Islam set to be dominant religion in France

By David Kerr

Paris, France, Sep 17, 2011 / 12:25 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- New research suggests there are now more practising Muslims in France than practising Catholics.

While 64 percent of French people describe themselves as Roman Catholic, only 2.9 percent of the population actually practice the Catholic faith. That compares to 3.8 percent of the population who practice the Muslim faith. The research was carried out by the French Institute of Public Opinion on behalf of the Catholic newspaper La Croix.

More worrying for Islamic authorities in France is the finding that only 41 percent of the country’s 6 million Muslims actually describe themselves as “practising,” although 75 percent are happy to label themselves “believers.” Seventy-percent also claim to observe the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Most French Muslims hail from the country’s former colonies in North and sub-Saharan Africa.

There is also further evidence that mosques are being erected at a much faster rate than Catholic churches. Mohammed Moussaoui, President of the Muslim Council of France, last month estimated that 150 new mosques are currently under construction across the country.

By contrast, the Catholic Church in France has built only 20 new churches during the past decade, and has formally closed more than 60 churches. Many of these are now destined to become mosques, according to La Croix.

Research in 2009 by the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research suggested that nearly 500 new mosques were built between 2001 and 2006, taking the present total to over 2,000. Many of these new buildings, however, were erected to re-accommodate local Islamic communities who had previously been using temporary accommodation – the so-called “Islam of the basements.”

One of France’s most prominent Muslim leaders, Dalil Boubakeur, who is the head of the Grand Mosque of Paris, recently called for the number of mosques in the country to be doubled again – to 4,000 – to meet growing demand.

The lack of building space for France’s Islamic population had led to many mosques not being able to accommodate the believers who arrive for Friday prayers, leaving many Muslims to pray outside in the streets.

But Muslims praying outside of mosques has created political tension.

In December 2010 the leader of the far-right National Front, Marine Le Pen, described such scenes as an “occupation without tanks or soldiers.” She is likely to run for the French presidency next year, and her message is resonating with 40 percent of voters, according to a recent poll for the “France Soir” newspaper.

French President Nikolas Sarkozy has also recently described street prayers as “unacceptable,” adding that the street cannot become “an extension of the mosque.” Last month his Interior Minister, Claude Guéant, suggested Muslims should instead use empty barracks. Prayer in the street “has to stop,” Guéant declared.

In a bid to solve the space crisis in the southern city of Marseille, a mosque to accommodate 7,000 worshippers is currently being built. Twenty-five percent of Marseille's population is Muslim.

Last month a mosque for 2,000 worshippers opened in the eastern town of Strasbourg, where 15 percent of the population is Muslim.

France is often referred to as the “eldest daughter of the Catholic Church,” because the local Church has maintained unbroken communion with the Bishop of Rome since the 2nd century.

But some senior European bishops have long predicted the eclipse of Catholicism by Islam across the continent.

In 1999, Archbishop Giuseppe Bernardini, an Italian Franciscan who heads the Izmir Archdiocese in Turkey, recalled a conversation he had with a Muslim leader for the Synod of European Bishops, which was gathered in Rome. That leader told him, “thanks to your democratic laws, we will invade you. Thanks to our religious laws, we will dominate you.” 

Copyright © CNA 
(http://www.catholicnewsagency.com)

800 foreigners converted to Islam in 6 months

DOHA: A total of 800 expatriates converted to Islam in the last six months, according to statistical data released by Qatar Guest Centre (QGC).

The Centre, which is affiliated to Sheikh Eid bin Mohammad Al Thani Charity, is planning to publish the stories of these converts in a book to be translated in other languages. Also, QGC is organising in Al Khor advocacy programmes to educate the new Muslims in cooperation with religious guidance and mosque affairs department and Ministry of Awqf and Islmaic Affairs.

Of the 800 new Muslims 67 percent are Filipinos, according to Hadi Al Dosari, Director of Qatar Guest Centre. In its four years of service to Islam and the Muslims, the Centre has been contributing to the promotion of Islam with the number of new converts from various nationalities reaching 919 last year, said Al Dosari.

He said the number of converts to Islam has been increasing steadily for the last years. From 21 new converts monthly in year 2006, the numbers increased to 28 in 2007, 46 in 2008, 52 in 2009 52 and 77 last year.  “These numbers reflect the efforts of the Centre to bring the message to all the communities,” he said.

The Centre is also organising cultural activities which attract a lot of people through lectures, seminars and meetings with various expatriate communities.

A total of 2, 470 lectures which deal with various aspects of life has already been organised by QGC and its tent at the Karwa bus station attracts an average of 1,000 visitors weekly. In addition, lectures, which average 24,100 yearly, are also held in Industrial Area.

Islamic lectures have been well attended such as the one with prominent scholar Zakir Naik spoke on ‘Islam and Media: Peace or War’ in which a large audience of about 8,000 have attended.

The centre also pays regular visits to prisoner, the sick, resident complexes, private companies, shops and malls. He said average visit to prisoners annually have increased to 200 times and 10, 300 in commercial shops.

More and more young people are also participating in the centre’s activities, with 200 student volunteers who distribute booklets and brochures about Islam and the centre. Other means are employed to reach out to the most number of people such as using cars to distribute brochures to many parts of the country and participating in many events of global scale.    THE PENINSULA

Courtesy: http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/qatar/164691-800-foreigners-converted-to-islam-in-6-months.html

South Africa's Wayne Parnell converts to Islam

Johannesburg: South African fast bowler Wayne Parnell has converted to Islam after a period of personal study and reflection and will celebrate his 22nd birthday on Friday as a Muslim.

Parnell confirmed in a statement on Thursday that he converted to Islamic faith in January this year and is considering a name change to Waleed, which means 'Newborn Son'.

"While I have not yet decided on an Islamic name I have considered the name Waleed which means Newborn Son, but for now my name remains Wayne Dillon Parnell. I will continue to respect the team's endorsement of alcoholic beverages. I am playing cricket in Sussex and this is my immediate focus," said Port Elizabeth-born Parnell.

"As I am approaching my first period of fasting, I ask that this special time is treated with respect. I am a young man, a professional cricketer by trade, and while I can appreciate and am grateful for the public interest in my personal life, my faith choice is a matter which I would like to keep private," said the promising Warriors left-arm seam bowler.

Proteas team manager Mohamed Moosajee, himself a Muslim, said Parnell's Muslim teammates Hashim Amla and Imran Tahir had not influenced his decision to convert from Christianity.

"Wayne already decided a few months ago to follow Islam," Moosajee said of the cricketer, who excelled during the ICC World Cup on the subcontinent.

"The decision to convert was his own decision, but I know nothing of the name change," added Moosajee.

Fellow players, preferring to remain anonymous, said they believed Parnell was very serious about his choice of religion and that he had not touched a drop of alcohol, forbidden to Muslims, since the recent Indian Premier League series.

Supporting Moosajee's denial of influence by Amla, the players said he had never attempted to convert them to his religion, although they had all been very impressed by the discipline and strict adherence that Amla showed to his religion, by refusing to participate in celebrations with them that involved liquor, staying steadfast in his daily prayers even while on tour, and refusing to wear the kit sponsored by South African beer brand Castle Lager.

In his first two years after making his debut for the Proteas in 2009, Parnell developed a hard-living reputation.

In October 2009, he was kicked out of the provincial side Warriors following an incident in a night club in the city of Port Elizabeth in the early hours of the morning.

He came to limelight when he captained the South African Under-19 team in the U-19 World Cup in 2008. He was the youngest player to get a central contract in 2009 at the age of 20 years.

He is the second Christian to have converted to Islam after Pakistan's Yousuf Youhana (now Mohammad Yousuf) in 2006.

Story first published on: Thursday, 28 July 2011 20:46

courtesy: http://sports.ndtv.com/cricket/news/item/176446-south-africas-wayne-parnell-converts-to-islam?pfrom=home-Cricket

Blame the Muslims, won’t you?

By Elizabeth Flock

YouTube comedian and activist Strange Sanum acts out a parody video, “You Know You’re Muslim When ... ” (IMAGE FROM YOUTUBE)As soon as reports came in Friday morning about a bombing and massacre in Norway, the knee-jerk rection by media organizations around the world was to speculate that “Muslim terrorists” were the perpetrators.

By the evening, it became clear that a 32-year-old Norwegian Christian man named Anders Behring Breivik was responsible for the attacks.

The error was clear, and yet many continued to try to link the attacks toal-Qaeda’s influence.

Some were not so keen to let the blame continue. On Twitter, YouTube comedian and activist Strange Sanun started a satirical hashtag#blamethemuslims to “highlight how ridiculous it is to blame Muslims for every problem in the world.”

The hashtag #blamethemuslims shined a light on Europe’s Islamophobia and the media’s mistake, which commentator’s around the world were only starting to point out.

Ahmed Moor at Al Jazeera wrote that the Western media’s response “demonstrates the extent to which reactionary bigotry” and anti-Muslim sentiment have “infected mainstream thought.”

Jeff Sparrow at ABC argued that this once again showed Europe’s “mainstreaming of a violent, apocalyptic anti-Muslim discourse.”

The Post’s Right Turn blog came under fire for rushing to make a “jihadist connection.”

And the New York Times was criticized by Glenn Greenwald at Salon for using the word “terrorist” when referring to Muslims but switching to the word “extremist” when the perpetrator turned out to be Christian.

By Sunday, the hashtag had become a trending topic after a series of satirical tweets by Sanum went viral.

Some of Sanum’s best tweets:

“I don’t have a job #blamethemuslims”

“Friday by Rebecca Black? #blamethemuslims”

“‘Wheres your homework?’ ‘I made it into a paper aeroplane and it got hijacked.’ #blamethemuslims”

Those who saw the hashtag but didn’t understand the irony reacted with shock or outrage. Some even sent Sanum death threats.

Courtesy: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/blame-the-muslims-wont-you/2011/07/25/gIQAEC6dYI_blog.html

Dawood Vaid, 33

Dawood Vaid, 33
Mumbai, Maharashtra
Parallel Educationist

Sunaina Kumar

'We teach children to learn from the stories of Moses and the Prophet’ says Dawood Vaid Photo:Ms Gopal

As an immigrant engineer working in an MNC in Dubai, Dawood Vaid’s story was similar to that of countless other Indians. But that was only half of it. The other half began when Vaid, while working as a researcher on educational projects, dreamt of starting something different. The dream was soon realised and in 2007 the Burooj Angels, a Sunday Islamic school, was born. Students in the school are taught Surahs and Hadiths, the fundamentals of Islam, and the stories of prophets, but all this is undertaken with one approach — “fun learning”. Children between the ages of 5-14 can be seen engaged in skits, quiz sessions, art and craft and board games. Vaid says the two-hour sessions are meant to provide parallel complementary education. The medium of education is English and the school even has its own curriculum. “I grew up loving school. I want to share this experience with children, and so our books and educational tools are fun, and not pedagogical,” says the soft-spoken Vaid. In four years, the school has expanded to 24 cities across India, and has 6,500 students. The 33-year-old has recently started primary schools under the name of Red Camel.

Vaid can be contacted at +91 22 27715424

From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 8, Issue 29, Dated 23 July 2011

Courtesy: http://www.tehelka.com/story_main50.asp?filename=Ne230711INSPIRATIONS.asp

Christians are more militant than Muslims, says Government's equalities boss

Muslims are integrating into British society better than many Christians, according to the head of the Government's equality watchdog.

Trevor Phillips, Chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission  Photo: GRAHAM JEPSON

By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent

9:00PM BST 18 Jun 2011

Trevor Phillips warned that "an old time religion incompatible with modern society" is driving the revival in the Anglican and Catholic Churches and clashing with mainstream views, especially on homosexuality.

He accused Christians, particularly evangelicals, of being more militant than Muslims in complaining about discrimination, arguing that many of the claims are motivated by a desire for greater political influence.

However the chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission expressed concern that people of faith are "under siege" from atheists whom he accused of attempting to "drive religion underground".

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph ahead of a landmark report on religious discrimination in Britain, he said the Commission wants to protect Christians and Muslims from discrimination, admitting his body had not been seen to stand up for the people discriminated against because of their faith in the past.

In a wide-ranging intervention into the debate over the role of religion in modern Britain, Mr Phillips:

* warned it had become "fashionable" to attack and mock religion, singling out atheist polemicist Richard Dawkins for his views;

* said faith groups should be free from interference in their own affairs, meaning churches should be allowed to block women and homosexuals from being priests and bishops;

* attacked hardline Christian groups which he said were picking fights - particularly on the issue of homosexuality - for their own political ends;

* told churches and religious institutions they had to comply with equality legislation when they delivered services to the public as a whole.

The report, published by the Commission tomorrow, says that some religious groups have been the victims of rising discrimination over the last decade.

It shows that in the course of the last decade, the number of employment tribunal cases on religion or belief brought each year has risen from 70 to 1000 - although only a fraction of cases were upheld.

Mr Phillips spoke after a series of high-profile cases which have featured Christians claiming they have been discriminated against because of their beliefs, with a doctor currently fighting a reprimand from the General Medical Council for sharing his faith with a patient.

While the equalities boss promised to fight for the rights of Christians, he expressed concern that many cases were driven by fundamentalist Christians who are holding increasing sway over the mainstream churches because of the influence of African and Caribbean immigrants with "intolerant" views.

In contrast, Muslims are less vociferous because they are trying to integrate into British "liberal democracy", he said.

"I think there's an awful lot of noise about the Church being persecuted but there is a more real issue that the conventional churches face that the people who are really driving their revival and success believe in an old time religion which in my view is incompatible with a modern, multi-ethnic, multicultural society," Phillips said.

"Muslim communities in this country are doing their damnedest to try to come to terms with their neighbours to try to integrate and they're doing their best to try to develop an idea of Islam that is compatible with living in a modern liberal democracy.

"The most likely victim of actual religious discrimination in British society is a Muslim but the person who is most likely to feel slighted because of their religion is an evangelical Christian."

Senior clergy, including Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, have attacked equality laws for eroding Christianity and stifling free speech, but Phillips said many of the legal cases brought by Christians on issues surrounding homosexuality were motivated by an attempt to gain political influence.

"I think for a lot of Christian activists, they want to have a fight and they choose sexual orientation as the ground to fight it on," he said.

"I think the whole argument isn't about the rights of Christians. It's about politics. It's about a group of people who really want to have weight and influence."

He added: "There are a lot of Christian activist voices who appear bent on stressing the kind of persecution that I don't think really exists in this country."

However, Mr Phillips, who is a Salvationist from a strong Christian background, expressed concern over the rise in Britain of anti-religious voices, such as Richard Dawkins, who are intolerant of people of faith.

"I understand why a lot of people in faith groups feel a bit under siege," he said.

"There's no question that there is more anti-religion noise in Britain.

"There's a great deal of polemic which is anti-religious, which is quite fashionable."

Phillips said that the Commission is committed to protecting people of faith against discrimination and also defended the right of religious institutions to be free from Government interference.

The Church of England is under pressure to allow openly gay clergy to be made bishops, while the Catholic Church only permits men to be priests, but the head of the Government-funded equalities watchdog said they are entitled to rule on their own affairs.

"The law doesn't dictate their organisation internally, in the way they appoint their ministers and bishops for example," he said.

"It's perfectly fair that you can't be a Roman Catholic priest unless you're a man. It seems right that the reach of anti-discriminatory law should stop at the door of the church or mosque.

"I'm not keen on the idea of a church run by the state.

"I don't think the law should run to telling churches how they should conduct their own affairs."

The intervention by the Commission comes after criticism of its £70 million annual budget, which is to be cut drastically.

Mr Phillips, a former Labour chairman of the Greater London Assembly and television producer was criticised for his £110,000 a year salary and was accused of "pandering to the right" by Ken Livingstone, the former Labour London mayor, for saying that multiculturalism had failed.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8584030/Christians-are-more-militant-than-Muslims-says-Governments-equalities-boss.html

Tony Blair reads the Quran every day

London:  Former British prime minister Tony Blair has become "increasingly open" about the importance of religion, and reads the Quran every day to be "faith-literate".

Blair, who reportedly said he was not interested in religion, converted to Catholicism after leaving No.10 Downing Street in 2007.

The former Labour Party leader now says reading the Islamic holy book ensured he remained "faith-literate", reports the Daily Mail.

"To be faith-literate is crucial in a globalised world, I believe. I read the Quran every day. Partly to understand some of the things happening in the world, but mainly just because it is immensely instructive," he said.

Blair said a knowledge of the faith was important for his role as an envoy for the Quartet of the UN, US, European Union and Russia.

Blair earlier reportedly praised the Muslim faith as "beautiful". He said Prophet Mohammed had been "an enormously civilising force".

The former prime minister said the Quran was a "reforming book, it is inclusive. It extols science and knowledge and abhors superstition. It is practical and way ahead of its time in attitudes to marriage, women and governance".

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/tony-blair-reads-the-quran-every-day-112037?cp

How secretive and shabby the Americans are

BOB ELLIS

There was no rejoicing in Times Square when Hirohito died, though he ordered the killing of 2350 Americans in Pearl Harbor. I remember no such gladness when Hitler died, or Ho Chi Minh, or Mao Tse Tung. Or Che Guevara. Or Salvador Allende. Or Joseph Stalin.

These laughing, flag-waving, crowded scenes outside the White House and across America have no precedent (except,  perhaps, in the South when Lincoln was shot) and it is to be wondered why they occurred.

There was a magical-realist quality to Osama Bin Laden. He looked like the risen Christ, and was often thought dead and came always back to life. His broadcasts needed always to be authenticated because the CIA wanted him dead. He’d humiliated them so enormously they kept saying he was dead. He was ‘on dialysis’, they asserted, wrongly; he had to be dead by now. 9/11 was so clever. He had to be dead.

And once again they are covering up, and in denial.

As with John F Kennedy, whose brain was stolen, his car washed of its blood, film of his autopsy made to vanish, his alleged assassin murdered and that assassin’s evidence unrecorded, burnt or discarded, we have here, now,  a significant body, the corpse of the world’s most wanted man, ‘buried at sea’. Why do this? Why even think of it, when identifying him forensically was critical to the peace of the Arab and Muslim world?

Uday and Qusay weren’t buried at sea, nor the twenty-four-hour burial rule applied to these two cosmeticked enemy stiffs.  Saddam was helicoptered home to his tribal city (by Mike Kelly MP and Minister for Cheese) for interment in his clan’s sacred ground. Why treat Osama any differently? Why put his body where it couldn’t be checked over? Why not have an autopsy? Why not give their most famous son back to the rich Bin Laden family, and see them set him down in their family plot? What right do Americans have to a fallen enemy’s corpse? Where did that new rule come from? How dare they?

Clearly they feared the sight of his widow, wounded in the fire-fight, at the graveside of him and his dead son, and the sight of his grieving daughter and his other sons would humanise him in an inconvenient way. Clearly they feared his grave would become, like that of Karl Marx or St Thomas a Beckett,  a pilgrim shrine for apostles yet unborn.

But there were other, forensic reasons too.

A coronial enquiry, with witnesses, would show if women were fired upon, or children. It would show if Bin Laden took his own life, as Allende did, it seems, or if his bodyguard, sworn to kill him in such a circumstance, shot him as well, in the back, perhaps.

It would show if he had his hands up, and he was therefore killed against the rules of war, or if his wife said, ‘Please, no.’  It would also get from his wife and daughter evidence of who had lodged them in their splendid quarters, who paid the bills, who took the children to the local school, and what Mushareff knew, and what Azari knew, and indeed what Benazir Bhutto knew, of his five-year stay, if that is how long it was, only three minutes’ walk from an army academy, the West Point of Pakistan.

How shabby the Americans are. How secretive and stupid.

One thinks of the 600 plots to kill Castro: the poisoned face cream, the poisoned wetsuit, the exploding cigars, the former girlfriend who, after sex, couldn’t do it, even when he offered his gun. How low grade they are. How creepy. How overpaid for their shoddy scheming and their bungled midnight raids.

And Osama Bin Laden was buried at sea. Full fathom five thy father lies. Of his bones are coral made. Those are pearls that were his eyes. Imagine Hitler, buried at sea. Or Trotsky. How stupid can they be?

For there is no end to it now. As with Elvis, his voice, his image will recur on websites for fifty years. Was it him? Did he survive? Is he still alive? He must be. He must be. His widow will charge his American assassins with war crimes for killing and wounding civilians:  her son, herself, her daughter. His family will spend millions cleansing his name. The Sunni clergy will denounce the blasphemous travesty of his last rites, not on family ground but the cruel sea.

Karzai will demand compensation for the towns destroyed in America’s vain search for him, in the wrong country. The Saudi royals will be shown to have given him money and Bush to have known this while his father took fees from them. A good few Pakistani colonels will be tortured and shot. The Navy Seals that shot him (in the face, not the legs) will get jobs on Fox News. The Taliban will seize Pakistan and its WMD. And his legend, like Che’s, will grow luminous, and more and more twelve-year-old suicide bombers go into supermarkets whispering his name.

And all they had to do was keep the body, film its autopsy, open it to media view and give it back, in due season, to his family for a proper Sunni funeral, as they did Saddam and Uday and Qusay, in the green, green grass of home.

What klutzes they are. And how dearly we all must pay for their clumsiness, in a rejuvenated al-Qaeda and acts of terror without end, in this country too. And an atomic war, perhaps.

And it’s a pity.

PS. Osama was unarmed, we now are told, but he ‘resisted’ and so was shot ‘above the left eye’ and ‘part of his brain was blown away’. This, and other details, might explain why Barack Obama spent so long rewriting his speech, his worst thus far on a great specific occasion, and why he seemed uneasy giving it. What, we may ask, is he now to say of a murder committed by uninvited American troops on foreign soil, illegally?

And what is he to do with an illegally kidnapped widow, daughter and sons, and their ongoing education in Abbottobad?

And, indeed, with the question, why are we in Afghanistan?

And with the further, larger question, why, if Osama Bin Laden was for five years in Pakistan, and Pakistan’s rulers knew of it, we are not making war on Pakistan today? In reprisal? As we did  on Afghanistan?

Why are we in Afghanistan, by the way?

Is there any reason left?

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/1418100.html

Kerala High Court clears way for India's first Islamic bank.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The secular republic of India is all set to have its first Islamic bank.

The Kerala High Court on Thursday dismissed petitions challenging the Kerala government's decision to establish India's first Islamic Bank which will work on the principles of Shariah.

The order came from a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice J Chalameswar and Justice P R Ramachandra Menon, which rejected petitions filed by Janata Party President Subramaniam Swamy and another. The petitioners contended that the state establishing a bank which will work on the principles of a religion will violate the principle of secularism enshrined in the Constitution. However, the court did not agree.

Reacting to the HC verdict, Swamy said he will consider appealing to the Supreme Court after going through the full text. ``I will challenge the same if it was dismissed on merits,'' he said.

The state had first floated the idea of establishing the bank under an entity registered as Al-Baraka Financial Services way back in December 2009. The bank was also to have a body of Islamic scholars to advise whether the principles of shariah were being complied with.

But in January 2010, the HC stayed the government's plans and issued notices to the RBI, Finance Ministry and Kerala State Industries Development Corporation (KSIDC) which was to hold 11 percent equity in Al-Baraka.

The RBI replied that the current laws did not permit such a bank.

With its plans running into rough weather, the state government too lost hope and even told the state assembly that its plan was not to establish an Islamic bank, but only a financial institution that would work on the interest-free principle.

Read more: Kerala High Court clears way for India's first Islamic bank - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Kerala-High-Court-clears-way-for-Indias-first-Islamic-bank/articleshow/7417686.cms#ixzz1D4fyq2Z3

Zakir Naik to address Oxford Union by satellite

Muslim scholar to take part in discussion with debating society despite exclusion order imposed by Theresa May in June

• Rajeev Syal and Nick Harding
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 28 January 2011 18.59 GMT
• Article history

Theresa May cited Zakir Naik’s assertion that 'all Muslims should be terrorists' as grounds for the ban, comments Naik said were taken out of context. Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA

An Indian Muslim scholar who is banned from entering Britain is to address the Oxford Union via satellite link, in a direct challenge to the home secretary, Theresa May.

Zakir Naik, who was placed under an exclusion order last summer, has been invited by the debating society to take part in a discussion in two weeks' time on the theme of religious tolerance.

The invitation has angered May and could provide an awkward dilemma for the Conservative party. The former shadow home secretary Chris Grayling promised to ban the use of satellite technology to broadcast the views of excluded Islamist preachers based abroad.

Naik, who founded the global satellite channel Peace TV, was the first Muslim preacher to be banned by the coalition government when he was stopped from entering the country in June.

The Mumbai-based television evangelist was invited weeks ago to take part in the debate with academics and students. Thames Valley police have been advising the union on how to conduct the meeting.

Naik told the Guardian he was delighted by the invitation. "This gives me the perfect opportunity to show the British people my true views rather than the distorted and false grounds cited by the home secretary," he said.

He has argued that he is a moderate and is currently involved in an appeal court action to have the order lifted.

Peace TV has a huge following in the Muslim districts of Mumbai, Naik's native city. Naik has been named as the third most popular spiritual guru in India.

In a letter highlighting the reasons for his exclusion, May quoted Naik's assertion that "all Muslims should be terrorists" as one example of his unreasonable behaviour. He claims the statement was taken out of context and that he was referring about the right to "terrorise" thieves.

Another passage quoted by the home secretary is said to come from a 2006 lecture, in which Naik said of Osama bin Laden: "If he is fighting the enemies of Islam, I am for him." Naik claims the lecture was given in 1998, before the September 11 attacks.

Naik, who has also been accused of holding antisemitic and sexist views, claims to be "non-violent and an enemy of extremism".

His ban provoked a row in Whitehall over whether it was right to exclude Islamic preachers who pledged to help the government halt the spread of violent ideologies. In October, court papers revealed that Charles Farr, director general of the office for security and counter-terrorism, backed Naik's fight to stay in Britain. One of Farr's senior officials, Sabin Khan, was suspended from duty for criticising the exclusion as a "huge error of judgment".

The Oxford Union is regarded as one of the most prestigious debating chambers in the world and was once described by Harold Macmillan as "the last bastion of free speech in the western world". Founded in 1823, it has played host to the likes of US presidents Reagan, Nixon and Carter, the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa and the Queen.

A spokesman for the union said Naik should be allowed to speak because of his influence in the debate on Islamic fundamentalism.

"The Oxford Union exists to discuss and debate ideas, even those considered unorthodox or controversial by society at large. Members of the union will be given the opportunity to challenge Dr Naik on any aspect of his views.

"Dr Naik will be speaking via video link, rather than appearing in person. We have no desire to challenge Dr Naik's ban on entry to the UK. However, we do wish to give our members the chance to discuss and challenge his views on terrorism and the Home Office's recent decision to ban him," he said.

In opposition, David Cameron was highly critical of Labour's failure to ban hardline preachers. After a number of news stories highlighted the way banned preachers were circumventing the law, he and the opposition pledged to stop it.

In a speech delivered to a US audience in December 2009, Chris Grayling, the then shadow home secretary, promised to stop banned preachers from circumventing exclusion orders by broadcasting their words by satellite link or video.

"We have seen numerous examples of banned preachers propagating their views to British audiences by video or audio link from the countries where they now live. If we are in government, we will take further steps to outlaw such activity – and to prosecute those who organise the propagation of banned ideologies via video and satellite links in public places," he said in a speech, which is still on the party's website.

The Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, former chairman of the Commons counter-terrorism committee, called for the government to halt the broadcast. "The coalition government should pursue this with vigour. Naik is a subversive pest and his words not be allowed to reach the vulnerable and the impressionable," he said.

The Home Office said: "The government makes no apologies for refusing people access to the UK if we believe they represent a threat to our society. Coming here is a privilege that we refuse to extend to those who seek to subvert our shared values."

Courtesy: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jan/28/zakir-naik-oxford-union-satellite

World Muslim population doubling, report projects

By Richard Allen Greene, CNN

Twenty years ago, the world had about 1.1 billion Muslims. Twenty years from now, it will have about twice as many - and they'll represent more than a quarter of all people on earth, according to a new study released Thursday.

That's a rise from less than 20 percent in 1990.

Pakistan will overtake Indonesia as home of the largest number of Muslims, as its population pushes over 256 million, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Lifeprojects.

The number of Muslims in the United States will more than double, to 6.2 million, it anticipates.

Afghanistan's population will nearly double, to about 50.5 million, making it home to the ninth largest Muslim population in the world.

Israel will become nearly a quarter Muslim. The Palestinian territories have one of the highest growth rates in the world.

Fractious Nigeria, where Christian-Muslim violence has left thousands dead in the past decade, will become a Muslim-majority country by 2030, the Pew Forum projects.

And two western European countries - France and Belgium - will become more than 10 percent Muslim. Sweden will hover just below that level, at 9.9 percent.

Iran, on the other hand, will see very slow growth. Iranian women have among the fewest children of anyone in the Muslim world. They use birth control at exactly the same rate as American women, 73 percent.

Explore our interactive maps showing the growth of Muslim populations by country

The Muslim share of the global population will rise primarily because of their relatively high birth rate, the large number of Muslims of childbearing age, and an increase in life expectancy in Muslim-majority countries, according to the report, "The Future of the Global Muslim Population."

Conversion will play relatively little part in the increase, the report anticipates. It says little data is available on conversion, but what little there is suggests Islam loses as many adherents via conversion as it gains.

Pakistan's rapid growth - adding an estimated 70 million people in 20  years - could create "a potentially lethal cocktail,"  said Ghaffar Hussain of  the Quilliam Foundation, which calls itself and anti-extremism think tank and  does work in Pakistan.

"Pakistan is an unstable country, there are literally hundreds of  jihadist groups," he said.

And the government is not doing much to slow population growth, unlike in nearby Bangladesh, he said.

"In Bangladesh they have tax incentives not to have large families.  Pakistan doesn't have that strategy - they're not even talking about it," said  Hussain.

"More effort should be made to finding some solutions, especially in the  border region with Afghanistan," he advised.

Governments in Europe, meanwhile, should do more to explain the value of  immigration, he argued.

Muslim growth there "is coming from the first generation having large  families" and will slow down, he predicted.

But the large new Muslim populations are not always welcome, he said.

"A lot of European countries don't tell their people we need immigration  for (economic reasons)," he said, adding that government also should do more to  help new immigrants assimilate.

European government need "some sort of strategy of what to do when people  come. Integration has been managed very badly," he said.

The key phrase in the Pew Forum report is "growing but slowing," says  Alan Cooperman, associate director of the think tank.

The increase in the last 20 years is greater than what we expect in the next 20 years," he said. Muslim population growth "is a line that's flattening out. They're increasing, but they're getting closer to the norm, the average."

In other words, Muslims are coming into line with global trends toward fewer children per woman and an aging population. But, the report points out, because of the existing Muslim "youth bulge," or unusually high percentage of young people, Muslim population growth has a certain momentum that will take decades to come into line with world averages - if it ever does.

The Pew report, more than a year in the making, is part of an ambitious attempt by the think tank to calculate the number of adherents to each of the world's major religions. The Islam report comes first, and a Christian project is in the works.

They started with Muslims, Cooperman said, because they are "the largest group for which data was lacking, and we saw public interest in knowing more."

Despite the rapid growth of Islam, Christianity seems set to remain the biggest religion in the world for the next 20 years. There are currently more than 2 billion Christians - 30 to 35 percent of the global population - making it very unlikely that there will be fewer than 2.2 billion Christians in 2030.

"There is nothing in these numbers to indicate that in 2030 there would be more Muslims that Christians," Cooperman said.

In fact, both Christianity and Islam could be growing, both in absolute terms and as a percentage of the whole, he pointed out.

"We don't want people to jump to the conclusion that if Islam is growing, everyone else is shrinking," he said. "Christianity and Islam could both be growing at the expense of other religions."

Sub-Saharan Africa is a case in point, he said.

"Tremendous numbers are being added in sub-Saharan Africa, but... Christianity and Islam are both growing rapidly. There is not a change in the overall proportions of Muslims to Christians."

He's aware that the report has policy implication, but insists that the purpose of the Pew Forum is simply to provide unbiased data.

"It's not our role to say what should be done," Cooperman said.

What they're aiming to do, one of the project's leader said, is to make sure there's reliable information available.

"There has been a lot of speculation about the growth of the Muslim population around the world, and many of those who speculate don't have good data," said Brian Grim, a senior researcher at the Pew Forum.

For example, the report undermines the notion that Europe is heading toward having any country with a Muslim majority. The continent will be about 8 percent Muslim in 2030, it projects.

"The data that we have isn't pointing in the direction of 'Eurabia' at all," Grim said.

"The Muslim population is growing and slowing. Instead of a runaway train, it's trending with the general global population," he said.

Cooperman hopes that information will help make for more intelligent discussions, he said: "In the midst of heated debate and speculation, we think that solid, reliable, empirical estimates are valuable."

Courtesy: http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/27/world-muslim-population-doubling-report-projects/