Headline News 07/04/2017

Headlines

• Islam set to become World's Largest Religion by 2075, Study Suggests

• US Warns of Unilateral Syria Moves if UN Fails to Act

• Afghanistan Reacts Angrily to Pakistan's Fencing of Border

Details

Islam set to become World's Largest Religion by 2075, Study Suggests

The number of babies born to Muslims is expected to overtake those born to Christians within two decades, making Islam the world’s largest religion by 2075, according to new analysis of data by the Pew Research Center. People with no religious affiliation are set to shrink as a proportion of the world’s population as a result of their declining birthrate and growing numbers of Muslims and Christians. The analysis points to modest but significant demographic shifts in religious affiliation over the coming decades, as populations in the global south continue to grow rapidly and Christian populations in Europe age and die.

Between 2010 and 2015, an estimated 31% of babies born in the world were to Muslim parents, far exceeding the 24% share of the world’s population held by Muslims. In the same period, 33% of the world’s babies were born to Christians, only slightly higher than their 31% share of the global population. That is set to change, owing to the relatively young age profile of Muslims and their higher fertility rates. Between 2030 and 2035, slightly more babies (225 million) will be born to Muslims than to Christians (224 million). Between 2055 and 2060, the gap is expected to widen to 6 million – 232m births to Muslims, and 226m to Christians.

Meanwhile, deaths among Christians in Europe are far outstripping births. In Germany, between 2010 and 2015, there were an estimated 1.4m more deaths than births among Christians. Pew said the pattern was expected to continue across much of Europe in the decades ahead.

Despite a relatively young and fertile Christian population in sub-Saharan Africa, Christians have accounted for a disproportionate 37% of the world’s deaths in recent years. “In contrast with [the] baby boom among Muslims, people who do not identify with any religion are experiencing a much different trend,” said Pew. Religiously unaffiliated people make up 16% of the global population, but only produce 10% of the world’s babies By 2055-2060, 9% of all babies will be born to religiously unaffiliated women, while more than 70% will be born to either Muslims (36%) or Christians (35%), said Pew. Religiously unaffiliated people are “heavily concentrated in places with ageing populations and low fertility, such as China, Japan, Europe and North America. By contrast, religions with many adherents in developing countries – where birthrates are high and infant mortality rates have been falling – are likely to grow quickly. Much of the worldwide growth of Islam and Christianity, for example, is expected to take place in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Pew. In 2015, of the world’s 7.3bn people, Christians were the largest religious group, at 31%. Muslims were second at 24%, followed by religious “nones” (16%), Hindus (15%) and Buddhists (7%). Jews, adherents of folk religions (faiths associated with a particular group of people, ethnicity or tribe), and followers of other religions made up smaller shares of the global population. The projections did not assume that all babies would retain the religion of their parents, but attempted to take religious switching into account, although “conversion patterns are complex and varied”, said Pew. [Source: The Guardian]

No matter how hard the West and other nations try to halt the spread of Islam, Allah (swt) is preparing the circumstance for His (swt) to dominate.

US Warns of Unilateral Syria Moves if UN Fails to Act

The United States has warned it could take unilateral action if the United Nations fails to respond to a suspected chemical attack on a rebel-held town in Syria that killed more than 80 people, including many children. "When the United Nations consistently fails in its duty to act collectively, there are times in the life of states that we are compelled to take our own action," US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said on Wednesday. The warning came during an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council called by France and Britain after an early morning attack on Tuesday in Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province. Britain, France and the US presented a draft resolution demanding a full investigation of the attack, which they blamed on the Syrian government. But talks ended without a vote after Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said the text was "categorically unacceptable". Syria has denied the allegations, while Russia had blamed the rebels, saying the deaths occurred when a government shell hit a rebel chemical weapons depot. Haley lashed out at Moscow for failing to rein in Damascus, standing in the council chamber to hold up photographs of victims - one showing a young child lying lifeless, a mask covering his face. "How many more children have to die before Russia cares?" she asked. "If Russia has the influence in Syria that it claims to have, we need to see them use it," she said. "We need to see them put an end to these horrific acts." The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said at least 86 people, including 30 children, were killed in the raid on Khan Sheikhoun. Dozens more were left gasping for air, convulsing, and foaming at the mouth, doctors said. If confirmed, it will be the worst chemical weapons attack in Syria since 2013, when sarin gas was used on a rebel-held area of Damascus. "If we are not prepared to act, then this council will keep meeting, month after month to express outrage at the continuing use of chemical weapons and it will not end," Haley said. "We will see more conflict in Syria.

We will see more pictures that we can never unsee." The draft resolution backs a probe by the Organisation of the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and demands that Syria cooperate to provide information on its military operations on the day of the assault. Russia's Deputy Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov told the council the proposed measure was hastily prepared and unnecessary, but voiced support for an investigation. "The main task now is to have an objective inquiry into what happened," he said.

Negotiations continued on the proposed resolutions throughout most of Wednesday. Diplomats said it could come up for a vote at the council as early as Thursday. In a press conference at the White House later in the day, US President Donald Trump said the chemical attack had crossed "many, many lines" and had abruptly changed his thinking about Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Only days earlier multiple members of Trump's administration had said Assad's ouster was no longer a US priority, drawing outrage from Assad critics in the United States and abroad. But Trump said Tuesday's attack "had a big impact on me - big impact".[ Source: Al Jazeera]

US hypocrisy knows no bounds. After having, watched Assad repeatedly gas his people and cross numerous red lines, the US has finally found the reason to intervene. This reason is not based on humanitarian concerns, and has more to do with America safeguarding its interests in the Levant.

Afghanistan Reacts Angrily to Pakistan's Fencing of Border

Afghanistan is calling on Pakistan to stop fencing off the border between the two countries, suggesting that Kabul might resort to military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the issue. The Pakistani military launched the fencing project last month after the fortification of regular border crossings and construction of new security installations along portions of the 2,600-kilometer, largely porous frontier, known as the Durand Line.

Islamabad says the measures will help address mutual terrorism concerns and prevent illegal crossings as well as terrorist infiltration in both directions. The border security project, however, has outraged Afghan political circles and media commentators. The turmoil-hit nation historically has disputed portions of the 1893 demarcation undertaken under then-British rulers of the Indian subcontinent. Days of heated debate on the issue in the Afghan parliament prompted the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday to issue a formal government response. “We have clearly stated that any type of unilateral actions taken along the Durand Line without the agreement of the government of Afghanistan [are] going to be ineffective, impractical and impossible,” ministry spokesman Ahmed Shakib Mostaghani told a news conference in Kabul.

Afghanistan has long referred to the border with Pakistan as an imaginary boundary. Mostaghani again dismissed as “mere excuses” Islamabad’s assertions that militants are entering Pakistan from the Afghan side to launch terrorist attacks in the neighboring country. Mostaghani added that his government has taken up the issue with Pakistani authorities to resolve it through diplomatic channels.

“If this is not going to result in prevention of the unilateral actions taken by the Pakistani side along the Durand Line, and if the violations continue, the government of Afghanistan and the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces are ready to defend the country’s territorial integrity and national sovereignty,” he responded when asked whether Kabul might consider using force to stop the fencing. The spokesman also said that instead of indulging in "unjustified" steps like fencing the border and shutting legal crossings, Islamabad should move against insurgents and sanctuaries on Pakistani soil who are being used against Afghanistan. [Source: Voice of America]

The nation state model left behind the British and enforced by the prevalent world order is continuing to divide Muslims. The latest episode is the Durand Line left behind the British, which is causing dispute.

Borders in Islam are forbidden, and all nation-states in the Muslim world must be dismantled and replaced by Khilafah "Caliphate" Rashidah (Caliphate) that has no fixed borders. This is the only solution to current spat between Afghan and Pakistan, and other border disputes between other Muslim countries.