The global Muslim population stands at 1.57 billion, meaning that nearly 1 in 4 people in the world practice Islam, according to a report Wednesday billed as the most comprehensive of its kind. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life report provides a precise number for a population whose size has long has been subject to guesswork, with estimates ranging anywhere from 1 billion to 1.8 billion. The project, three years in the making, also presents a portrait of the Muslim world that might surprise some. For instance, Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon, China has more Muslims than Syria, Russia has more Muslims than Jordan and Libya combined, and Ethiopia has nearly as many Muslims as Afghanistan. "This whole idea that Muslims are Arabs and Arabs are Muslims is really just obliterated by this report," said Amaney Jamal, an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University who reviewed an advance copy.
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life report provides a precise number for a population whose size has long has been subject to guesswork, with estimates ranging anywhere from 1 billion to 1.8 billion.
The project, three years in the making, also presents a portrait of the Muslim world that might surprise some. For instance, Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon, China has more Muslims than Syria, Russia has more Muslims than Jordan and Libya combined, and Ethiopia has nearly as many Muslims as Afghanistan.
"This whole idea that Muslims are Arabs and Arabs are Muslims is really just obliterated by this report," said Amaney Jamal, an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University who reviewed an advance copy.
Many Arab countries are rather sparsely populated: the biggest being Egypt, with 81 million, followed by Morocco and Algeria with 35 million.
Population wise, Islam's center of gravity is squarely in Asia, with Indonesia having 240 million people and the Philippines having a sizable Muslim minority.
Another frequent phantasm under our latitudes: "they're breeding like rabbits". Actually, countries like Lebanon, Tunisia, Algeria or Iran have a fertility rate well under 2 children per woman, and, in the words of historian and demographer Emmanuel Todd, are more under threat from de-islamization... Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.
