Thursday, January 27, 2011

The Future of the Global Muslim Population - DEMOGRAPHIC STUDY - JANUARY 27, 2011

At this website by various means we seek to defend life, to encourage Christian faith, to promote Catholic tradition, to edify Marriage in its link to the Creator, to encourage families and individuals, and to support missionary disciples of Jesus. G.S.

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JANUARY 27, 2011

The Future of the Global Muslim Population

www.pewforum.org/2011/01/27/the-future-of-the-global-muslim-population/

The world’s Muslim population is expected to increase by about 35% in the next 20 years, rising from 1.6 billion in 2010 to 2.2 billion by 2030, according to new population projections by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Globally, the Muslim population is forecast to grow at about twice the rate of the non-Muslim population over the next two decades – an average annual growth rate of 1.5% for Muslims, compared with 0.7% for non-Muslims. If current trends continue, Muslims will make up 26.4% of the world’s total projected population of 8.3 billion in 2030, up from 23.4% of the estimated 2010 world population of 6.9 billion.

While the global Muslim population is expected to grow at a faster rate than the non-Muslim population, the Muslim population nevertheless is expected to grow at a slower pace in the next two decades than it did in the previous two decades. From 1990 to 2010, the global Muslim population increased at an average annual rate of 2.2%, compared with the projected rate of 1.5% for the period from 2010 to 2030.

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These are among the key findings of a comprehensive report on the size, distribution and growth of the global Muslim population. The report by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life seeks to provide up-to-date estimates of the number of Muslims around the world in 2010 and to project the growth of the Muslim population from 2010 to 2030. The projections are based both on past demographic trends and on assumptions about how these trends will play out in future years. Making these projections inevitably entails a host of uncertainties, including political ones. Changes in the political climate in the United States or European nations, for example, could dramatically affect the patterns of Muslim migration.

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If current trends continue, however, 79 countries will have a million or more Muslim inhabitants in 2030, up from 72 countries today.1 A majority of the world’s Muslims (about 60%) will continue to live in the Asia-Pacific region, while about 20% will live in the Middle East and North Africa, as is the case today. But Pakistan is expected to surpass Indonesia as the country with the single largest Muslim population. The portion of the world’s Muslims living in sub-Saharan Africa is projected to rise; in 20 years, for example, more Muslims are likely to live in Nigeria than in Egypt. Muslims will remain relatively small minorities in Europe and the Americas, but they are expected to constitute a growing share of the total population in these regions.

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In the United States, for example, the population projections show the number of Muslims more than doubling over the next two decades, rising from 2.6 million in 2010 to 6.2 million in 2030, in large part because of immigration and higher-than-average fertility among Muslims. The Muslim share of the U.S. population (adults and children) is projected to grow from 0.8% in 2010 to 1.7% in 2030, making Muslims roughly as numerous as Jews or Episcopalians are in the United States today. Although several European countries will have substantially higher percentages of Muslims, the United States is projected to have a larger number of Muslims by 2030 than any European countries other than Russia and France. (See the Americas section for more details.)

In Europe as a whole, the Muslim share of the population is expected to grow by nearly one-third over the next 20 years, rising from 6% of the region’s inhabitants in 2010 to 8% in 2030. In absolute numbers, Europe’s Muslim population is projected to grow from 44.1 million in 2010 to 58.2 million in 2030. The greatest increases – driven primarily by continued migration – are likely to occur in Western and Northern Europe, where Muslims will be approaching double-digit percentages of the population in several countries. In the United Kingdom, for example, Muslims are expected to comprise 8.2% of the population in 2030, up from an estimated 4.6% today. In Austria, Muslims are projected to reach 9.3% of the population in 2030, up from 5.7% today; in Sweden, 9.9% (up from 4.9% today); in Belgium, 10.2% (up from 6% today); and in France, 10.3% (up from 7.5% today). (See the Europe section.)

Several factors account for the faster projected growth among Muslims than non-Muslims worldwide. Generally, Muslim populations tend to have higher fertility rates (more children per woman) than non-Muslim populations. In addition, a larger share of the Muslim population is in, or soon will enter, the prime reproductive years (ages 15-29). Also, improved health and economic conditions in Muslim-majority countries have led to greater-than-average declines in infant and child mortality rates, and life expectancy is rising even faster in Muslim-majority countries than in other less-developed countries. (See the section on Main Factors Driving Population Growth for more details. For a list of Muslim-majority countries and definitions for the terms less- and more-developed, see the section on Muslim- Majority Countries.)

Growing, But at a Slower Rate

The growth of the global Muslim population, however, should not obscure another important demographic trend: the rate of growth among Muslims has been slowing in recent decades and is likely to continue to decline over the next 20 years, as the graph below shows. From 1990 to 2000, the Muslim population grew at an average annual rate of 2.3%. The growth rate dipped to 2.1% from 2000 to 2010, and it is projected to drop to 1.7% from 2010 to 2020 and 1.4% from 2020 to 2030 (or 1.5% annually over the 20-year period from 2010 to 2030, as previously noted).

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The declining growth rate is due primarily to falling fertility rates in many Muslim-majority countries, including such populous nations as Indonesia and Bangladesh. Fertility is dropping as more women in these countries obtain a secondary education, living standards rise and people move from rural areas to cities and towns. (See the Related Factors section for more details.)

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The slowdown in Muslim population growth is most pronounced in the Asia- Pacific region, the Middle East-North Africa and Europe, and less sharp in sub-Saharan Africa. The only region where Muslim population growth is accelerating through 2020 is the Americas, largely because of immigration. (For details, see the charts on population growth in the sections of this report on Asia-Pacific, Middle-East-North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and the Americas.)

Falling birth rates eventually will lead to significant shifts in the age structure of Muslim populations. While the worldwide Muslim population today is relatively young, the so-called Muslim “youth bulge” – the high percentage of Muslims in their teens and 20s – peaked around the year 2000 and is now declining. (See the Age Structure section for more details.)

In 1990, more than two-thirds of the total population of Muslim-majority countries was under age 30. Today, people under 30 make up about 60% of the population of these countries, and by 2030 they are projected to fall to about 50%.

At the same time, many Muslim-majority countries will have aging populations; between 2010 and 2030, the share of people age 30 and older in these countries is expected to rise from 40% to 50%, and the share of people age 60 and older is expected nearly to double, from 7% to 12%.

Muslim-majority countries, however, are not the only ones with aging populations. As birth rates drop and people live longer all around the globe, the population of the entire world is aging. As a result, the global Muslim population will remain comparatively youthful for decades to come. The median age in Muslim-majority countries, for example, rose from 19 in 1990 to 24 in 2010 and is expected to climb to 30 by 2030. But it will still be lower than the median age in North America, Europe and other more-developed regions, which rose from 34 to 40 between 1990 and 2010 and is projected to be 44 in 2030. By that year, nearly three-in-ten of the world’s youth and young adults – 29.1% of people ages 15-29 – are projected to be Muslims, up from 25.8% in 2010 and 20.0% in 1990.

Other key findings of the study include:

Worldwide

Sunni Muslims will continue to make up an overwhelming majority of Muslims in 2030 (87- 90%). 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.
As of 2010, about three-quarters of the world’s Muslims (74.1%) live in the 49 countries in which Muslims make up a majority of the population. More than a fifth of all Muslims (23.3%) live in non-Muslim-majority countries in the developing world. About 3% of the world’s Muslims live in more-developed regions, such as Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
Fertility rates in Muslim-majority countries are closely related to women’s education levels. In the eight Muslim-majority countries where girls generally receive the fewest years of schooling, the average fertility rate (5.0 children per woman) is more than double the average rate (2.3 children per woman) in the nine Muslim-majority countries where girls generally receive the most years of schooling. One exception is the Palestinian territories, where the average fertility rate (4.5 children per woman) is relatively high even though a girl born there today can expect to receive 14 years of formal education.
Fewer than half (47.8%) of married women ages 15-49 in Muslim-majority countries use some form of birth control. By comparison, in non-Muslim-majority, less-developed countries nearly two-thirds (63.3%) of all married women in that age group use some form of birth control.

Asia-Pacific

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Nearly three-in-ten people living in the Asia-Pacific region in 2030 (27.3%) will be Muslim, up from about a quarter in 2010 (24.8%) and roughly a fifth in 1990 (21.6%).
Muslims make up only about 2% of the population in China, but because the country is so populous, its Muslim population is expected to be the 19th largest in the world in 2030.

Middle East-North Africa

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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% Muslim in 2030, and 17 are expected to have a population that is more than 75% Muslim in 2030, with Israel, Lebanon and Sudan (as currently demarcated) being the only exceptions.
Nearly a quarter (23.2%) of Israel’s population is expected to be Muslim in 2030, up from 17.7% in 2010 and 14.1% 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 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.

Sub-Saharan Africa

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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%) than they do in 2010 (29.6%).
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%).

Europe

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In 2030, Muslims are projected to make up more than 10% of the total population in 10 European countries: Kosovo (93.5%), Albania (83.2%), Bosnia-Herzegovina (42.7%), Republic of Macedonia (40.3%), Montenegro (21.5%), Bulgaria (15.7%), Russia (14.4%), Georgia (11.5%), France (10.3%) and Belgium (10.2%).
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% annually over the next two decades. By contrast, Russia’s non-Muslim population is expected to shrink by an average of 0.6% annually over the same period.
France had an expected net influx of 66,000 Muslim immigrants in 2010, primarily from North Africa. Muslims comprised an estimated two-thirds (68.5%) of all new immigrants to France in the past year. Spain was expected to see a net gain of 70,000 Muslim immigrants in 2010, but they account for a much smaller portion of all new immigrants to Spain (13.1%). The U.K.’s net inflow of Muslim immigrants in the past year (nearly 64,000) was forecast to be nearly as large as France’s. More than a quarter (28.1%) of all new immigrants to the U.K. in 2010 are estimated to be Muslim.

The Americas

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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% of Canada’s total population in 2030, up from 2.8% 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.
Children under age 15 make up a relatively small portion of the U.S. Muslim population today. Only 13.1% of Muslims are in the 0-14 age group. This reflects the fact that a large proportion of Muslims in the U.S. are newer immigrants who arrived as adults. But by 2030, many of these immigrants are expected to start families. If current trends continue, the number of U.S. Muslims under age 15 will more than triple, from fewer than 500,000 in 2010 to 1.8 million in2030. The number of Muslim children ages 0-4 living in the U.S. is expected to increase from fewer than 200,000 in 2010 to more than 650,000 in 2030.
About two-thirds of the Muslims in the U.S. today (64.5%) are first-generation immigrants (foreign-born), while slightly more than a third (35.5%) were born in the U.S. By 2030, however, more than four-in-ten of the Muslims in the U.S. (44.9%) 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.

About the Report

This report makes demographic projections. Projections are not the same as predictions. Rather, they are estimates built on current population data and assumptions about demographic trends; they are what will happen if the current data are accurate and the trends play out as expected. But many things – immigration laws, economic conditions, natural disasters, armed conflicts, scientific discoveries, social movements and political upheavals, to name just a few – can shift demographic trends in unforeseen ways, which is why this report adheres to a modest time frame, looking just 20 years down the road. Even so, there is no guarantee that Muslim populations will grow at precisely the rates anticipated in this report and not be affected by unforeseen events, such as political decisions on immigration quotas or national campaigns to encourage larger or smaller families.

The projections presented in this report are the medium figures in a range of three scenarios – high, medium and low – generated from models commonly used by demographers around the world to forecast changes in population size and composition. The models follow what is known as the cohort-component method, which starts with a baseline population (in this case, the current number of Muslims in each country) divided into groups, or cohorts, by age and sex. Each cohort is projected into the future by adding likely gains – new births and immigrants – and subtracting likely losses – deaths and emigrants. These calculations were made by the Pew Forum’s demographers, who collaborated with researchers at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria on the projections for the United States and European countries. (For more details, see Appendix A: Methodology.)

The current population data that underpin this report were culled from the best sources available on Muslims in each of the 232 countries and territories for which the U.N. Population Division provides general population estimates. Many of these baseline statistics were published in the Pew Forum’s 2009 report, Mapping the Global Muslim Population, which acquired and analyzed about 1,500 sources of data – including census reports, large-scale demographic studies and general population surveys – to estimate the number of Muslims in every country and territory. (For a list of sources, see Appendix B: Data Sources by Country.) All of those estimates have been updated for 2010, and some have been substantially revised. (To find the current estimate and projections for a particular region or country, see Muslim Population by Country, 1990-2030.) Since many countries are conducting national censuses in 2010-11, more data is likely to emerge over the next few years, but a cut-off must be made at some point; this report is based on information available as of mid-2010. To the extent possible, the report provides data for decennial years – 1990, 2000, 2010, 2020 and 2030. In some cases, however, the time periods vary because data is available only for certain years or in five-year increments (e.g., 2010-15 or 2030-35).

The definition of Muslim in this report is very broad. The goal is to count all groups and individuals who self-identify as Muslims. This includes Muslims who may be secular or nonobservant. No attempt is made in this report to measure how religious Muslims are or to forecast levels of religiosity (or secularism) in the decades ahead.2

The main factors, or inputs, in the population projections are:

Births (fertility rates)
Deaths (mortality rates)
Migration (emigration and immigration), and
The age structure of the population (the number of people in various age groups)

Related factors – which are not direct inputs into the projections but which underlie vital assumptions about the way Muslim fertility rates are changing and Muslim populations are shifting – include:

Education (particularly of women)
Economic well-being (standards of living)
Contraception and family planning
Urbanization (movement from rural areas into cities and towns), and
Religious conversion

To fully understand the projections, one must understand these factors, which the next section of the report will discuss in more detail.

Readers can also explore an online, interactive feature that allows them to select a region or one of the 232 countries and territories – as well as a decade from 1990-2030 – and see the size of the Muslim population in that place and time.

Footnotes

1 The seven countries projected to rise above 1 million Muslims by 2030 are: Belgium, Canada, Congo, Djibouti, Guinea Bissau,Netherlands and Togo. (return to text)

2 In other reports, the Pew Forum and the Pew Research Center have used large-scale public opinion surveys to measure the beliefs and practices of many religious groups, including Muslims in several countries. See, for example,Tolerance and Tension: Islam and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2010, and Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream, 2007. (return to text)

Photo Credits:

Asia-Pacific: Lindsay Hebberd/CORBIS
Middle East-North Africa: Alaa Al-Shemaree/epa/Corbis
Sub-Saharan Africa: Paul Almasy/CORBIS
Europe: Pascal Le Segretain/CORBIS SYGMA
Americas: John Van Hasselt/Sygma/Corbis

www.pewforum.org/2011/01/27/the-future-of-the-global-muslim-population/

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© 2004-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC
© 2004-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC

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Saturday, August 28, 2010

Islam must speak against its radical factions - Well and good, but it is difficult for citizens or public leaders to do so when at any time the mob can accuse and execute them.

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Islam must speak against its radical factions

THE OTTAWA CITIZEN AUGUST 28, 2010

Catholicism relies upon the Vatican for guidance and control. The Church of England has the Archbishop of Canterbury. Judaism has a variety of organizations which are designed to instruct, teach and certify rabbis and cantors. There are, with a majority of religious groups, bodies in control. Failure of religious leaders to follow edicts have consequences including excommunication.

What many are waiting for is a declaration from a governing body within Islam condemning the war upon the West. The nervous reaction that people have towards Muslims is because there has been no united condemnation of the radical factions. Because there has been no central outcry from within, the perception is the radicals are being supported by all.

There is no formal school to teach imams, no central authority, no class of clergy within the religion. Anyone who is learned in the Koran and who demonstrates sufficient piety and scholarship can become an imam. Each imam is free to preach what he believes. If he has a background which is radical, his teachings will follow.

What most people can't understand is when an imam spouts off that America is the devil and Jews and Christians are its spawn, how such individuals are allowed to continue preaching. There are no sanctions, punishments or consequences for making those remarks. That fosters the belief that everyone within the culture accepts and adopts those words.

Islam must find a way to deal with its radicals internally. Without that it is impossible for outsiders to understand where the radicals stop and the secularists begin. The media paints everyone with the same brush. While that is unfair, there has been little condemnation from within so there is little opportunity to see the moderate side of a good people.

Russel Molot, Ottawa

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COMMENT - I have known some Muslims who have emigrated from Muslim countries where Sharia is the law of the land. It happens in such countries that ordinary Muslims become quite bold to accuse others of blasphemy; whether it is true or not. One man was accused by a business competitor who didn't like him, all the more so because the man he hated was not Muslim but a Roman Catholic Christian. In such an environment, the accuser broadcasts his accusation loudly and the crowd joins in to support him. Some Muslims are intimidated into joining the gathering crowd lest they be accused of not being zealous enough for Islam. The Catholic business owner would have been killed, executed by the mob, if the authorities had not intervened. Once he came to trial the judge admitted to him he was obviously innocent, but if he were to be released he would surely be executed by the mob. The judge arranged for him to be released later at an unsuspected time and secretly at night with the support of some non-profit organizations which helped to spirit him away safely and out of the country along with his family; for they too would have been in danger for their lives. So, in such cultures where mob rule intimidates any who might be opposed or disagree; it is very difficult for anyone to come out to declare disapproval of the actions of violent extremists. Anyone - a citizen or public leader who speaks up or resists injustice takes not only their own life into their hands, but the lives of their family as well. G.S.

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Thursday, April 1, 2010

Betting on the Afterlife By Msgr. Fred Dolan, Opus Dei - April 1st, 2010

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Betting on the Afterlife

By Msgr. Fred Dolan, Opus Dei

My workouts at the gym are usually routine events, but that day a few years ago was much different. On one of the televisions above my treadmill, George Stroumboulopoulos was interviewing June Callwood, whose terminal cancer was bringing her time on earth to an end. “Dust to dust is the way it ought to be” June said shortly into the interview.

“You’re about to enter that great stage in one’s life when you get to find out what’s next. Do you have an idea?” George asked.

“There’s nothing next,” June replied without hesitation, followed by a pensive “That’s all right.”

George was strikingly poignant as he continued to question his 82 year-old guest. “You don’t believe in God?” The response: “I believe in kindness”.

Here was one of Canada’s leading interviewers questioning one of Canada’s foremost social activists, who was utterly convinced that life simply ends. Full stop. Nothing more. Absolutely nothing.

As I finished my workout, I couldn’t stop thinking about George’s seeming disappointment in his guest’s rejection of an afterlife. Even those who are “convinced” of their final end must have a bit of lingering doubt. I would go further: most of us would do anything to sneak a peak at the next destination.

As Benedict XVI said in his best-selling book Jesus of Nazareth: “What preoccupies man is the hiddenness of the future that awaits him. Man wants to tear aside the curtain; he wants to know what is going to happen, so that he can avoid perdition and set out towards salvation.”

June Callwood’s adamancy contrasts radically with that of Martha, the sister of Lazarus and Mary, three people who were close to Jesus. A brokenhearted Martha said to Jesus: "If you had been here, my brother would not have died. Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

That is the fundamental "Easter question" for Christians. Do they, or do they not believe in life after death? It either does or does not exist. Both positions ultimately require an act of faith; after all, in this life it is impossible to “break on through to the other side”, to use the memorable phrase of The Doors’ Jim Morrison. Life and death come down to weighing our two options and hedging our bets, since it just might be true that death is only the entry point to an unending existence in the afterlife.

A friend, having heard I was writing on this topic, wrote to me: “I look forward to your piece on life after death. I'm not convinced but I am eager to be proven wrong. Nietzsche said life has meaning because we die. But when you see how breezily people throw their lives away, I'm not sure that is the case.”

It's easy to understand why some people equate death with “game over”. They never give a thought to the after-life because they are too busy in the present life, rushing around, chasing time, absorbed in everything they must finish before they die.

The German philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand observed: “Some people are so engrossed in their daily concerns that, though not leading an agreeable life at all, they simply find no time to stop and think. The complete enslavement of their attention to the practical task immediately ahead deprives them of any leisure for feeling their lack of peace. Like beasts of burden, they tread along their path in dull monotony, without ever becoming sufficiently awake to feel distressed by the meaninglessness of their lives.”

Then there is the fact that “eternal life” is tough to wrap our minds around. We can imagine an unlimited data plan for our cell phones, but not unlimited time for ourselves. Much less can we conceive of eternity as not a long time, but a time of pure timelessness.

Benedict XVI took a stab at this in his encyclical letter on hope. Here is his effort to describe heaven: “(It is) something more like the supreme moment of satisfaction, in which totality embraces us and we embrace totality (...). It would be like plunging into the ocean of infinite love, a moment in which time— the before and after —no longer exists. We can only attempt to grasp the idea that such a moment is life in the full sense, a plunging ever anew into the vastness of being, in which we are simply overwhelmed with joy.”

A big stumbling block is the need for faith. Someone could say “I don’t have faith, therefore I am convinced that with death comes the end.” Ironically, that attitude requires quite a leap of faith to conclude that humans are just flesh, bones and chemicals. How can chemicals produce such immaterial concepts as eternity and love? The thought that we are just a sack of chemicals is not especially appealing or even logical. Yet many accept that belief without blinking an eye.

A professor at a U.S. university took a poll before class one day. He asked his students what they thought they were: a composite of immortal soul and physical body or flesh, bones and chemicals. Only two out of the forty students opted for the body and soul composite but then one of the two got embarrassed and yanked his hand back down. Thirty-eight blithely chose flesh, bones and chemicals.

But chemicals can’t possibly explain our yearning for eternal life. The human psyche was wired at the factory for infinity. To paraphrase Augustine of Hippo: “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.”

A contemporary thinker, Peter Kreeft of Boston College, says: “The big, blazing, terrible truth about man is that he has a heaven-sized hole in his heart, and nothing else can heal it. We pass our lives trying to fill the Grand Canyon with marbles.”

So what if it turns out that death truly is just the beginning?

Joseph Ratzinger spoke about the “moral exigency” that arises when we consider the account we will have to give to our creator. The thought of the afterlife confers to moral decision-making gravity and definiteness. As a recently ordained priest back in the 1980s, I walked into a Cambridge Square printing shop one day. The manager looked up from her desk. She smiled when she noted my clerical garb, and said in a rich Southern accent: “I haven’t seen anyone dressed like that in a long time. When I was growing up, I used to see priests dressed like you and I would always say to myself, ‘Honey, you’d better clean up your act!’"

Christians, particularly, have a compelling reason to believe in eternal life. Not only did Jesus speak often about the life that awaits us in heaven, but he then rose from the dead and, during forty days, appeared to hundreds of people. A betting man would not want to ignore that clue.

Interview with Msgr. Dolan, Part I: What happens once a Conference Centre is established in a new geographic area? - January 14, 2019 by CRCC Newsletter

Part II: Some people see a limited benefit from a conference center as it only helps the few people that attend activities there. Is that the case? - February 13, 2019 by CRCC Newsletter

Greetings from the Vicar for Canada, Msgr. Frederick Dolan - Dear Friends, The Golden Anniversary of the presence of Opus Dei in Canada makes this month of June 2007 very special. 50 years, a moment to count our many blessings, to name them one by one

Video meditation by Msgr. Frederick Dolan, Vicar of Opus Dei in Canada - A meditation by Msgr. Frederick Dolan to help guide and anchor our thoughts and prayers, remind us of our core identity, and grow spiritually during the stressful and uncertain times of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020.

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Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Is this Dutch politician correct in warning that the demands of Muslim immigrants are eroding Western democratic and social institutions?

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Geert Wilders is a Dutch Member of Parliament.

America as the last man standing

http://copperraildepot.com/America-Last%20One%20Standing.htm

In a generation or two, the US will ask itself: "who lost Europe ?"

Here is the speech of Geert Wilders, Chairman, Party for Freedom, the Netherlands , at the Four Seasons, New York , introducing an Alliance of Patriots and announcing the Facing Jihad Conference in Jerusalem .

Dear friends,

Thank you very much for inviting me.

I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe. This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe.

First I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe . Then, I will say a few things about Islam.. To close I will tell you about a meeting in Jerusalem .

The Europe you know is changing.

You have probably seen the landmarks. But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist destination, there is another world. It is the world of the parallel society created by Muslim mass-migration.

All throughout Europe a new reality is rising: entire Muslim neighborhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It's the world of head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents, with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, or slaveholders if you prefer, walk three steps ahead. With mosques on many street corners. The shops have signs you and I cannot read. You will be hard-pressed to find any economic activity. These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Muslim neighborhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe . These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of Europe , street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city.

There are now thousands of mosques throughout Europe . With larger congregations than there are in churches. And in every European city there are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarf every church in the region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule.

Many European cities are already one-quarter Muslim: just take Amsterdam , Marseille and Malmo in Sweden . In many cities the majority of the under-18 population is Muslim. Paris is now surrounded by a ring of Muslim neighborhoods. Mohammed is the most popular name among boys in many cities.

In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can no longer be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig, and that would be an insult to Muslims.

Many state schools in Belgium and Denmark only serve halal food to all pupils. In once-tolerant Amsterdam gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Muslims. Non-Muslim women routinely hear 'whore, whore'. Satellite dishes are not pointed to local TV stations, but to stations in the country of origin.

In France school teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the same is increasingly true of Darwin . The history of the Holocaust can no longer be taught because of Muslim sensitivity.

In England sharia courts are now officially part of the British legal system.. Many neighborhoods in France are no-go areas for women without head scarves. Last week a man almost died after being beaten up by Muslims in Brussels , because he was drinking during the Ramadan.

Jews are fleeing France in record numbers, on the run for the worst wave of anti-Semitism since World War II. French is now commonly spoken on the streets of Tel Aviv and Netanya , Israel . I could go on forever with stories like this.. Stories about Islamization.

A total of fifty-four million Muslims now live in Europe . San Diego University recently calculated that a staggering 25 percent of the population in Europe will be Muslim just 12 years from now. Bernhard Lewis has predicted a Muslim majority by the end of this century.

Now these are just numbers. And the numbers would not be threatening if the Muslim-immigrants had a strong desire to assimilate. But there are few signs of that. The Pew Research Center reported that half of French Muslims see their loyalty to Islam as greater than their loyalty to France ... One-third of French Muslims do not object to suicide attacks.. The British Centre for Social Cohesion reported that one-third of British Muslim students are in favor of a worldwide caliphate. Muslims demand what they call 'respect'. And this is how we give them respect. We have Muslim official state holidays.

The Christian-Democratic attorney general is willing to accept sharia in the Netherlands if there is a Muslim majority. We have cabinet members with passports from Morocco and Turkey .

Muslim demands are supported by unlawful behavior, ranging from petty crimes and random violence, for example against ambulance workers and bus drivers, to small-scale riots. Paris has seen its uprising in the low-income suburbs, the banlieus. I call the perpetrators 'settlers'. Because that is what they are. They do not come to integrate into our societies; they come to integrate our society into their Dar-al-Islam. Therefore, they are settlers.

Much of this street violence I mentioned is directed exclusively against non-Muslims, forcing many native people to leave their neighborhoods, their cities, their countries. Moreover, Muslims are now a swing vote not to be ignored.

The second thing you need to know is the importance of Mohammed the prophet. His behavior is an example to all Muslims and cannot be criticized. Now, if Mohammed had been a man of peace, let us say like Ghandi and Mother Theresa wrapped in one, there would be no problem. But Mohammed was a warlord, a mass murderer, a pedophile, and had several marriages - at the same time. Islamic tradition tells us how he fought in battles, how he had his enemies murdered and even had prisoners of war executed. Mohammed himself slaughtered the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza. If it is good for Islam, it is good. If it is bad for Islam, it is bad.

Let no one fool you about Islam being a religion. Sure, it has a god, and a here-after, and 72 virgins. But in its essence Islam is a political ideology. It is a system that lays down detailed rules for society and the life of every person. Islam wants to dictate every aspect of life. Islam means 'submission'. Islam is not compatible with freedom and democracy, because what it strives for is sharia. If you want to compare Islam to anything, compare it to communism or national-socialism, these are all totalitarian ideologies.

Now you know why Winston Churchill called Islam 'the most retrograde force in the world', and why he compared Mein Kampf to the Quran. The public has wholeheartedly accepted the Palestinian narrative, and sees Israel as the aggressor.. I have lived in this country and visited it dozens of times. I support Israel . First, because it is the Jewish homeland after two thousand years of exile up to and including Auschwitz, second because it is a democracy, and third because Israel is our first line of defense.

This tiny country is situated on the fault line of jihad, frustrating Islam's territorial advance. Israel is facing the front lines of jihad, like Kashmir, Kosovo, the Philippines , Southern Thailand, Darfur in Sudan , Lebanon , and Aceh in Indonesia . Israel is simply in the way. The same way West-Berlin was during the Cold War.

The war against Israel is not a war against Israel . It is a war against the West. It is jihad. Israel is simply receiving the blows that are meant for all of us. If there would have been no Israel , Islamic imperialism would have found other venues to release its energy and its desire for conquest. Thanks to Israeli parents who send their children to the army and lay awake at night, parents in Europe and America can sleep well and dream, unaware of the dangers looming.

Many in Europe argue in favor of abandoning Israel in order to address the grievances of our Muslim minorities. But if Israel were, God forbid, to go down, it would not bring any solace to the West It would not mean our Muslim minorities would all of a sudden change their behavior, and accept our values. On the contrary, the end of Israel would give enormous encouragement to the forces of Islam. They would, and rightly so, see the demise of Israel as proof that the West is weak, and doomed. The end of Israel would not mean the end of our problems with Islam, but only the beginning. It would mean the start of the final battle for world domination. If they can get Israel , they can get everything. So-called journalists volunteer to label any and all critics of Islamization as a 'right-wing extremists' or 'racists'. In my country, the Netherlands , 60 percent of the population now sees the mass immigration of Muslims as the number one policy mistake since World War II. And another 60 percent sees Islam as the biggest threat. Yet there is a danger greater danger than terrorist attacks, the scenario of America as the last man standing. The lights may go out in Europe faster than you can imagine. An Islamic Europe means a Europe without freedom and democracy, an economic wasteland, an intellectual nightmare, and a loss of military might for America - as its allies will turn into enemies, enemies with atomic bombs. With an Islamic Europe, it would be up to America alone to preserve the heritage of Rome , Athens and Jerusalem .

Dear friends, liberty is the most precious of gifts. My generation never had to fight for this freedom, it was offered to us on a silver platter, by people who fought for it with their lives. All throughout Europe , American cemeteries remind us of the young boys who never made it home, and whose memory we cherish. My generation does not own this freedom; we are merely its custodians. We can only hand over this hard won liberty to Europe 's children in the same state in which it was offered to us. We cannot strike a deal with mullahs and imams. Future generations would never forgive us. We cannot squander our liberties. We simply do not have the right to do so.

http://copperraildepot.com/America-Last%20One%20Standing.htm

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Dutch politician fights for free speech By DEROY MURDOCK
Scripps Howard News Service Posted Mar 1, 2009

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POWERBASE - Public Interest Investigations - Geert Wilders

https://powerbase.info/index.php/Geert_Wilders

Geert Wilders is a right wing Dutch politician. Although initially a member of the liberal VVD, he first came to prominence in 2002, following his appointment as foreign affairs spokesman, in which role he established a reputation as a critic of radical Islam. His hardline views, particularly his opposition to Turkish accession to the EU, led to his departure from the VVD in 2004, to set up his own political group.

Shortly afterwards, the murder of Theo Van Gogh boosted support for Wilders' message, which would come to include calls for a ban on the Koran, and an end to non-Western immigration. In 2006, his Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV) won 9 seats in the Dutch parliament. Elections in 2010 saw a dramatic increase in support that won 24 seats in the 150-seat second chamber in The Hague.^[1]

In 2008, Wilders released Fitna, an anti-Islam film which mixed footage of terrorist attacks with readings from the Koran. He subsequently spoke at screenings of the film organised by neoconservative and right-wing groups in the US, Israel and a number of European countries. On 11 September 2010 Wilders was a keynote speaker at a rally against the so-called Ground Zero Mosque in New York^[2] organised by anti-Islam blogger Pamela Geller, who introduced him as her 'hero'. ^[3]

For complete article go to: https://powerbase.info/index.php/Geert_Wilders

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BROOKINGS REPORT “The biggest problem in the Netherlands”: Understanding the Party for Freedom’s politicization of Islam - Koen Damhuis - Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Koen Damhuis - Assistant Professor - Utrecht University

Editor's Note:

This working paper is part of a multi-year Brookings project—"The One Percent Problem: Muslims in the West and the Rise of the New Populists." Other papers in the series are available here.

When Geert Wilders, founder and front man of the Party for Freedom (PVV), explained his “Plan for the Netherlands” in the build-up to the Dutch general election of 2017, he declared that “the biggest problem in this country is Islamization.” This process, Wilders claimed, constitutes an “existential threat” to “our identity, our freedom. Who we are. Everything.”[1] For close observers of Dutch politics, similar statements, made by the leader of the then third-largest party of the country (second-largest after the elections), were stale—over the preceding decade they had grown accustomed to Wilders’ Islam-alarmist messages. His claims may sound rather radical, however, to foreign ears. After all, most of Wilders’ political friends in European Parliament do not denounce Islam as directly or explicitly;[2] nor is the issue as salient for them as it is for PVV leader. Besides, didn’t Wilders come from and operate in the Netherlands, a country that has long been prided for its cultural openness and religious tolerance?

This paper aims to contribute toward a better understanding of the ways in which immigration in general, and Islam in particular, are politicized in the Netherlands—a history in which Wilders plays a key role, though he is not the only protagonist. I will do so by focusing, first, on the societal background against which these issues surfaced on the political agenda during the past decades. I will then analyze how the issues of immigration and Islam are depicted by Wilders’ PVV and how these representations evolved over time. The final section will situate this politicization in the contemporary Dutch political landscape and discuss its societal implications.

For complete article go to: https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-biggest-problem-in-the-netherlands-understanding-the-party-for-freedoms-politicization-of-islam/

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Thursday, January 27, 2011