Telling truth from myth

The internet is a fabulous resource but beware, it is also full of MYTHS and LIES. 

There is a myth floating around that I have now read in a number of blogs (spreading the fear) that Muslims in the USA will outnumber Christians by 2050 because they have larger families. 

This is created to demonise Muslims and to create fear. 

It simply isn't true and when you think about it, it doesn't add up. Don't take these sorts of "facts" at face-value, it doesn't take very much to look at the data and see that it can't be true. 

The average family size in the USA (total population) is 2.58. In Australia it is 2.6.

The international average size of a Muslim family is 2.9 (in 2010) compared to 4.3 in 1995. The current figure is probably even lower.

Muslims living in France and Germany are now having only 2.2 children per family, barely above the national average of those countries.

In Turkey the average family size in 2.15 and in Lebanon it is 1.86. Muslims in their own countries are not having large families as they once did and this partly the result of  education and improve circumstance of women. Those Muslims who are producing larger families tend to be very poor, uneducated and the least likely to move to another country i.e. those living in Pakistan. 

Fertility rates around the world are declining and demographers are seeing this in particular in third world countries. The more educated a woman is, the fewer children she has. This is very true in places like Africa. We are also seeing less infant deaths and as a result women aren't having as many babies as their children are surviving. 

Interestedly, when new migrants arrive in the first-world nation (such as the USA, Canada and Australia), they don't keep on having large families as they might have done in their own country. Their family size starts to reflect the national average. Across Europe, the difference between the Muslim and non-Muslim fertility rates has fallen from 0.7 to 0.4 and is heading towards a continent-wide convergence. Basically Muslim and non-Mulsim women will have the same fertility rates.

Muslims are not going to take over America with their "very large" families, simply because they don't have very large families.

This information is totally incorrect.

But more disturbing, we are seeing Americans moving away from Christianity (now around 34,169,000 people), however they aren't moving to Islam rather to no faith at all.

Secondly, our fear of Muslims is mostly due to the radicalised Muslims we are currently seeing within ISIS, most are not. Many who move to the west often do so to escape from radical Islam, the same reason why Christians escape places like Iraq and Iran.

So the next time you read a statistic that appears to be created to create fear - think twice before you share it around (as that simply shares the lie) and think about the facts. And don't assume the statistics are some government conspiracy or lie - the USA, Canada, UK, European countries and Australia produce very sound statistics. It is those that "tell a story" to suit their argument resulting in mis-useing information to create fear amoung the vulnerable and frightened. 

Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself'. 

(Matthew 22:37-39)

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