Europe Never Was Meant to be a Christian Citadel

"One third of Britain’s 1.6m Muslims are under 16 –
compared to a fifth of the population as a whole.
Timothy Savage, a US foreign service officer
expressing his own opinion, argued in last summer’s
Washington Quarterly that dealing with Islam would
do more to shape Europe than any other issue this
century. If current trends of immigration, a low
birth rate for non-Muslims and a high Muslim birth
rate continued, he said, “Muslims could outnumber
non-Muslims in France and perhaps in all western
Europe by mid-century.” According to the Pew Research
Center, the population of the European Union’s
current 25 member states will be one-tenth Muslim by 2020.

Detailed but little-noticed research on the attitudes
of British Muslims, published by the London-based
Islamic Human Rights Commission at the end of last
year, suggested a critical view of British foreign
policies and a fear of being stereotyped as terrorist
suspects. The research, based on interviews with
people mostly between 15 and 29, found respondents
overwhelmingly critical about British policy towards
the Palestinians, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Bosnia and Iraq."

Stephen Fidler, Jimmy Burns and Roula Khalaf Financial Times July 13, 2005










Banybashi Mosque, Sofia, Bulgaria, 1576

Mimar Sinan, architect

Photo credit: European Commission