ABSTRACT
It is often assumed that recent decades have seen a general decline in the interest in religion in British society and a consequent reduction in the range and extent of religious activity. In fact, however, the period since the end of the Second World War has been marked by a significant expansion in the number and range of religious groups and movements actively present within British society. Thus, this period has seen the emergence not only of flourishing Muslim, Sikh and Hindu communities in Britain – alongside the longer-established Christian and Jewish groups – but also of a remarkably wide variety of New Religious Movements. Indeed, as a result of the coverage by the popular press of such groups from time to time – often in the form of highly sensational and hostile stories about new ‘cults’ and their alleged ‘brainwashing’ of Young converts – it is likely that most people will have heard of at least some of these new groups. The Unification Church (popularly known as the ‘Moonies’), Scientology, Rajneeshism, the Divine Light Mission, Transcendental Meditation (TM), and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (also known as the Hare Krishna Movement or ISKCON) are probably the most well known.
