Islam is the 2nd largest major world religion (after Christianity), with approximately 1.3 billion adherents worldwide, and steadily growing.The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) estimates that Islam tops the list of the 6 fastest-growing religions in the world. The largest Muslim populations, obviously, are centered in what CEIP terms as 'fast-growing' countries like Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Egypt, and Iran, but they also claim that it's the fastest-growing religion in Europe, due, in part, to the huge influx of Muslim immigrants, and their higher birth rates as opposed to the static birth rates of native populations.
Some believe that 9/11 was a major catalyst in the burgeoning interest in Islam, and that conversion rates have increased substantially since that day, but according to this 1997 CNN article interest was just as heightened back then, as was an increasing shift from moderate to conservative religiosity. Either way conversion rates have exploded worldwide.
It is also considered to be the fastest-growing religion in the U.S. with estimates of from 5 to 7 million believers nationwide. And some experts reckon that up to 25,000 people convert to Islam each year. They certainly make conversion (or "reversion" as Muslims call it) incredibly easy. To become a Muslim all you need is a few witnesses at a ceremony called Shahada, and to pledge the following: "I bear witness that there is no deity except Allah and that Muhammad is his messenger" and you're done. You can witness these Shahadas on You tube and YoutubeIslam . I have watched quite a few of these videos and was rather confused regarding the interchangeable use of "revert" and "convert", until I read the following:
'Revert' is actually a more appropriate term than 'convert', since all human beings are born pure. By embracing Islam, one returns to the original and sinless state in which God created him or her. However we
have used the term convert to avoid any possible ambiguity.
In other words, Muslims believe everyone is born Muslim and will, eventually, find their way back, either through conversion [or coercion], and it is their fervent and heartfelt desire that all mankind embrace and accept Islam. Muslims are compelled to spread the message of Islam (Da'wah): “Invite (all) to the Way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious: for thy Lord knows best, who have strayed from His Path, and who receive guidance.” (An-Nahl: 125).
'About 21% of all people on earth follow Islam. The religion is currently in a period of rapid growth. If current trends continue Islam will become the most popular world religion sometime in the mid-21st century.'
Religious Tolerance
THE FACTS:
Commonly cited estimates of the Muslim population in 2007, range from 900 million to 1.3 billion. Approximately 85% are Sunni and 15% are Shi'a, with a small minority belonging to other sects. Some 30–40
countries are Muslim-majority, and Arabs account for around 20% of all Muslims worldwide. South Asia and Southeast Asia contain the most populous Muslim countries, with Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India having more than 100 million adherents each. According to U.S. government figures, in 2006 there were 20 million Muslims in China. In
the Middle East, the non-Arab countries of Turkey and Iran are the largest Muslim-majority countries; in Africa, Egypt and Nigeria have the most populous Muslim communities. Islam is the second largest religion after Christianity in many European countries.
Major Religions of the World
Ranked by Number of Adherents compiled by adherents.com
(Sizes shown are approximate estimates, and are here mainly for the
purpose of ordering the groups, not providing a definitive number. This list is
sociological/statistical in perspective.)
1. Christianity: 2.1 billion
2. Islam: 1.3 billion
3. Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion
4. Hinduism: 900 million
5. Chinese traditional religion: 394 million
6. Buddhism: 376 million
7. primal-indigenous: 300 million
8. African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million
9. Sikhism: 23 million
10. Juche: 19 million
11. Spiritism: 15 million
12. Judaism: 14 million
13. Baha'i: 7 million
14. Jainism: 4.2 million
15. Shinto: 4 million
16. Cao Dai: 4 million
17. Zoroastrianism: 2.6 million
18. Tenrikyo: 2 million
19. Neo-Paganism: 1 million
20. Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand
21. Rastafarianism: 600 thousand
22. Scientology: 500 thousand
partial H/T Housewife4Palestine
17 comments:
Amazing post, Incog. Really well researched and written.
Thank you.
Frightening when you think about their growth and the philosophy behind their beliefs!
Babies.Babies.Babies. We are committing demographic suicide.
Cat Fur's right. Our career-oriented western society has let itself become stagnant, at best. Family is the way to grow a demographic.
Of course, attempting to kill off the other demographics is Islam's primary MO, but they do reproduce (how else are they gonna keep suicide bombing).
I just wish that the Left would stop and look at the impact Muslims can have on the "diverse" society that so many hold as their reasoning for trying to cater to the extremists.
I'm running a new Duncan Hunter Grassroot blog, I've added your site to our blogroll, would you be interested in linking back?
This was a very informative post, I have studied Islam a little bit but this provided some facts I had not stumbled upon before. Thanks!
(Sorry, our link is www.dhgrassrevolt.wordpress.com )
between the LDS crowd believing that they own my soul and the Muslims believing I was born Muslim, I guess I need to father more children. No wait, I'm 60 so that part of my life is over. It is bad enough that there are so many short illegal immigrants coming here that we are losing height and all the foreigners having children. Sheesh, when will it all end. When it ends.
great post incog. the challenge now becomes how to control the movement, and the subsequent ideology.
Excellent. I thought I was scared before I read your article, ha.
With Islam you are born into the religion. With Christianity, you must accept the religion on your own, after you grow old enough to decide for yourself. (That's Christian denominations other than Catholic, I think.) With the Muslim birth rate so high everywhere they take up residence, it does not bode well for the West.
I saw something about a new documentary, "Why The West Needs Islam" or something like that. I need to check out the details.
Thank you all for your great and kind comments.
As I have mentioned many times before, I have *no* problem with whatever people choose to believe, as long as it harms no-one and isn't foisted upon me. Muslims, at one point in time, were not as fervent and conservative. It's with this resurgence of conservatism that the religion has taken some major steps back to the dark ages. That's the problem.
Drew: the problem in Europe is they don't have enough people to work so they have to bring people in. I hope we don't have that problem eventually.
It is a *major* problem, Pat. It's so very important to maintain Freedom of Religion, and yet what do you do when a particular religion is intent on making everyone else adhere to their religious doctrine and that religious doctrine is actually political in nature.
Sounds like an interesting documentary, Deb. Please let us know when you find out.
SK Johnson: Thank you for stopping by, I have not decided who I will vote for, although I know it will not be Duncan Hunter. I know nothing about him, and though he might deserve to be nominated, the fact I know nothing about him means most 'ordinary' people know nothing about him, which means he hasn't a snowballs chance in hell of beating one of the Dems. So, sorry. Please read my recent post: http://republicaninthearts.blogspot.com/2007/07/and-polls-say-gop-nomination-is.html
for my reasons why an unknown is unwinnable.
after 9-11 people should have all left Issssssslam!..what is the matter with everyone!!!
The percentage attributed to Christianity is a bit misleading to my thinking. There is such a divergence in belief amont the various denominations. I do not include Mormon (Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints) among Christians. I suspect that less than 20% of those that fell into the Christian category are truly Christians. The majority are in name only. That makes the numbers in Islam even more frightening.
You'd think, Angel. But nah... increased.
Hey Pan: the percentages are, of course, mere estimates. There is no way of determining the exact percentages. But I like to think that anyone who believes in *Christ* is a Christian, regardless of their doctrine.
To hopefully set your mind at ease, the number of Muslims in the U.S. is greatly exaggerated. Please see my post American Muslims, the Real Number, found here religionnewsblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/american-muslims-real-number.html
and also religionnewsblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/american-muslims-part-2-politics-and.html
There are probably a bit more than one million, maybe 1.5M at most.
Thanks Justin... Will check your blog posts out. But from what the Muslims are claiming, and videos I see of conversion cermonies..it seems that there are quite many. But hoping you are right, or that the trend towards conservatism stops.
just a moron who thinks there is only 1.5 million muslims r out there in the usa.Its around 6 to 7 million.Now the question should be hows that possible!!! where all the jews agencies or jews controlled agencies made up a figure of around 1 or 1 n half million.1st of all the jews pplz who made up stats counted only the members those who only go to the mosque.They made an estimate that there are 1200 mosque out there in the usa and an avarage number of follower is around 1685.so if we multiply the number with 1200 then we will easily get the number.n that came lil bit more than 2 million.But for yr kind info i like to tell u a fact.N that is in most of the cases muslim womens usually dont go 2 the mosque .So almost entire womens were not counted.There r also a good number of people who usually dnt go / dnt get time to go the mosque espacially in the friday because of office or uni or class or business n the number is too many.N the avarage number 1685 that the stat agencies got was on the basis of friday prayer.N i also like to add 2 more things n that is in muslim society the kids those who r below 15 make a contribution of around 20 to 25 %.As i told earlier because of classes n as the parents r remain busy at their work places thats y a big number of this kids cant go to the mosque by themselve as mosques r not adjacent 2 the houses of each n every community.N in many cases because of being too old many old pplz cant go to the mosque espacially in the friday prayer.Through the number of these pplz is not that much high as the pplz those who r above 65 contributes only around 5% of the muslim population.All these pplz were not present in the calculation of those jews community bases assumption.N 1 thing that was the counting of 2001 not of 2007.
N also 1 thing that u talked about the total number of muslim !!! its now 1.63 billion not 1.32 billion.That was the assumption of 2001.1 more thing the christian community now at present shrink down to below 2 billion within this couple of year.
But thanks 2 sub saharan africa n converting pplz of china who has still made the number still in a repectable position.
Oh guys now i like 2 give some interesting news to u.
1.The real number of china muslim is between 150 to 200 million not 20 million that has been thought through many neutral pplz said it as 100 million.
how !!!!!!
@ 1936 cencus of china the number of muslim was 50 million.
@1948/1949 after communism took tthe power according to the cencus the number of muslim was 48 million.
in this 60 years china community increased 3 to 4 times.So it can be easily assumed that muslim community of china also increased by 3 to 4 times.So itz absolutely funny that number of muslim community is now only 20 million.
Like to give u another info according to the china census the number of christian is only 16 million.But the real figure is around 70 million through some missionaries claimed it to be 110 million.Through very few ppl said this claim is absolutely true.
so if the muslims take the number as 150 to 200 million then the total number would be atleast 1.75 to 1.8 billion.
2.In russia now the percentage of muslim those who r serving in the army is 40%.
By 2015 the muslim number will surplus the christian army.
N through the percentage of muslim in russia is only 17% but with in 2040 russia will be the 1st western country to become a muslim country n by 2050 u will see a muslim president in russia for sure ;).
Through there is a great probability to see it in the france n netharlands too ;) but after 2050.
by 2025 if the present trends continue then number of muslim in the world will surplrus the number of christian of the world.
N by 2040 muslims will be the majority in all the big cities of europe.
Buddies through i m a muslim through i have used some hard word in my comments in my heart there is nothing wrong about christianity.Even in islam it is belived christianity is a complimentary of islam.
In islam in the quran the name of jesus christ came hunderd times more than prophet muhammad n the name of marry the mom of jesus christ came more than 1000 times most probably around 1800 times n a whole chapter is contributed with a name "marry" because of the honour of jesus christ.Where as the name marry came only 18 times in the bible.So how can muslim n christian become enemies.
It is the zionist lobby n the so called neo cons n jews controlled media has created all these differences between muslims and christians n even wid jews because of their own purposes to continue the illegal control ovar west bank in gaza strip n in jeru salem.These bloddy bush supported it because he is surrounded by the zionist n the neocons those who contributed millions of dollar in the election n whith out those money its impossible 2 win.
N the osama bin laden lol!! is a former cia agent who is created by the cia ,trained by usa, armed by cia n used by cia against soviet union during afgan war n still using by them .Ohhhhhh forget to mention his real identity he is a family frnd of bush.bush n laden group has signded couple of billion dollar deals.
2 all of u these may seem like crap but its the truth .
N the 9/11 the biggest lie of the universe.That a controlled demolision.Just search in the google by "hidden agenda behind 9/11 " Every thing will be clear 2 all of u.
Ohhh forget 2 mention then sudan government offered 3 times to arrest laden when he was in sudan but honourable president clinton turn it away!!!!!
yyy he only can say it better.
Last of all i just like give some stats about suicide which is commiting in the usa n in the whole muslim world.
It will be a surprise 2 all of u that if u multiple the number of commiting suicide in the whole muslim world including suicide bombing ,even if u multiply it by 20 no with 25 it will be less than that of suicide which usually happened in usa.
Even in some countries just like syria,jordan,egypt,iran,kuwait the number is almost 0.
Those who r commiting suicide now r divided in the 3 parts.
1)because of brain wash by some islami madrasha whith the help of some mollahs which r mainly in saudi arabiya n pakistan.
These contributes 15 to 33% those who commit suicide.
U can only blame these part as extrimism or as islami extremism by the mullahs who scattered from the main stream of islam.
2)They r doing it to free their mother land frm enemies has an idea that ifthey die cause of mother land they will directly go 2 the heaven.It is also written in the bible along with quran than if if any1 die in crusade he will directly go 2 the heaven.
But killing innocent civilians is strongly prohibited in islam but according to them they dnt have any other way to fight with israeli soldiers n they take this option a a last resort.
Only because of a particular verse u cant blame islam where it strongly prohibated killing innocent civilians.
Through now the number of suicide cause of this has fallen significantly.
3)The gratest part contribules only because of hate towards us foreign policy n agression of usa n barbarism n brutality of the israel n usa soldires.
When any1 lost many of his relaives ,parents ,brothers n sisters then there remain no reason to live n a kind sense grown among those individuals that as they killed ma relatives ma parents ,i will also kill them even if i had to sacrifice ma life.N the terrorist organization such a al qaeda polish there these sorts of sense more n they commit suicide bomb attack.
In this case there is no relation of religious.I guess those has a sivic sense can easily understand it.N these sorts of pplz r the most those who r commiting suicide.
In 9/11 how many pplz died .Only 3000!!! at best.I am saing it only because in iraq more than 5000 pplz r duying each month !!!!! not in year in each moth.
Because of 9 11 u all knw what sorts of hate grows among many of towars all the moderate muslims those who were not involved in any way at 9 11.So u can easily understand what sorts of hates r there in the hearts of iraqis towards usa where around 1 million has died so far n un identified number became peralized n 1 in each 10 pplz had 2 become refugee .
If yr bush want to really win the so called war against terror then its absolutely necessary to stabilize n resaatle those pplz n need to give some meanings of life.
If these is not done then itz absolutely certain that all of u n us will see lots of future sucide bombing.
That time muslims or islams will not be responsible only bush administration,those whorun the usa through zionist lobby israel n america as a whole will be responsible 4 all these.Those there is a lotz of americans who protested against the war.
Last of all thanks to incognito for writing such a wonderful article.Through buddy all the data is of 2001 u need to lil more upgrade these data.
If I hurt any of u through my any comments then um extremely sorry 4 that.Ihave no intention 2 hurt any of u..Wat eva I said is just 2 open yr eyes n 2 find the real causes of suicide bombing . Thats it
GOOD BYE
TC
ALLAH HAFEZ
sami
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