Holy See rebukes anti-Islam video

ROME: THE Vatican has distanced itself from a row over Muslims in Europe triggered by the showing at a synod of a video that claims ''Europe as we know it will cease to exist''.

Cardinal Peter Turkson, the president of the Vatican's council for justice and peace - and seen as a possible future pope - played the video in a discussion period on Saturday during a synod attended by 262 bishops from across the world.

Titled Muslim Demographics, and viewed more than 13 million times on YouTube since its release in 2009, the seven-minute video claims Muslim immigration and higher birth rates mean France will become ''an Islamic republic'' within 39 years.

But many of the statistics used have been shown to be false or unproven, including a claim that French Muslim families have 8.1 children on average, and that 25 per cent of Belgians are Muslims - the true figure is 6 per cent. A German government official is falsely quoted as saying Germany will be a Muslim state by 2050.

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