“Because in the same way that jihadist militant groups take advantage of the ungoverned and bombed out spaces of cities and towns wracked by civil war, so they smell opportunity in what they see as societies whose values and core unifying beliefs have been hollowed-out or are contested.”

Britain’s increasing secularism is driving young Muslim men into the arms of the Islamic State, a conservative Christian cabinet minister has claimed.

The Guardian reports Welsh Secretary Stephen Crabb, described as a “committed Christian” who voted against same-sex marriage in Britain, said in a speech to the Conservative Christian Fellowship that the country’s continued drift away from religion in society leaves young men – in particular young Muslim men – feeling disconnected and marginalized.

The Conservative Christian Fellowship (CCF) is made up of citizens, conservative members of Parliament, attorneys and others leaders who desire to be “salt and light” in British politics.

Crabb’s comments come the day after the Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life said schools should move toward a more “diverse” approach which sees religion through the lens of modern secularism. Times set aside for worship in schools should be repealed in favor of “inclusive times for reflection,” the report from the commission said.

Crabb said during the annual Wilberforce Address to the CCF that British society’s strongest weapon against extremist ideologies like those promoted by the Islamic State “will be our clarity and strength of purpose when it comes to our own values, our own beliefs.”

“Because in the same way that jihadist militant groups take advantage of the ungoverned and bombed out spaces of cities and towns wracked by civil war, so they smell opportunity in what they see as societies whose values and core unifying beliefs have been hollowed-out or are contested. Hence one of the key objectives of their terror attacks in Europe is of course to sow those seeds of social, cultural and religious division,” Crabb said.

“Any failure on our part to articulate clearly our core values, or any lack of willingness in defending them in a muscular and committed way within our own shores, is proof, so they believe, of our decadence and the superiority of their twisted ideology and inevitability of their ultimate victory – in this life or whatever they consider comes next.”

Crabb said every month at least 180 Christians are killed around the world for their faith in Jesus Christ, but he said Christians in Britain are not facing this type of hard persecution. As a result, he said, Christians shouldn’t feel intimidated about sharing their core beliefs in culture. Most, however, are not doing this because of a sort of soft persecution or a “creeping intolerance towards Christianity, and towards religion more generally, which we should be deeply concerned about.”

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