ATTENDANCE at Britain’s mosques has outstripped the number of regular worshippers in the Church of England for the first time.

Figures compiled from government and academic sources show that 930,000 Muslims attend a place of worship at least once a week, compared with 916,000 Anglicans.

Muslim leaders said it was a landmark in the rise of Islam in Britain and that Muslims must receive a share of the Church of England’s privileged status.

This weekend David Hope, the Archbishop of York, second in the church hierarchy, conceded defeat. His spokesman said: “The archbishop acknowledges the overtaking of Church of England numbers by the Muslim community. But he believes that many more people have an affinity to the church than the number recorded as having attended once on a Sunday.” According to the 2001 census, three-quarters of the British population regards itself as Christian.

The Muslim community does not keep registers of attendance in mosques. However, the 2001 census included a question about religious adherence.

Those results, released last year, have been supplemented by surveys to give the first reliable assessment of worshipping Muslims.

The census recorded 1.59m Muslims but academics believe the true figure is at least 1.8m. Ceri Peach, professor of social geography at Oxford University, said the census failed to record the balance because the question was voluntary.

Research by Tariq Modood, a professor of sociology at Bristol University, found that 62% of Muslims pray in places of worship. The total is about 930,000 if young children, most of whom do not worship in the mosque, are excluded. The figure underestimates the number of practising Muslims. Mohammed Anwar, professor of ethnic relations at the University of Warwick, said: “In addition to those who go to the mosque, many Muslims also pray at home.”

Immigration from Eastern Europe and conversions are adding to the number of Muslims. Inayat Bunglawala, of the Muslim Council of Great Britain, said that British converts to Islam totalled 20,000 in the past 10 years.

Muslim leaders now want to translate their numerical advantage into tangible gains. The Church of England commands 26 seats in the House of Lords but Lord Ahmed, a Labour peer, said 10 extra seats should be allocated to other religions.

Peter Brierley, executive director of the Christian Research Association, pointed out that the total number of Christian worshippers still far outstrips the number of Muslims. The Catholic church has about 1.5m British worshippers.

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