Religious Diversity: Elusive Dilemmas in the United Kingdom
Nomatter Sande 
Issue: Vol.11 No. 4 2025 Issue Article 3 pp.138 – 151
DOI : https://doi.org/10.38159/erats.20251143 | Published online 5th May, 2025.
© 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Liberal democratic nations like the United Kingdom are compelled to support religious diversity. Religion (in its myriad forms) is lived, experienced and imagined diversely in a multicultural context. Dominant and new unpopular religious and spiritual practises continue to grow and complicate the impact of religious diversity. Immigration is, in significant ways, one of the major factors enhancing internal and external pressures for the dilemma of religious diversity. As religions are polarised and fluid, religious actors, researchers, and policymakers problematise and even struggle to distinguish straightforwardly when religion is a resource or a liability. This paper examined what counts as religion and how the UK manages and regulates religious diversity. This paper used qualitative desktop research and a critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach. The finding is that the religious variety is influenced by immigration, secularisation, and fluctuating policies due to political changes. The paper concluded that religious diversity brings a more accommodating approach to understanding the dilemmas of religion, security and immigration. It further underscores the need for equitable policies that safeguard religious diversity while promoting sociall unity. This study recommends that there should be cooperation between governmental authorities and religious leaders, which is crucial to effectively tackle rising difficulties in religious governance. This study contributes to scholarship by improving an understanding of the equilibrium between religious liberty and security issues, the effects of political transitions on faith communities, and the significance of interfaith communication in promoting social cohesion and multicultural integration.
Keywords: Religious Diversity, Immigration, Security, United Kingdom.
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Nomatter Sande (PhD) is a Research Fellow at the Research Institute for Theology and Religion (RITR) South Africa and a Research Associate at the University of Glasgow. His interests include religion, migration, transnationalism, disability studies and gender.
Sande, Nomatter. “Religious Diversity: Elusive Dilemmas in the United Kingdom,” E-Journal of Religious and Theological Studies, 11 no.4 (2025): 138 – 151. https://doi.org/10.38159/erats.20251143
© 2025 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Journals. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
