The number of Muslim children in several British cities is fast eclipsing that of Christian children, according to birth rate statistics that reveal the country's significant demographic change.
The Daily Mail reports that the latest statistics, extracted from the 2011 Census, shows that of 278,623 young people in Britain's second largest city, Birmingham, 97,099 registered as Muslim compared to 93,828 as Christian.
Meanwhile in Bradford 52,135 children, forming 45 percent of the total, are Muslim, compared to 47,144 Christians. Leicester has 22,693 young Muslims compared to 18,190 Christian children.
The London borough of Tower Hamlets has the biggest difference, with 62 percent of children being raised Muslim. Christians in the borough are significantly outnumbered by 34,597 to just 8,995.
Sughra Ahmed, president of the Islamic Society of Britain, told the Daily Mail that those numbers are likely to grow.
'This is one of the most tolerant countries in the world," she said. "It will continue to be so, provided we all understand how that depends on respect for the beliefs of others too.'
However, according to overall figures, Christianity is still the most popular faith in every part of England and Wales, with a total of 27.9 million people describing themselves as Christian, compared to 1.8 million Muslims, who make up the second-largest faith.
Professor Ted Cantle, of the ICoCo Foundation, which promotes community cohesion, explained the growing demographic change:
'What we are seeing are several trends running together. There is a long-term decline in support for the established religions, notably Christianity; continuing immigration from the Asian sub-continent; and higher fertility among the Muslim population, which has a considerably lower age profile.
'Nothing surprises me about the pace of demographic change. What does surprise me is that the Government has no policy to combat segregation because it inevitably reduces understanding and tolerance on both sides of the divide.'
Islamic extremism is also on the rise in Great Britain; in June, Birmingham MP Khalid Mahmood revealed that at least 1,500 British nationals have been recruited by Muslim extremists to fight in Iraq and Syria alongside the ISIS terrorist group.
"I imagine 1,500 certainly would be the lower end. If you look across the whole of the country, there's been a number of people going across," he told Sky News.
"Originally you had the British Syrians settled here who wanted to go back and play a part, then you had the Kurdish community, then almost two years ago you had the young British Muslim community going across - so if you add all that up you've got serious figures that we need to look at."
Earlier this month, British politician and leader of the UK Independence Party Nigel Farage warned that Britain's embracing of Islam and rejection of traditional Christian values has led to the rising extremism within the country.
"A lot of this is our own fault," Farage told Fox News host Sean Hannity. "We've been too weak. My country is a Judeo-Christian country. So we've got to actually start standing up for our values."
"All that's going on in Iraq at the moment...our primary responsibility is to make sure it doesn't happen inside our countries...The level of people in schools and in prisons too and in all these public institutions where people are radicalised, we can do something about that."
