Islam grew about three times faster than Christianity between 2010 and 2020. This is according to new data from the Pew Research Center, which points to higher birth rates and lower rates of conversion as the main explanations.
The global Muslim population increased by almost 21 percent over the past decade. Christianity grew significantly slower, at around 6 percent over the same period. Islam thus grew twice as fast as the world’s population as a whole, which increased by 10 percent.
According to the study, Islam also gained more new followers than all non-Muslim religions combined during the period.
Among the reasons for this development, the higher fertility rate among Muslim women and the lower average age of the Muslim population are particularly mentioned. Between 2015 and 2020, a Muslim woman had an average of 2.9 children, compared with 2.2 children for women who did not belong to Islam.
The net effect of people joining or leaving Islam was small – both groups accounted for about 1 percent in the 2010s.
Distribution based on region. Photo: Pew Research Center
Expanding rapidly
Christianity remains the world’s largest religion, with 2.3 billion followers in 2020. Islam is the second largest, with 2 billion. But while the number of Christians increased, the religion’s share of the world’s population declined by almost 2 percent during the period.
According to the study, the growth of Christianity has been slowed by a large number of people leaving the religion to become non-religious. For every 100 adults who grew up as Christians, the religion lost an average of 11.6 people.
– Islam is set to grow to become the world’s largest religion in years ahead, unless trend lines shift, said Conrad Hackett, senior researcher at the Pew Research Center and one of the report’s authors, according to The Washington Post.
He describes the development as “striking” and notes that Muslims and Christians are now much closer in number because Islam is expanding faster than any other major religion.
The survey is based on thousands of census data and surveys in 201 countries. It covers seven groups: Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, other religions, and people with no specific religious affiliation.
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The European Commission will develop guidelines on how water consumption can be reduced by 10 percent by 2030.
The strategy is based on providing citizens with “increased knowledge” about “how to save water” and introducing “sound pricing policies,” while modernizing infrastructure.
The European Commission presents its strategy for water resilience with the message that “global water demand will exceed supply by 40 percent” by 2030. Therefore, Europeans must reduce their consumption as soon as possible, it is claimed.
Concretely, the strategy, which has also been highlighted by Fria Tider, means that the Commission will develop detailed guidelines on how water consumption can be reduced by 10 percent – according to many critics, yet another example of how the power holders in Brussels want to control citizens’ daily lives.
The methods include, among other things, “increasing public knowledge” through education about “how to save water” and introducing “sound pricing policies” – a formulation that according to analysts is likely to mean higher water costs for consumers.
The strategy also states that the EU needs to “reduce water leakage from pipelines and modernize water infrastructure through public and private financing and digital solutions.” Infrastructure is one of five priority areas in the strategy.
Yet another forum
The Commission’s focus is on governance and implementation, infrastructure and investments, digitalization and AI, research and innovation, and security and preparedness. Both behavioral change among citizens and infrastructure modernization are highlighted as very important.
The EU document also emphasizes that “Europe is a world leader in water technology and holds 40 percent of the world’s patents” and that “our water industry generates €107 billion and employs 1.7 million people”.
The strategy further notes that “very persistent pollutants, including PFAS, continue to accumulate in EU waters with harmful health effects that could cost €52-84 billion per year.” The solution according to the Commission is “water-smart methods” and “green infrastructure”.
From December 2025, the Commission will organize a “water resilience forum” every two years where various stakeholders can evaluate the efforts. The strategy is one of the priorities for 2024-2029 of the heavily criticized EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán issues a stark warning that European nations face extinction unless birth rates increase.
In harsh terms, he criticizes Western Europe’s “population replacement through migration” and explains that Hungary invests its economic resources in families instead of mass immigration.
In a post on X, the prime minister articulates his clear position:
“If a nation has no children, it has no future. The West chooses replacement through migration, we choose our families and our children. That is why we dedicate every possible economic resource to supporting them. Our future will not be imported from abroad”, he states.
In a radio interview, the Hungarian prime minister develops his argument and describes the demographic crisis as an existential issue.
— In the end it comes down to a very simple thought. If not enough children are born we will disappear, says Orbán, and continues:
— It must be understood that a shrinking country cannot be successful. Thus, when a community shrinks, its members will inevitably be increasingly worse off.
“A matter of survival”
Hungary’s leader emphasizes that the country’s population is “a matter of survival, both in the long term from a histtorical perspective and in the short term for the sake of economy”.
The Hungarian leader presents two paths for Europe to handle the demographic crisis. He is highly critical of the Western model.
— There is the Western path. There, not enough children are born and migrants are brought in one by one. There are fewer Germans or fewer French, and they are replaced by Muslims, he says.
Orbán explains Hungary’s strategy: “That path can be chosen, others tried it before us, we kept our heads down, did not let foreigners in, watched what happened to those who did, and what we not see in western Europe is not attractive. I do not recommend that we copy it, but then we need to have our own children”.
Massive support for families with children
The prime minister acknowledges that having children is a private matter, but emphasizes the state’s role in creating conditions.
— This is of course a private matter since the state cannot decide how many children someone should have, he says, but explains at the same time that Hungary still does what it can to try to create incentives for increased childbearing.
— What we can do is to support mothers who undertake giving birth to at least two children which means that for themselves and their husbands there is one child each. So they are maintaining our community.
The Hungarian leader describes how the country recognizes and rewards families with children economically.
— We recognize them, we support them, and we do not allow them to live worse lives just because they chose to have two children than those who did not. Those who are willing to raise children must be respected, acknowledged, supported and encouraged.
FBI’s new director Kash Patel has officially severed the agency’s ties with the Jewish advocacy group Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which roughly corresponds to the left-wing extremist organization Expo in Sweden.
The decision comes after ADL received harsh criticism for listing the murdered conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s organization as dangerous and “extremist”.
In recent weeks, the Jewish lobby group has faced intense criticism from tech billionaire Elon Musk and Republican politicians for its so-called “Glossary of Extremism and Hate” – a database where many conservative, nationalist and immigration-critical Americans were listed as alleged “extremists” or members of “hate groups”.
Particularly noteworthy was perhaps the inclusion of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), the conservative organization founded by Charlie Kirk, who was murdered nearly three weeks ago. TPUSA’s page on ADL’s website described the group as an organization with ties to “a range of right-wing extremists” and that had “generated support from anti-Muslim bigots, alt-lite activists and some corners of the white supremacist alt-right”.
After the massive criticism, ADL capitulated and deleted its entire “Glossary of Extremism and Hate” from the website on Tuesday evening.
“With over 1,000 entries written over many years, the ADL Glossary of Extremism has served as a source of high-level information on a wide range of topics for years. At the same time, an increasing number of entries in the Glossary were outdated. We also saw a number of entries intentionally misrepresented and misused”, the organization claimed in a statement.
The organization now claims to want to “explore new strategies and creative approaches to deliver our data and present our research more effectively” – a formulation that analysts interpret as an acknowledgment that the database was inaccurate and misleading.
FBI formally breaks all ties
The day after ADL deleted the database, FBI Director Kash Patel announced that the agency formally breaks all ties with the organization. He explained the decision with harsh criticism of his predecessor James Comey and his close cooperation with ADL.
James Comey wrote “love letters” to the ADL and embedded FBI agents with them – a group that ran disgraceful ops spying on Americans.
That era is OVER. This FBI won’t partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs. pic.twitter.com/R6IKpSTfuP
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) October 1, 2025
— James Comey disgraced the FBI by writing ‘love letters’ to the ADL and embedding agents with an extreme group functioning like a terrorist organization and the disgraceful operation they ran spying on Americans. That was not law enforcement, it was activism dressed up as counterterrorism, and it put Americans in danger, Patel tells Fox News Digital.
— That era is finished. This FBI formally rejects Comey’s policies and any partnership with the ADL, he continues.
Elon Musk: ADL is a hate group
Elon Musk has been one of the harshest critics and called ADL “a hate group”. In posts on X, he claimed that the FBI took its definitions of hate groups from ADL, “which is why FBI was investigating Charlie Kirk and Turning Point, instead of his murderers”.
Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna demanded that ADL explain its categorization of TPUSA.
“Seems to me like if they don’t agree with you, they will label you a ‘hate group'”, Luna stated on X.
The FBI was taking their “hate group” definitions from ADL, which is why FBI was investigating Charlie Kirk & Turning Point, instead of his murderers … https://t.co/xTAfSY8vqr
The background to Patel’s criticism goes back to May 8, 2017, when then-FBI Director James Comey spoke at ADL’s national leadership conference in Washington. In a notable speech, Comey declared his and the FBI’s “love” for the Jewish lobby organization.
Comey began by referring to a 2014 speech that he called “a love letter to ADL” and continued: “Three years later I can say, from the perspective of the FBI, we’re still in love with you”.
He concluded his speech with the words: “Love, the FBI”.
This politicized behavior from an FBI director caused strong surprise among many at the time and was considered deeply inappropriate, but only now under Kash Patel’s leadership has the FBI formally distanced itself from Comey’s strange and explicit partisanship.
I gathered property records for the 19 different states that the @ADL has a regional office established.
The report reveals that in the state of Connecticut, the ADL shares an office space with the FBI.
They also share an office space with the United Nations in New York.
The ADL has close ties to the Swedish intelligence group Expo, which announced in 2022 that the two organizations would continue working together.
— Far-right extremism has always been a transnational threat, today more than ever, said Expo’s CEO Daniel Poohl, in connection with presenting a joint report that targeted the National Socialist organization Nordic Resistance Movement (Nordiska Motståndsrörelsen).
— Collaborating across borders to counter this threat is crucial. We are pleased to have collaborated with ADL to produce this report and hope to work together in the future as well, he continued.
Daniel Poohl’s Expo and ADL have had a close collaboration, and Expo is often described as ADL’s Swedish counterpart. Photo: facsimile/Youtube
ADL was founded in 1913 by the Jewish fraternal organization B’nai B’rith with the stated purpose to “stop defamation against the Jewish people” in protest against the conviction and lynching of Leo Frank who raped and murdered a 13-year-old girl in Georgia, USA.
The organization is today one of the most prominent within the international Jewish advocacy movement. They have among other things become known for their hostile attitude toward ethnic rights for European ethnic groups – while openly supporting the state of Israel as a Jewish ethnostate.
The multipolar world order is already a reality and “no one is ready to play by rules set some place overseas”, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared during the annual Valdai Forum.
He urged European politicians to stop their “anti-Russian hysteria”, claimed that 44,700 Ukrainian soldiers were killed or wounded in September, and called US President Donald Trump a “comfortable conversation partner”.
The world is currently undergoing extensive transformation and the already established multipolar world order is a direct consequence of Western powers’ attempts to establish global hegemony, Putin argued during a speech at the Valdai Forum on Thursday.
The Russian president also outlined the Russian armed forces’ alleged successes in Ukraine and Kiev’s losses, and urged European leaders to address their own countries’ problems instead of engaging in what he described as “anti-Russian hysteria”.
Putin also expressed positive views about the new American administration’s pragmatic approach to international issues.
Nothing is predetermined
The current global situation, characterized by rapid and often dramatic changes, requires readiness for all developments. Individual responsibility is particularly important and “the stakes in the current situation are extremely high”, Putin said.
A multipolar world has already taken shape, according to the Russian president. “Virtually nothing is predetermined. Everything could unfold in different ways. Much depends on the precision, deliberateness, restraint, and thoughtfulness of each international actor’s actions”, he said.
Putin emphasized that in a multipolar world, all countries must seek common ground for their interests. “No one is ready to play by rules set some place overseas”, he stated.
— The relationships within the global majority, the prototype of political practices necessary and effective in a polycentric world, are based on pragmatism and realism, a rejection of bloc philosophy, and the absence of rigid, unilaterally imposed obligations or models with senior and junior partners, Putin explained.
He called the “bloc mentality” that certain countries have in order to trigger confrontation meaningless and anachronistic. New international organizations like BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) are developing today in “the spirit of 21st-century diplomacy”, Putin said. “They are not against anyone; they are for themselves”.
On October 1, the he Plenary Session within the framework of the Valdai Club’s 22nd Annual Meetingvtook place in Sochi, featuring Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin stated that the power of the US and its allies reached its peak at the end of the 20th century, but that there is not, and never will be, a force that can govern the world and dictate to everyone “how to breathe”.
— Attempts were made, but they all ended in failure, he said.
The Russian president directed sharp criticism at European politicians who he believes are trying to “patch up holes in the European edifice” by incorrectly creating an image of Russia as an enemy.
— The ruling elites of united Europe continue to whip up hysteria. It turns out that war with the Russians is almost on their doorstep. They repeat this nonsense, this mantra, over and over again, Putin said.
— Frankly, I feel like telling them, calm down, get some rest, and finally, deal with your own issues, he continued.
Russia’s leader also warned that Moscow is closely following the escalating militarization of Europe, and that Russia’s countermeasures “will not be long in coming”. He noted that there are those who hope to deliver a “strategic defeat” to Russia, but argued that even the “most obtuse hardheads” will soon realize that this is impossible.
The situation in Ukraine
Putin placed responsibility for the failed efforts to stop hostilities on “the minority, not the majority”.
— This primarily refers to Europe, which constantly escalates the conflict; there can be seen no other goal that they pursue today, he said.
The Russian president accused the West and their “servants in Kiev” of treating the Ukrainian people as expendable, a “destructive tool in others’ hands”. Putin also stated that Russian armed forces are steadily creating a buffer zone along the entire front line.
— this work is proceeding smoothly, calmly, and according to plan… As of today, the Russian army is the most combat-ready army, Putin claimed, asserting that while Russian armed forces have indeed suffered losses, these are much smaller than those of the Ukrainian military.
Russian troops have, according to him, captured two-thirds of Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region and taken Kirovsk in Donetsk under their full control. The settlement of Yunakovka in the Sumy region is under Russian army control and Volchansk in the Kharkiv region is half-controlled.
Russian troops have entered Seversk, Konstantinovka and Krasnoarmeysk in the Donetsk People’s Republic, and need only to liberate 0.13 percent of the territory in the Luhansk People’s Republic.
He claimed there is “confusion in the ranks of the Ukrainian military” and that they do not understand what is happening on the front line. The Ukrainian army lost around 44,700 soldiers at the engagement line in September, where irreversible losses accounted for half of this figure, according to Putin. From January to August, a total of 150,000 Ukrainian military personnel deserted, he claimed.
Pragmatic view of the US
Putin stated that Russia and the US have different views on many “global problems,” but that “for major powers, this is actually normal”. Solutions to contradictions that would satisfy both sides are entirely possible to find, he argued.
— Whatever the disagreements, if we treat each other with respect, then bargaining, even the toughest and most persistent, will still aim to reach a consensus, and this means that mutually acceptable solutions are possible.
He appreciated that the current American authorities, unlike their predecessors, express their ambitions clearly and distinctly.
— It’s always better to clearly understand what other persons are up to and what they’re trying to achieve than to try to discern the real meaning in a series of understatements, ambiguities, and vague hints.
— We see that the current US administration is guided primarily by the interests of its own country, he continued.
During a visit to Alaska, the restoration of bilateral relations was discussed, since according to Putin they are “not just at an impasse, but at the lowest level in all of recent memory”. Putin further described American President Donald Trump as a comfortable conversation partner who “knows how to listen and hear.”
Furthermore, Russia is ready to support President Trump’s proposal to resolve the conflict in the Gaza Strip if it leads to the creation of two separate states, since this step is key to a “final resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict”, Putin said.
