The mosques are also army. Vulnerable believers are afraid to gather, but according to vice-president Saïd Bouharrou of the Council of Moroccan Mosques, there are also people who do not come because the prayer has to be five feet away from other believers. In their view, prayer is not valid in that way.
There are also concerns about finances. For example, some mosques have not yet opened at all, while the costs are continuing and the income from collections is lagging behind. That is also a problem that the mosques that are open encounter, now that it is quieter. Some of it is offset by Tikkie, among others, but not everything. Moroccan mosques do attract a new group: people with a Syrian background. They have no explanation for this.
The Central Jewish Consultation also sees that the elderly are staying away. The meetings are not full, but here too they see a new group of visitors. “Because we immediately organized additional online meetings, we notice that a new group of young people are looking for meaning and are now attending the physical meetings”, says chairman Eddo Verdoner.
Return
Religious scientist Joris Kregting thinks that the decline in the number of churchgoers due to the corona crisis will go even faster. Every year he charts how many people go to the Catholic Church in the Netherlands. That number falls by 5 to 10 percent every year.
Kregting expects that the number of visitors will decline, especially in the Catholic and Protestant churches. He expects this to be less of an issue in the small churches. These churches function much more as a social community than the large folk churches.
It is too early for the PKN and the Roman Catholic Church of the Netherlands to draw any conclusions. There are churches where the number of visitors, within the limits of the corona measures, is up to standard. It is expected that any vaccine will result in a group of religious returning. Moreover, there is the hope that the rest will still be able to find their way back to the church.
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