Hege Storhaug, HRS
Pews beregninger sett opp mot meningsmålinger som viser en sterk radikalisering av unge britiske muslimer, gir grunn til bekymring. I underkant av 40 prosent unge britiske muslimer i dag ønsker at sharia skal erstatte britisk lov. I rapporten ”Islam on Campus”, utført av Centre of Social Cohesion i 2008, avdekkes det at blant muslimske britiske universitetsstudenter ønsker 40 prosent ’sterkt eller ganske mye’ at sharia innføres. En av tre mener det er legitimt å drepe i islams navn, og 32 prosent mener sharia ikke kan moderniseres.
Hvordan denne ideologiske trenden skal kunne snus, er vår tids største utfordring, ikke minst tatt i betraktning at ingen befolkningsgruppe i Europa vokser raskere enn den muslimske.
I PEWs undersøkelse kommer det også frem at en av fire immigranter til Storbritannia har bakgrunn fra den muslimske verden.
Projections by the respected Pew Research Centre said the 40 years between 1990 and 2030 will see a fivefold increase in the number of Muslims in Britain. In 1990 there were 1.1million Muslims in Britain, representing 2 per cent of the population. By last year that figure had risen to 2.8million, or 4 per cent of the population. By 2030 the number will rise to 5.5million, 8 per cent of an estimated 68million population, Pew researchers said.
Last May official figures showed that Britain could have a population of 70million by 2029, largely fuelled by the migrant boom.
By comparison, in the same year America is expected to have a Muslim population of 6.2million and the Arab state of Kuwait 3.6million, it forecast.
The report said one in four migrants to the UK are Muslims.
‘The greatest increases in the Muslim share of the population – 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,’ it said.
Befolkningsøkningen blant muslimer vil også skyldes høyere fødselsrater generelt enn blant andre grupper.
The Pew report also cited high birthrates. It said that ‘generally, Muslim populations tend to have higher fertility rates than non-Muslim populations’.
The study used past population changes, migration figures and fertility rates to estimate changing Islamic populations. By 2030 Muslims will make up 26 per cent of the world’s projected population of 8.3billion, up from 23 per cent of the estimated 2010 world population of 6.9billion, it said.
Those figures represent an increase from 1.6billion in 2010 to 2.2billion in 2030, a rise of 35 per cent.