With this title, Xiskya Valladares has published in Palabra de julio-agosto an article on Islam. It was before the attack in Barcelona.
The advance of Islam in Europe and Spain has to do, of course, with pure demography, but it is also a consequence of relativism, superficiality and lack of Christian witness.
The Islamization of Europe is a declared objective of many Islamist leaders. The first was Houari Boumedienne, in 1974, at the United Nations, who explained the method: "The wombs of our women will give us victory". The most recent was Muammar Gaddafi, in 2006, and he said the same thing: "Islam will conquer Europe without firing a shot". And he gave the reason: "Some people believe that Muhammad is the prophet of the Arabs or Muslims. This is a mistake. Muhammad is the prophet of all people."
Statistics on the growth of Muslims in Europe confirm their endeavor. In Spain, which is not among the most Islamized European countries, the number of Muslims in 2016 was almost 2 million, a 4% of the total population, and of them 42 % were legally Spanish. But this upward trend is global. The latest Pew Research Center report says that Christianity today represents 31.2 % of the world's population and Islam, 24.1 %. And it estimates that in 2060 Christianity will be 31.8 % compared to 31.1% for Islam. There is more data: increase in the number of mosques, of neighborhoods governed by Sharia, appearance of Islamic universities, jihadists in politics and the armed forces, etc. And I am talking about Muslims, not terrorists.
It seems to me that these are the results of relativism, religious superficiality, lack of witness and faith commitment, and the work of atheistic and populist ideologies that infect the "people of the Cross". Apart from the obvious Muslim proselytism. And I do not invite to the Catholic proselytism, but to present the Gospel to our contemporaries without shame and without fear in an attractive way and knowing how to give reason of our faith. They have the right to know it. These are times of mission. Not only because the European Christian roots of many centuries are at stake, but also because we are responsible for the gift of the faith we have received. We cannot remain indifferent.
