An increasing number of centres throughout Independent Africa are reporting a big increase in the growth of the Muslim religion among their tribal populations and its unexpected advance is reported to be assisting its new followers to move away from their former politically self-destructive behaviours of past years.

Official researched statistics and forecasts now reveal that the number of Muslim followers among everyday Africans is increasing each year to such an extent that it will have increased by 60 per cent over the next six years to reach a total of 386 million faithful adherents.

This figure can be compared to estimates that the number of Muslims world-wide is expected to grow by 70 per cent to nearly three billion members by the year 2060.

Islam first arrived in North Africa in the mid-seventh century during the time of the Prophet Muhammed. Parts of Egypt took to it eagerly while aspects of it seeped into neighbouring States but, as a religion, it was very much unknown in the rest of Africa.

Now, however, it is becoming a bigger force only second to Christianity which had previously been more favoured by those tribal people living in former British and European colonies south of the Sahara.

Although Christianity may remain the region’s largest single religious population, the number of Muslims in Africa is expected to continue to grow at a much faster rate, eventually rising from to 670 million within five decades.

I understand from reputable Western intelligence sources that the new wave of Muslim preachings to reach Africa’s shores is also bringing with it changed ethics and a surprised greater appreciation of Western Democracy.

As one expert in the field told me, before Independence the average African blatantly ignored the ideals of Democracy as such as it was the dictum of the former disliked Colonial Powers.

A rash of new Muslim influences into the New Africa as we know it is apparently talking up all suggestions that terrorism can no longer be looked upon as Africa’s answer to political dissatisfactions between political enemies.

According to an analysis of the annual budgets of those African countries which have suffered from terrorist activities since Independence, this form of political warfare has dearly cost the total wealth of these countries with direct losses of up to 42 per cent.

From my nearly two decades of experience while working in Africa as a foreign correspondent and journalist, I would claim that the Muslim religion would be greatly favoured by its acceptance of polygamy and the legal right to have multiple wives. The fact that polygamy was severely frowned upon was once again another personal item of contention borne by most African men against the former Colonial Powers.

Africa as it is today, is not, however, the only world sector experiencing a growth of more intense Muslim religious interest and presence.

According to various international studies, Europe might be in the final stages of Islamisation. Right throughout the E.U., a new reality is rising in the form of entire Muslim neighbourhoods where very few local people reside or are even seen. These areas are said to be the building blocks for territorial partnership with increasingly larger portions of Europe.

In the words of a U.N. report, there are now 3,500-odd mosques in Europe with larger congregations than there are in Christian churches. The cities of Marseille, Amsterdam and Malmo in Sweden are already 25 per cent Muslim while, in England, Muslim sharia courts are now officially part of the British legal system.

E.U. records show that just under fifty million Muslims currently live in Europe. In addition, San Diego University in California has calculated that one in every four Europeans will be Muslim by faith within the next two decades.

The big difference between the resurgence of the Muslim religion and way of life in Europe is the direct opposite of that being experienced in Africa.

In Europe, most Muslims insist on not assimilating with the original locals while in Africa they are starting to play an active part within most of the communities where they reside. Why the difference, one may well ask?