YouTube Muslim Demographics Video: Watch the Video the Vatican is Apologizing For

Culture

Cardinal Peter Turkson, one of the Papal Conclave 2013 front runners, has sparked an anti-Muslim controversy with the screening of the video "Muslim Demographics."

The Guardian has reported that the Vatican is distancing itself from yet another controversy, on the eve of the conclave to elect a new pope after Pope Benedict XVI — now Pope Emeritus — resigned in February citing poor health.  

The controversial video, showed by Turkson in a discussion period on Saturday during a synod attended by 262 bishops from across the world, claims "Europe as we know it will cease to exist."

"Muslim Demographics," which has already been seen by over 13 million on YouTube (since it was posted in 2009), runs seven minutes and says that "Muslim immigration and higher birth rates means France will become 'an Islamic republic' within 39 years'".

On Tuesday, a Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said, "this video does not express the view of the synod or the Vatican. Turkson has said he is sorry if the video was wrongly interpreted since he did not intend it to be anti-Muslim, merely a comment on the nihilism in western society."