the purpose of building such a huge temple? Wouldn’t it be a deserted place, say, after four decades? The caretaker contradicted this high-profile visitor and replied, “This temple will last for thousands of years…”

The high-profile visitor had reason to ask such a question. For, a quick search suggests that there has been a significant decline in the number of churches in the U.S. In 2023, approximately 4,000 churches permanently closed, “reflecting broader societal shifts and financial struggles”. And some estimates suggest that up to 100,000 churches may close in the coming years due to dwindling attendance and changing religious demographics, with many congregations struggling to maintain their physical spaces, leading to discussions about repurposing church buildings for community use. 

Now, let’s turn to the Pew report, which India.com quotes. The report says, “In some countries, changing religions is very rare. In India, Israel, Nigeria, and Thailand, 95% or more of adults say they still belong to the religious group in which they were raised.”

This story was originally published in counterview.net. Read the full story here.