From: Ouko joachim omolo
Voices of Justice for Peace
Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2012
The bishops at the synod on the new evangelization were on Saturday evening stirred when a seven-minute YouTube video warning of the rise of Islam in Europe was shown to them- Muslim demographics in Europe.
The controversy started when Cardinal Peter Turkson, a Ghanaian who is based in the Vatican and is president of its Council for Justice and Peace, screened the controversial video during a free discussion period.
Though the meeting was planned to discuss ways of winning back lapsed Roman Catholics in developed countries, the clip brought Islam to the top of the agenda at the synod, attended by 262 bishops.
The clip, which has been viewed over 13 million times on YouTube since it was uploaded by an anonymous user in 2009, combines dramatic music with skewed population statistics to make claims about various European countries.
Among its false claims, the clip says “In just 39 years France will be an Islamic republic.”
Critics have pointed out that the fertility figures used in the video, which claim French women have an average of 1.8 children while French Muslim women have 8.1 children, cannot be genuine as France does not collect statistics by religion.
Although according to Father Thomas Rosica, the English-language briefing officer for the synod says the film is not professionally done, the film tries to show that in a very few years, Europe will be majority Muslim, as immigrant Muslim families have high birth rates and Europeans have falling fertility rates.
Vatican Radio described the video as a “fear-mongering presentation” complete with “scary music” and “stark white words on a black background.” The video shows churches transform into mosques as it forecasts majority-Muslim populations in the countries of Europe.
Although synod bishops continued to discuss the film on Monday, and why it was shown, they said the statistics cited in the video are faulty. The film has sparked debate on interfaith dialogue with Islam and what the biggest challenges are to the New Evangelization.
Stirred by the film, the European bishops’ conference are now planning to publish accurate statistics on birth rates and religious affiliation on the continent for synod participants. The bishops are claiming that 90 percent of European growth comes from Islamic immigration sounds very high.
Muslims in France for example, do not have 8.1 children per family, and it is very doubtful France will be Muslim 40 years from now. The clip claims that in Southern France, there are more mosques than churches, that 30 percent of children under 20 are Muslim, that in the larger cities, 45 percent of children under 20 are Muslim, and that by 2027 20 percent of the French will be Muslim.
Although the rate might have been exaggerated, it is true that in the urban centers, the proportion of Muslim youth is very high, going up to 40-50 percent. This is because Muslims mostly live in the urban centers.
While the in the last 30 years the clip claims that Muslim population in UK rose from 82,000 to 2.5 million, it further claims that in the Netherlands – 50 percent of all newborns are Muslim and by 2024 half the population will be Muslim.
The clip claims that also in Belgium 50 percent of newborns are Muslim- it goes on to say that 25 percent of the population are Muslim too. The clip then goes on to say that according to the Belgian government, a third of children born in the EU in 2025 will be Muslim and that according to the German government, Germany will be a Muslim state in 2050.
According to the clip the German government expects there to be 104 million Muslims in Europe within the next 20 years, whereas in Canada and the US, and discovers that Islam is an evangelizing religion.
It is claimed that Sunni Muslims will continue to make up an overwhelming majority of Muslims in 2030 (87- 90 percent). The portion of the world’s Muslims who are Shia may decline slightly, largely because of relatively low fertility in Iran, where more than a third of the world’s Shia Muslims live.
The Middle East-North Africa will continue to have the highest percentage of Muslim-majority countries. Of the 20 countries and territories in this region, all but Israel are projected to be at least 50 percent Muslim in 2030, and 17 are expected to have a population that is more than 75 percent Muslim in 2030, with Israel, Lebanon and Sudan (as currently demarcated) being the only exceptions.
Nearly a quarter (23.2 percent) of Israel’s population is expected to be Muslim in 2030, up from 17.7 percent in 2010 and 14.1 percent in 1990. During the past 20 years, the Muslim population in Israel has more than doubled, growing from 0.6 million in 1990 to 1.3 million in 2010. The Muslim population in Israel (including Jerusalem but not the West Bank and Gaza) is expected to reach 2.1 million by 2030.
Egypt, Algeria and Morocco currently have the largest Muslim populations (in absolute numbers) in the Middle East-North Africa. By 2030, however, Iraq is expected to have the second-largest Muslim population in the region — exceeded only by Egypt — largely because Iraq has a higher fertility rate than Algeria or Morocco.
The Muslim population in sub-Saharan Africa is projected to grow by nearly 60% in the next 20 years, from 242.5 million in 2010 to 385.9 million in 2030. Because the region’s non- Muslim population also is growing at a rapid pace, Muslims are expected to make up only a slightly larger share of the region’s population in 2030 (31.0 percent) than they do in 2010 (29.6 percent).
Various surveys give differing figures for the size of religious groups in Nigeria, which appears to have roughly equal numbers of Muslims and Christians in 2010. By 2030, Nigeria is expected to have a slight Muslim majority (51.5 percent).
In 2030, Muslims are projected to make up more than 10 percent of the total population in 10 European countries: Kosovo (93.5 percent), Albania (83.2 percent), Bosnia-Herzegovina (42.7 percent), Republic of Macedonia (40.3 percent), Montenegro (21.5 percent), Bulgaria (15.7 percent), Russia (14.4 percent), Georgia (11.5 percent), France (10.3 percent) and Belgium (10.2 percent).
Russia will continue to have the largest Muslim population (in absolute numbers) in Europe in 2030. Its Muslim population is expected to rise from 16.4 million in 2010 to 18.6 million in 2030. The growth rate for the Muslim population in Russia is projected to be 0.6 percent annually over the next two decades.
The number of Muslims in Canada is expected to nearly triple in the next 20 years, from about 940,000 in 2010 to nearly 2.7 million in 2030. Muslims are expected to make up 6.6 percent of Canada’s total population in 2030, up from 2.8 percent today. Argentina is expected to have the third-largest Muslim population in the Americas, after the U.S. and Canada. Argentina, with about 1 million Muslims in 2010, is now in second place, behind the U.S.
About two-thirds of the Muslims in the U.S. today (64.5 percent) are first-generation immigrants (foreign-born), while slightly more than a third (35.5 percent) were born in the U.S. By 2030, however, more than four-in-ten of the Muslims in the U.S. (44.9 percent) are expected to be native-born.
The top countries of origin for Muslim immigrants to the U.S. in 2009 were Pakistan and Bangladesh. They are expected to remain the top countries of origin for Muslim immigrants to the U.S. in 2030.
The clip has been shown at the time violent clashes erupted in Dar es Salaam’s Mbagala suburb when scores of Muslim youth stormed a police station and demanded that a 14-year-old boy accused of urinating on the Quran be handed over to them.
In the aftermath of the confrontation, at least five Christian churches were burnt, several car windows smashed and passersby injured as the angry mob moved from street to street at Mbagala Kizuiani protesting the desecration of the holy book.
The clip has been shown when Pope Benedict XVI had just offered prayers in Arabic the first time on Wednesday, October 10, in an effort to reach out Christians and Muslims in the Middle East.
The prayer according to the Vatican was made to show the pontiff’s concern for Christians in the Middle East and to remind both Muslims and Christians to work for peace in the region.
Pope Benedict angered Muslims worldwide in 2006 after quoting a 14th century Byzantine emperor that everything Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him) brought was evil and inhuman.
His lecture triggered criticisms from Muslim countries, scholars and intellectuals and strained ties between the Vatican and the Muslim world. The pontiff has repeatedly said the words did not reflect his personal views but stopped short of a clear apology to Muslims.
He also drew the ire of religious leaders after issuing a document titled “Dominus Jesus,” which clearly stated that Christianity was the only true path to salvation.
It is at the same time a senior Vatican cardinal has thanked Muslims for bringing religion back into the public life in Europe, stressing the need for dialogue between followers of different faiths.
Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Catholic Church’s department for interfaith contacts, said in a speech printed in the Vatican’s official daily L’Osservatore Romano, reported Reuters on Friday, November 28. “Muslims, having become a significant minority in Europe, were the ones who demanded space for God in society.”
It is also at the time Archbishop Joseph Absi, Titular Archbishop of Tarsus of the Greek-Melkites in Syria has called on participants of the Synod of Bishops to avoid tensions and misunderstandings with the Muslim world.
The Zenit quoted the Syrian prelate to have said that through the eyes of Muslims, the de-Christianization of Europe has not affected their view of a distinction between Christians and Westerners.
“The Muslims do not see the difference between Christians and Westerners, because they do not distinguish, themselves, between what is religious and what is political and social,” he said.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
People for Peace in Africa
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Peaceful world is the greatest heritage
That this generation can give to the generations
To come- All of us have a role.