Saturday, February 12, 2011

Muslims and Canadian Culture - Time to change tune on official multiculturalism - Let's remember what makes Canada such a great place for people from all over the world to live together in peace.

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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Muslims and Canadian Culture

Time to change tune on official multiculturalism

https://www.pressreader.com/canada/calgary-herald/20110212/284069138172559

Licia Corbella, Calgary Herald                               Published: Saturday, February 12, 2011

About one dozen families who recently immigrated to Canada are demanding that the Louis Riel School Division in Winnipeg excuse their children from music and coed physical education programs for religious reasons.

The families believe music is un-Islamic -just like the Taliban believe and then imposed on the entire population of Afghanistan -and that physical education classes should be segregated by gender even in the elementary years.

The school division is facing the music in a typically Canadian way -that is, bending itself into a trombone to try to accommodate these demands, even though in Manitoba, and indeed the rest of the country, music and phys-ed are compulsory parts of the curriculum.

Officials say they may try to have the Muslim children do a writing project on music to satisfy the curriculum's requirements. The school officials have apparently consulted the Manitoba Human Rights Commission, and they have also spoken to a member of the Islamic community suggested by those very same Muslim parents.

In any event, the school district is trying to find a way to adapt the curriculum to fit the wishes of these families, rather than these families adapting to fit into the school and Canadian culture.

Mahfooz Kanwar, a member of the Muslim Canadian Congress, says he has some better ideas.

"I'd tell them, this is Canada, and in Canada, we teach music and physical education in our schools. If you don't like it, leave. If you want to live under sharia law, go back to the hellhole country you came from or go to another hellhole country that lives under sharia law," said Kanwar, who is a professor emeritus of sociology at Mount Royal University in Calgary.

That might be putting things a little more forcefully than most of us would be comfortable with, but Kanwar says he is tired of hearing about such out-of-tune demands from newcomers to our country. "Immigrants to Canada should adjust to Canada, not the other way around," he argues.

Kanwar, who immigrated to Canada from Pakistan via England and then the United States in 1966, says he used to buy into the "mosaic, official multiculturalism (nonsense)."

He makes it clear, that like most Canadians, he is pleased and enjoys that Canada has citizens literally from every country and corner in the world, as it has enriched this country immensely. But it's official multiculturalism -the state policy "that entrenches the lie" that all cultures and beliefs are of equal value and of equal validity in Canada that he objects to.

"The fact is, Canada has an enviable culture based on Judeo-Christian values -not Muslim values -with British and French rule of law and traditions and that's why it's better than all of the other places in the world. We are heading down a dangerous path if we allow the idea that sharia law has a place in Canada. It does not. It is completely incompatible with the idea and reality of Canada," says Kanwar, who in the 1970s was the founder and president of the Pakistan-Canada Association and a big fan of official multiculturalism. Kanwar says his views changed when he started listening to the people who joined his group. They badmouthed Canada, weren't interested in knowing Canadians or even in learning one of our official languages. They created cultural ghettos and the Canadian government even helped fund it.

"One day it dawned on me that the reason all of us wanted to move here was going to disappear if we didn't start defending Canada and its fundamental values." That's when Kanwar started speaking out against the dangers of official multiculturalism. He has been doing so for decades.

So, it's no surprise that Kanwar is delighted with the recent speech British Prime Minister David Cameron delivered to the 47th Munich Security Conference on Feb. 5.

"Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism," said Cameron, "we have failed to provide a vision of society to which they feel they want to belong. We have even tolerated these segregated communities behaving in ways that run counter to our val-ues. So when a white person holds objectionable views -racism, for example -we rightly condemn them. But when equally unacceptable views or practices have come from someone who isn't white, we've been too cautious, frankly even fearful, to stand up to them. . . .

This hands-off tolerance," said Cameron, "has only served to reinforce the sense that not enough is shared.

All this leaves some young Muslims feeling rootless and . . . can lead them to this extremist ideology."

Kanwar actually credits German Chancellor Angela Merkel for being among the first of the world's democratic leaders to take the courageous step in October to say that official multiculturalism had "failed totally."

It appears leaders are getting bolder. During an interview with TFI channel on Feb. 10, French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared: "We have been too concerned about the identity of the person who was arriving and not enough about the identity of the country that was receiving him."

Cameron ended his speech by saying: "At stake are not just lives, it's our way of life. That's why this is a challenge we cannot avoid -and one we must meet."

That democratically elected leaders are at long last starting to sing a different tune on official multiculturalism is sweet music to Kanwar. Here's hoping those poor kids in Winnipeg will get to hear some of it.

Licia Corbella is the Herald's Editorial Page Editor. lcorBella@ calgarYherald.com

http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/columnists/story.html?id=d44dba36-3b51-461c-a1ea-2101d57e346f

 https://www.pressreader.com/canada/calgary-herald/20110212/284069138172559
© Calgary Herald 2011

Corbella: Inclusion missing at Calgary Muslim event

https://www.pressreader.com/canada/calgary-herald/20120607/281595237595300

Bilal Philips is on the record as saying all male homosexuals should face the "punishment for deviant behaviour . . . which is death"                 By Licia Corbella, Calgary Herald June 7, 2012

A man who has repeatedly said homosexuals should be executed is the top speaker at a Calgary conference taking place on the Canada Day long weekend.

The ironically named conference - The Power of Unity: Islam in a MultiCultural Canada - is headlining Bilal Philips, who goes far beyond saying what many religious leaders believe about homosexuality being a sin. Philips, who has been barred from travelling to Germany, is on the record as saying all male homosexuals should face the "punishment for deviant behaviour . . . which is death."

You can check him out on YouTube.

But Philips, who was born in Jamaica and raised in Ontario, where he converted to Islam, is not the only controversial speaker - not by a long shot. There's a whole raft of them speaking at the Muslim Council of Calgary event.

Munir El-Kassem, a dentist from London, Ont., wrote a column back in 2001 that condemned the West as hypocritical and defended the Taliban regime for destroying the sixth-century Buddha statues in Bamiyan. He has written glowingly about Louis Farrakhan, the extremist Nation of Islam leader who frequently makes bigoted statements against Jews, whites and homosexuals, and is linked to the assassination of Malcolm X.

Shaykh Hatem Alhaj recently lost his job at the Mayo Clinic because he wrote papers in support of female circumcision. He later tried to clarify his position by saying he only supports nicking the clitoris, not cutting it right off.

Another heavy-hitting speaker is British MP George Galloway, a veritable rock star of antiIsraeli and anti-western sentiment, who was barred from entering Canada in 2009 after he gave more than $50,000 to Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in contravention of Canadian law, which bans all donations to terrorist organizations. Canada lists Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Galloway was eventually permitted to enter Canada, but he can be seen very clearly on YouTube handing over a bag of money to members of the Hamas leadership, whose very charter calls for the obliteration of the state of Israel and all Jews.

Abraham Ayache, chairman of the Muslim Council of Calgary, said the conference is being organized to celebrate 50 years of Islam in Calgary and is all about unity and celebrating multiculturalism.

"This conference is open to everybody. Our doors are always open. We encourage Muslims to integrate into society and we want to raise awareness about Islam and we want non-Muslims to understand more about Islam . . . and for the media to start focusing on the positives rather than the negatives," Ayache said.

His lineup of speakers, however, makes that difficult. When asked about Philips's views that homosexuals should be executed Ayache responded by saying: "George Bush is an individual who holds that opinion." It's an outrageous claim.

While certainly finding ample evidence that Bush believes in maintaining the traditional definition of marriage, nowhere is there evidence that he believes in sentencing homosexuals to death.

Ayache, who says the MCC has eight Islamic scholars working for the organization, adds that speakers will be given topics to discuss that deal with unity and multiculturalism.

But a recent posting on the MCC website under the heading "Ask the Imam" seems to indicate that some of the organization's hired imams haven't read the memo about cultural tolerance and unity.

In answer to a question by a single mother concerned about her children no longer being obedient to her, an imam on the site wrote: "You should instil a hatred for this culture and its ways in the hearts of your children." He also wrote: "It is haraam (forbidden) for you to give your children free rein in forming friendships with the children of the kuffaar." Kuffaar, or kufir, is synonymous with infidel or nonbeliever. Translation: the vast majority of Canadian society.

That particular posting has very recently been removed from the website, but there are some blogs that have preserved screen grabs of those pages.

Nagah Hage, the conference committee chair, said the MCC is the umbrella organization for Sunnis in Calgary and is "the most powerful Muslim organization in the country," since it owns and operates all the Sunni "assets" in Calgary including mosques and the Calgary Islamic School.

Hage says some of the topics open for discussion at the conference include: the influence of national and international politics on Muslims of North America, western media in Muslim countries and the use of financial resources for improving the status of Muslims of the world, as well as other topics that have not been solidified. Not a whole lot there about unity or multiculturalism.

Kevin Alderson, a psychology professor at the University of Calgary and a gay rights activist, says he's concerned about Philips speaking in Calgary.

"This is barbaric, archaic and insane," said Alderson, who has just finished writing his latest book, Counseling LGBTI Clients. "It certainly says nothing about multiculturalism. I think these speakers should be carefully monitored to ensure that they don't cross the line into hate speech by advocating the killing of homosexuals."

Sgt. Bill Dodd, who heads the Calgary Police Service's diversity resources section, says Calgary police have a good relationship with the MCC and intend on attending the conference, which will run from June 29 through July 1 at the Coast Plaza Hotel, 1316 33rd St. N.E.

"It's not our role to ban speech.

"Our job is to uphold everybody's Charter rights and freedoms and to uphold the Criminal Code, and sometimes there's a balance there."

Time will tell if there will be balance at this conference and whether the diversity of Canadians - all Canadians - will truly be, if not celebrated, at least accepted on Canada Day.

Licia Corbella is a columnist and editorial page editor.                                            lcorbella@calgaryherald.com

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

https://www.pressreader.com/canada/calgary-herald/20120607/281595237595300

Calgarians are rich in character and rich in opinions. So, too, is Herald columnist Licia Corbella. She's not afraid to say what others are thinking, but at the same time, she's eager to celebrate wonderful stories of success in our city. Opinion that matters; opinion that counts: Read Licia Corbella, exclusively in the Calgary Herald and at calgaryherald.com

Biography

Columnists                      http://www.calgaryherald.com/columnists/licia_corbella.html

Licia Corbella has worked for daily newspapers for almost 30 years and is currently the Calgary Herald's Editorial Page Editor. She started her journalism career in 1986 at The Province newspaper in Vancouver while still a journalism student at Vancouver Community College, where she graduated with honours. Eventually, she and her husband moved to Toronto where she worked as a general assignment reporter at The Scarborough Mirror, The Toronto Star and The Toronto Sun, where she won numerous awards for her feature writing and news reporting, including two Edward Dunlop Awards.

In October 1993, she moved to Alberta with her husband Stephen and began working at the Calgary Sun in a variety of roles, including assistant city editor, lifestyle and travel editor and news columnist. In 1998, she was appointed editor, a role she held until she came to the Herald in December 2007.

Licia was a competitive swimmer and former Canadian record holder in the 200 and 400 Individual Medley events as an 11 & 12-year-old and 13 & 14-year-old girl.She is married to Stephen and they have twin sons in high school - both of whom are accomplished athletes, students and budding philanthropists.

E-mail : lcorbella@calgaryherald.com

Recent Columns

Corbella: Albertans’ anti-Christian bigotry is shocking

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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

lede_globalmuslimpop-II

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-PacificMiddle-East-North AfricaSub-Saharan AfricaEurope 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

md2-middle

  • 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:

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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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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© 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.

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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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

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

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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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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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© 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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