¢â‚¬Å“Islam entered Europe twice and left it… Perhaps
the next conquest, Allah willing, will be by means of
preaching and ideology. The conquest need not
necessarily be by the sword… Perhaps we will
conquer these lands without armies. We want an
army of preachers and teachers who will present
Islam in all languages and in all dialects. ¢â‚¬   ¢â‚¬“ Yusuf
al-Qaradawi, a popular Sunni Muslim cleric, head of
the European Council for Fatwa and Research1
Since the 1960s large numbers of Muslims have been migrating to
the West. Muslim migration is unusual because of radicals within
the community who are deliberately seeking to create dramatic
changes in their host societies; they want Islam to gain social,
cultural, economic and political power.

Secularism has already undermined the Judeo-Christian basis of
Western society, and this makes it easier for radical Muslims in the
West to progress towards their goal. There are also other factors
that seem to make many Westerners ashamed of their Judeo-
Christian heritage and values. These factors include guilt and
shame about two world wars, colonialism, racism and the
Holocaust.

What is happening in the West is linked to worldwide developments
in Islam. Muslims around the globe are regaining their confidence
and promoting a resurgence of Islam. Their aim is to establish
Muslim control in politics, economics and culture in every country.
In this process the Islamic world is growing more assertive and
intolerant towards the West. This resurgence of Islam and the
increasing power of Islamism (political Islam) strongly impact
Muslim communities in the West. In response, the West is
gradually changing its structures, laws and customs to suit its
Muslim communities.

MIGRATION AND DEMOGRAPHICS

Muslims are still a minority in the West; however, their growth rate
has been dramatic. In Western Europe, there were only about
50,000 Muslims in 1900. By 1970 the number had grown to 3-4
million, and by 2008 it exceeded 25 million. Forty percent of
Rotterdam ¢â‚¬â„¢s population is Muslim. In Brussels the figure is 33
percent and in Marseilles and Malmo 25 percent. Muslims comprise
an estimated 20 percent of the population of inner London, 15
percent of the population in Birmingham, and 10 percent in Paris
and Copenhagen. Muhammad has become the most common name
for newborn boys in Brussels and Amsterdam, and the third most
common in England. Muslim populations are growing much faster
than non-Muslim ones. This growth is due to continued migration,
higher birth rates and conversions. Many Muslim leaders have
expressed their vision of an Islamic Europe in the foreseeable future,
achieved primarily by demographic changes.

Bernard Lewis predicted in July 2004 that Muslims would form a
majority in Europe by the end of the 21st century. He repeated his
warning in 2007, arguing that Europe is experiencing a dramatic
demographic shift coupled with a process of Islamisation.

Example: the number of Muslims in Britain

The 2001 UK census found that 1,591,126 people identified
themselves as Muslims  ¢â‚¬“ this amounted to 2.7% of the total
population.4 However, other estimates from Muslim bodies, NGOs
and academics suggest that the real figure was much higher. In
2002 Professor M. Anwar, head of the Centre for Research in
Ethnic Relations at the University of Warwick, calculated that the
Muslim population was 1.8 million. In 2001 the Muslim Council of
Great Britain estimated that there had been 1.7 million Muslims in
the UK in 1999. In 2002 a Government sponsored delegation of
British Muslims told senior figures in Egypt that there were about 3
million Muslims in Britain.5 British Census records have also been
criticised because vast numbers of respondents have refused to
answer the question about religious affiliation. This evidence
suggests that the government is underplaying the size of the British
Muslim population.

So even though recent government estimates have shown dramatic
increases in the size of the Muslim population from their earlier
estimates, they may still vastly underestimate the true size of the
Muslim population and should therefore be treated with caution.

More…