With due respect, the assumption produced by the Pew Research Center in its report “The Future of World Religions” is quite irrational. The news has created much enthusiasm among the Muslims and others.
My projection is that the Muslims can’t grow this faster at least in the next 20-30 years because of the alarming rise in fanaticism among them in many countries at the moment.
They are large in number who think that non-Muslims are kafirs or third-class citizens of the Earth created by the Almighty Allah only for the Muslims, and that if any non-Muslim criticises any Muslim person — be it the Prophet, or contemporary criminal, corrupt or fraud politician — those “non-believers” should be killed.
And those who are killing non-Muslims nowadays in the Middle East and South Asia including so-called secular Bangladesh are getting extensive support from ordinary Muslims, their governments and the military.
The reason behind rising impatience among Muslims is Islamophobia among the non-Muslims which has turned the believers and frauds in Islam crazy. They never imagined that people could start blaming Islam for making its followers radical. They’re stunned since the scholars teach them that Islam is the best religion while others are disgusting, and those who follow Islam are the best creatures of the God. The feeling of such superiority complex is not irrational.
And it is politics and business that has heavily contaminated the teachings of the Qur’an in the last few decades. The worst situation is seen in Muslim-majority countries where religion-based politics and Islamic business (mainly banking) are encouraged leading to rise in fanaticism, killings, fatwa and corruption.
Meanwhile, the liberal countries which accept also the Muslims as immigrants will face dire consequences in the next few years since Muslims believe in expansion — no matter it is qualitative.
The pious and peace-loving Muslims are to be blamed for the Islamist militant activities as they had kept mum on the issue of radicalism out of shame since Islam, unfortunate for humanity, claims to be the best philosophy of the world leading to superiority complex among the little-educated Muslims. Islam also forbids its followers about questioning the unclear or inconsistent provisions.
They’ve to correct themselves first — by rejecting the radicals and bringing them to book, and at the same time preaching the true and peaceful Islam among themselves, particularly by making the Qur’an easily readable for the illiterate and underdeveloped Muslims, and destroying the misleading and destructive Hadiths.
What will happen is more and more Muslims will choose atheist humanism while some will convert to Christianity or others. And yes, some Christians, lower-caste Hindus and underprivileged people will accept conversion into Islam.
Pew Research Center thinks: “In addition to fertility rates [Globally, Muslims have the highest fertility rate, an average of 3.1 children per woman – well above replacement level (2.1), the minimum typically needed to maintain a stable population] and age distributions, religious switching is likely to play a role in the growth of religious groups. But conversion patterns are complex and varied. In some countries, it is fairly common for adults to leave their childhood religion and switch to another faith. In others, changes in religious identity are rare, legally cumbersome or even illegal.”