https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/487219/Rise-of-Islam-in-Europe-and-its-consequences
TEHRAN - According to the Pew Research Center, Islam is the fastest growing religion in Europe. The Muslim population in Europe (excluding Turkey) was about 30 million in 1990 and 44 million in 2010.
I think this article is more in tune with the moderation of this community, so I'll leave it here as my last post. Bye everyone.
It's really not hard to grow faster than Christians when they are loosing members at a rapid speed.
So as long as non-believers are growing much more rapid than Muslims I'm really not scared. Especially since the extreme side of Islam doesn't even try to get a political foothold. So until then I will watch the non-Muslim far-right with a lot more suspicion and concern.
The total European population is growing by about 0.1% per year. and is expected to start falling soon.
For Germany the muslim population is expected to reach 11% in 2050 if zero new refugees arrive starting in 2017
Or 20% if 2014-2016 levels of immigration are kept. So in reality it's probably somewhere inbetween.
Islam is not just growing compared to the rapidly declining christianity, but also in total.
Recent studies in Germany show that the average Muslim is even more anti-semitic than far-right voters.
https://www.mdr.de/nachrichten/deutschland/gesellschaft/antisemitismus-studie-muslime-afd-100.html
But yes, there haven't really been any attempts to get involved politically yet.
There the far-right definitely is far more dangerous.
But it surely is a topic we shouldn't ignore.
Ignore? No, but there's no reason to put this out of proportion.
First of all, Muslims are a very broad group with at least as many subsects as Christianity. Nationality and heritage also plays a huge role with Migrants, so yeah "Muslims" itself don't worry me. Some radical subsects? Sure they shouldn't be ignored and the proper democratic tools should be used to keep them under control.
The projected growth trend also don't bother me to much as I don't see Islam as anything special compared to other similar religions. The same reason why local people have less and less children can easily apply to Muslims as well. Notably access to proper health care and education. At the same time it's also important to understand that in that regard of course Muslims also aren't one uniform group. People who are registered as Muslims vary from the ultra orthodox to the "just in it because quitting is to much hassle" as Christians. Muslim children for sure are also no special in regards to them keeping faithful. They have the same "problem" with Children having their own mind and not always do what their parents want. Especially since they are in a society which actively promotes individuality.
So for now, the best way to counter the extreme portion of Muslims is rather similar to counter the national right-wing extremists. Provide them with good opportunities to have a happy life and the radical won't have ground to plant their seed.
It seems there's either far right or Iranian propaganda in this topic. What to do in such cases?
Found some more nuanced sources but haven't done any verification of their data myself:
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2017/11/29/europes-growing-muslim-population/
Please note that the Tehran Times is obviously not an independent newspaper, but has close ties to the Iran Foreign Ministry. This post just stays there because of the discussion .