Losing faith?

Recently, a friend of mine shared an article titled 'Are Arabs turning their backs on religion?'. After going through it, I couldn't help but draw a few general parallels that are telling of the entire Muslim geography as a whole.


In a world that registers change more rapidly than it ever did, nothing, not even faith can sustain without playing constant catch up. In the case of the Muslim community, if there is even one coherent enough to be labeled so, the catch up really hasn't happened. It's still struggling to find its feet let alone be stable enough to respond to emerging trends, crisis or opportunities. For me, that has played a critical part in the dissatisfaction of the youth from religion in general.


Capitalism is another reason I feel faith has taken the backseat. With a steady perpetuation of consumerism and people's lives revolving around material and in pursuit of maintaining or improving one's lifestyle, there's very little time to dedicate to or figure faith out. This newer form of religion is one where offices have become the temples, social status the new God, and money the source of value.


Islamophobia, additionally, has played its due share in shaming the younger generation of Muslims. It is better to dismiss a religion that has such a skewed global image than to find yourself defending or being put at a disadvantage. It has put the younger generation at risk of peer pressure and workplace discrimination.


Last but not least, I feel the older generation's rigidity in transferring their faith-based knowledge and vilification of the newer methods of study has made matters worse.


And although the article pointed out the more political reasons behind the change in attitudes towards religion, I feel there's a lack of psychological and social research that can truly validate the findings.