Daily Alert Archives

Report: Global Muslim Population Hits 1.57 Billion

[AP] Eric Gorski - The global Muslim population stands at 1.57 billion, meaning that nearly 1 in 4 people in the world practice Islam, according to a Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life report released Wednesday. Islam is the world's second largest religion behind Christianity, which has an estimated 2.1-2.2 billion followers. Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon, China has more Muslims than Syria, and Russia has more Muslims than Jordan and Libya combined. "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. The report estimates that Shiites represent 10-13% of the Muslim population, with 80% of the world's Shiites living in Iran, Pakistan, India and Iraq.
2009-10-08 06:00:00
Full Article