TEHRAN (Iran News) –Ever-increasing growth of inclination of the youths to Islam and to the Holy Quran in the world has baffled the West in all fields. Only in the UK, the current of inclination to Islam is not countable. Recently Russia Today News TV Channel reported the fast growth of Islam in the UK and at the same time the decline in people’s inclination to Christianity in this country and this issue has been reflected in all confidential bulletins in Europe. The report says while Christian churches are struggling heavily to attract people for holding Christian ceremonies, the Islamic community of the UK is ever-increasingly blooming.

As per report, the growth of Islam is so fast and strong that some forethoughtful Islamic groups of the UK have exerted all its efforts that fast growth of Islam is not considered as a threat to the British traditions because it would force the government and the king to react against this current.

Russia Today then adds: Islam is the fastest growing religion in the UK so that its Muslim population has grown by 100 percent in the recent decade and it has been doubled. A report quoting BBC as saying that  Islamic naming and the record number of naming boys has been the name of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). The under 30 youths have been the most among Christians who have shown their interests and inclination to Islam.

According to the official statistics and data, the average age of Muslim community of the UK is 27. Russia Today further says that one of the reasons for the rise in the number of Muslim population of this country is the open climate and attractive economy of the UK for Islamic financial tools like issuing Islamic bonds and investments which are welcomed by the Muslims. The UK was the first non-Muslim country which let issuance of Islamic bonds and recently the British supervisory bodies have approved banking directives in accordance with Islamic sharia and they noted the rise in demands for Islamic financial services was the main reason for approval.

While Islam is blooming in the island, according to the latest reports of the British Office of National Statistics, the amount of inclination to the Christian churches in the UK is currently declining 15% faster than what had been predicted. According to the very report, the Christian population committed to performing religious rites in the UK, namely, people who claim they believe in Christianity, has decreased by 5m comparing to a decade ago.

Abdrew Copson, the executive manager of the British Humanist Association (BHA), has told Russia Today about the reason behind the decline of Christianity in the UK and has said: This issue is a long term decline and currently on average, 95% of Christians in the UK do not turn up in the churches and this is a bitter truth for Christians which has been noticed by the British Government in a way that former British Prime Minister David Cameron, with expressing his concerns in his speeches aimed at encouraging the Christians, had emphasized the necessity for commitment of the Christians to the religious rites especially protecting sanctity of the churches.

During the recent days in Sweden some incomprehensible reactions to Holy Quran burning took place. Salwan Momika, the Iraqi refugee, on June 29, burned a copy of the Holy Quran in front of the largest mosque of the capital of Sweden, Stockholm. This insult and blasphemy has precedents in Europe and especially in Sweden. Danish-Swedish politician Rasmus Paludan on January, 27, 2023 burned a copy of the Holy Quran outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm. This blasphemy and insult took place like what Iraqi refugee did and unfortunately under the protection of the Swedish police and government. This politician once again and a week later and after the Friday Prayer ceremony in the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen, continued his insult against the Holy Quran. Paludan said the reason of his insult was the disapproval of Turkish government for joining of Sweden to the NATO that these two issues were irrelevant.

Edwin Wagensveld, Dutch leader of Far-Right Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA) group, on January 23, 2023, tore apart the Holy Quran before showing it being set on fire. Historic sources show us that revengeful reaction of Holy Quran burning in Europe dates back to the Middle Ages. The region of Iberian Peninsula, including two countries of Spain and Portugal of today after the conquest by the Umayyad Caliphate, was named Andalus. 800 years later and in 1492 and because of the rift among Muslims, Muslims lost the control of Andalus. The very revengefulness caused that the Arabic versions of the Holy Quran were burned between 1498 -1500 under the orders of the church. The 16th Century was the beginning of the famous inquisition courts in the Spanish Empire. These courts for over 300 years, spread the shadow of fear over the Spanish Kingdom as the most important empire and kingdom of the 16th of the world.

The main goal of this type of revengeful reaction was to eliminate Islam and its exalted rites which strongly provoked the anger of the church, and Muslim citizens of Spain were displaced in different parts of the world because of fear of torture and horrible death. This trend was carried out permanently in other cities of the Catholic European powers.

So one can understand that insults against Muslims’ rites have always been in progress with the aim of humiliation and wiping out signs of Islam in Europe and Western world. Today’s Holy Quran burning is undoubtedly a kind of hysteric reaction of the far-right in Europe to the trend of population growth of Muslims in the world and especially in European countries.

History has shown that the more hysterical reaction and away from wisdom, justice and logic increases in any field, the more attention and deepening of nations especially the youths to that field increases.

Thank God thousands of times that today Muslims are on the threshold of creating unity and integrity for materializing their old dreams of return to their own civilization and they account for one-fourth of the world population and actually they will not retreat from their sublime destinations because of such imprudent reactions. Experience has shown us that unconventional reactions brings this point to the mind that if they have not burned, they will not burn.