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Muslim population growth refers to the topic of population growth of the global Muslim community. In 2006, countries with a Muslim majority had an average population growth rate of 1.8% per year (when weighted by percentage Muslim and population size). This compares with a world population growth rate of 1.12% per year. In India, Muslim population growth rate is higher by more than 10% compared to that of Hindus.

In Europe

Data for the rates of growth of Islam in Europe reveal that the growing number of Muslims is due primarily to immigration (in the West) and higher birth rates (worldwide).

Islam is already the fastest-growing religion in Europe. Driven by immigration and high birthrates, the number of Muslims on the continent has tripled in the last 30 years. Most demographers forecast a similar or even higher rate of growth in the coming decades.

• According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the World Christian Database as of 2007 estimated the six fastest growing religions of the world to be Islam (1.84%), the Bahá'í Faith (1.7%), Sikhism (1.62%), Jainism (1.57%), Hinduism (1.52%), and Christianity (1.32%). High birth rates were cited as the reason for the growth.

• Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, who compiles the Vatican's yearbook, said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that "For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us," He said that Catholics accounted for 17.4 percent of the world population—a stable percentage—while Muslims were at 19.2 percent. "It is true that while Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer," the monsignor said.

Conversion

For example, it has been claimed by the New York Times that 25% of American Muslims are converts to Islam.. In Britain, there are also claims that around 10,000 - 20,000 people convert to Islam per year. However, there are sources that claim conversions to Buddhism outnumber those to Islam. .

Criticism of the Population growth and Immigration theory

The Economist has described the concept of Eurabia as "scaremongering".

Scholar Matt Carr wrote in the July 2006 issue of Race & Class that

What began as an outlandish conspiracy theory has become a dangerous Islamophobic fantasy that has moved ever closer towards mainstream respectability.

Justin Vaisse, co-author of Integrating Islam Political and Religious Challenges in Contemporary France, says his book intends to debunk "four myths of the alarmist school." Using Muslims in France as an example, he writes:

• The Muslim population is not growing as fast as the scenario claims, since the fertility rate of immigrants declines
• Muslims are not a monolithic or cohesive group
• Muslims do seek to integrate politically and socially
• Despite their numbers, Muslims have little influence on foreign policy (e.g. policy toward Israel)

The "Eurabia" theory has been compared to historically antisemitic writing by British columnist Johann Hari. He calls the two "startlingly similar" and says that "there are intellectuals on the British right who are propagating a conspiracy theory about Muslims that teeters very close to being a 21st century Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

See also

• Fastest Growing Religion
• List of countries by Muslim population
• Religious views on birth control
• Islamic Missionary Activity

Europe:

• Islam in Europe
• Eurabia

References

1. Averaging of individual country figures from CIA factbook see also Demographics of Islam
2. CIA Factbook
3. "Census of India". Census of India. Census Data 2001: India at a glance >> Religious Composition. Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 2008-11-26.
4. BBC news site
5. Staff (May 2007). "The List: The World's Fastest-Growing Religions". Foreign Policy. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
6. FOXNews.com - Vatican: Islam Surpasses Roman Catholicism as World's Largest Religion - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News
7. Muslim Convert Faces Discrimination Accessed 2008-01-17
8. "Women Converts". British Muslims Monthly Survey. June 2000 Vol. VIII, No. 6. Retrieved 2008-01-17. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
9. World Christian Encyclopedia
10. Translation of AL-Jazeerah interview between Maher Abdallah and Shiekh Ahmed Katani
11. "Tales from Eurabia". The Economist. June 22 2006. Integration will be hard work for all concerned. But for the moment at least, the prospect of Eurabia looks like scaremongering. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
12. Matt Carr, You are now entering Eurabia
13. See also Randy McDonald, France, its Muslims, and the Future, 2004-04-13, Doug Saunders, "The 'Eurabia' myth deserves a debunking", The Globe and Mail, 2008-09-20, Fewer differences between foreign born and Swedish born childbearing women, Statistics Sweden, 2008-11-03, Mary Mederios Kent, Do Muslims have more children than other women in western Europe?, Population Reference Bureau, prb.org, February 2008; for fertility of Muslims outside Europe, see the sentence "The dramatic decline in Iran's fertility provides a recent example of how strict Islamic practices can coexist with widespread use of family planning.", and (the articles) Farzaneh Roudi-Fahimi and Mary Mederios Kent, Fertility Declining in the Middle East and North Africa, prb.org, April 2008, especially the figure 2, Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, Recent changes and the future of fertility in Iran, especially the figure 1;
14. See also "Merely speaking of a 'Muslim community in France' can be misleading and inaccurate: like every immigrant population, Muslims in France exhibit strong cleavages based on the country of their origin, their social background, political orientation and ideology, and the branch or sect of Islam that they practice (when they do)." in Justin Vaisse, Unrest in France, November 2005, 2006-01-12
15. See also Justin Vaïsse, La France et les musulmans: une politique étrangère sous influence?, April 2007 Template:Fr
16. Johann Hari, "Amid all this panic, we must remember one simple fact - Muslims are not all the same", The Independent, London, 2006-08-21; see also "It is not an exaggeration to see in these wild conspiracy theories a mutation of Europe’s old, toxic anti-Semitism. What are Fallaci and Ye’or offering but the Protocols of the Elders of Muhammad?" in Johann Hari, "Islam in the West", Dissent magazine, winter 2007;

• Islamic politics and Islamic world studies
• Population
• Religious demographics