53 Million Muslims in Europe

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MORE THAN 53 MILLION MUSLIMS IN EUROPE
Approximately 14 Million Live in the European Union

By Wolfgang Polzer

Friday, October 21, 2005

SOEST (ANS) -- More than 53 million Muslims are currently living in Europe; 14 million of them reside in the European Union (EU). These figures were released by the Central Institute - Islam Archives in Soest, Germany, in October.

The number of Muslims has increased by 800,000 over the last two years, as the institute’s director, Salim Abdullah, explained to the evangelical news agency “idea”. Among the 25 EU states France has the highest number of Muslims – 5.5 million – followed by Germany (3.2 million), the United Kingdom (1.5 million) and Italy (1 million).

Taking into account the whole continent, Russia has 25 million Muslims and the European part of Turkey 5.9 million. The Muslim population in Germany is mostly made up of Turkish migrants. But the number of Muslims holding a German passport has risen to almost one million.

Muslim worship in Germany is on the rise. Approximately 200,000 take part in daily prayers and 493,000 in Friday prayers at mosques and prayer houses – an increase of more than ten percent over last year’s figures. Islam in Germany is a “young religion”, according to the institute. 850,000 Muslims are minors. One in five Muslim adolescents worships regularly.

The number of converts to Islam has reached a new high in Germany. According to the institute more than 1.100 persons changed their religion to Islam between 2004 and 2005. Approximately 60 percent of the converts were women. Most of them converted because they married a Muslim.

But the reverse is also true: More and more Muslims in Germany become Christians. Most of them are Iranians in exile, who left their country after the Islamic revolution of 1979. Iranian converts estimate that each year approximately 60 Muslims are baptized in Germany.

The Islam-Institute believes that altogether more than 100.000 Iranian Shiites have converted to the Christian faith since the Islamic revolution. Most of them live in the United States.

Wolfgang Polzer (55), is senior news editor of the Evangelical News Agency idea, Wetzlar (Germany), which he joined in 1981. His previous work included four years in the editorial department of the Salvation Army in Germany. In all, he has spent 28 years in Christian media. Wolfgang can be contacted by e-mail at: Wolfgang.Polzer@idea.de.

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