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Islam in Europe becoming ‘more radical’ says European Churches conference

PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle 07.02.2013 13:03
Rev. Guy Liagre, Secretary-General of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences, said in Warsaw on Wednesday that Islam in Europe is becoming more fundamentalist and radical.

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From left at European Churches Conference: Dr. Joanna J. Matuszewska, Archbishop Józef Michalik and Rev. Guy Liagre: photo - PAP/Rafal Guz

“So far, Islam has been tolerant [in Europe]. But now it is changing into being much more conservative. [...] You can see the fundamentalist tendencies,” Rev. Dr Guy Liagre said at the end of the three-day Conference of European Churches.

A press release issued at the end of the meeting, chaired by Poland's Archbishop Jozef Michalik, said that there was particular concern at the conference about “the situation of those migrants coming to Europe who do not feel at home in the mainline European Churches and take refuge in new religious movements of one kind or another.

“The wider global context of this phenomenon was also noted and reference was made to eclecticism, fluidity of religious allegiance, and the way in which social media is changing the way people belong and relate,” says the press release.

The end of the conference came as Bulgarian police claimed that the Lebanon-based Hezbollah organization was responsible for a deadly 2012 bus bombing in the seaside resort of Burgas, which killed five Israeli tourists and a bus driver.

Hezbollah rejected the allegations on Thursday.

Churches claim around 558 million Christians in Europe, though congregations are declining, while the number of Muslims, currently at 44 million, continues to grow. (pg)

Source: IAR

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