Canadian Changing Religious Identities

We are witnessing a changing religious landscape. I came across a minor news item about Nova Scotia. It was by Vernon Ramesar in CBC News.

It covered a number of stories on the growth of religion in some sense in North America. There is an old tale about the Freemasons and others working for religious pluralism in order to grow tolerance and diversity of the religious landscape to prevent massive conflicts, while minor conflicts inflict less damage.

Maybe, there is some wisdom in that. A tolerant and amicable society built on plurality of superstition can seem better than one built on one with political and economic clout. Islam, as a self-identified faith, has grown by two times in 10 years. Not as fast, but the same for Sikhs and Hindus in the country.

Emad Aziz of the Islamic Association of Nova Scotia said, “We have to be very creative in how to make best use of the space we have today, but also think [about how to] provide for the needs of the attendees that are coming.”

It can create difficulties in sustainability and maintainability of such a community because of the growth and the increase in needs. Adaptation for any religious community is difficult. They opened the Pictou County Masjid in 2019 out of a deconsecrated Catholic church.

Churches are dying in Canadian society in general due to losing thousands and thousands of believers every year, and thousands and thousands of worshippers too. In this landscape, we are witnessing a loss…