LOGO: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines. A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
2010 Webby Award Winner for Best Political Blog
 
February 18, 2012
Log in / Register

 Choose a size
Text Size

Most Read

Krugman to Playboy: Economic Crisis 'Doesn't Have to Be Happening'

Déjà Pooh

The .0000063% Election

Interracial Love Is No Societal Cure-All

Truthdigger of the Week: Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis

Most Comments
Most Emailed

Reports
 * NEW! * The Lowdown on Fracking
 * NEW! * The .0000063% Election

Ear to the Ground

A/V Booth

Arts & Culture
Déjà Pooh

Digs
Financial Meltdown 101

Truthdig Bazaar
State of Wonder

State of Wonder

By Ann Patchett

more items

 
Ear to the Ground

Muslims a Fourth of World’s Population

Email this item Email    Print this item Print   

Posted on Oct 8, 2009
Paris mosque
enjoyfrance.com

Mosques, like this one in Paris, are common in almost all parts of the world.

The internationality of Islam is emphasized by a new Pew Research study that found one in four people in the world to be Muslim. With 1.57 billion adherents, Islam ranks second only to 2.25 billion-strong Christianity. The study’s findings counter the disparaging, stereotyping notions that many in the West have of “the Muslim World.”  —JCL

The Guardian:

Islam may be most closely associated with the Middle East, where it emerged in Arabia in the seventh century, but today the region is home to only one in five of the world’s Muslims, according to a study of the religion’s global distribution.

The world’s Muslim population stands at 1.57 billion, meaning that nearly one in four people practise Islam, according to the US Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, which published the survey. This compares to 2.25 billion Christians.

The top five Muslim countries in the world include only one in the Middle East—Egypt—behind Indonesia, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, in that order. Russia, the survey shows, has more Muslims than the populations of Libya and Jordan combined. Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon. China has a bigger Muslim population than Syria.

Read more

 

More Below the Ad

Advertisement


Comments

Are you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig.

By johannes, October 9, 2009 at 11:34 am Link to this comment

To Ender,

      I don’t think it are the books who created all the problems for humanity, but the humans who where reading them, and lectured them to other humans and so started to use them for their own
advantage.

salutation

Report this

By ender, October 9, 2009 at 11:06 am Link to this comment

Hello Blackspeare,

Yes, it is, though it may be just as much a cult of Constantine.  That Roman influence and tradition of secular thought and law is the only thing that separates it from the other two.  That tradition has allowed it some degree of enlightment and progress as seen in its demise in Europe into a kinder, gentler and more agnostic pursuit.  And to Constantine himself, the cross was an upside down sword and he only used it to unite the Roman Empire for one last stand against the Gothic hoard that ruled Christendom for the next thousand yrs.

Now they are all just tools of the realm to unite us savages in hatred of the other tribes.  Muslims saved Jews from the persecution by the christians during those dark times but now use them to keep muslims from looking at how their leaders keep most of them poor, while we prop up Israel to do the same thing and keep them as a wedge against a unified Islam.  Of course if all Israeli Jews were moved to Montana, the current batch of caliphs would fall all over each other to take Israel and gain control of another ‘holy’ spit of ground that could be used for more of the same.

I’m pretty sure if Satan did walk the Earth, it would carry a Talmud, Koran or Bible, or maybe all three.

Report this
Blackspeare's avatar

By Blackspeare, October 9, 2009 at 9:34 am Link to this comment

ender…

“Much of the world is stuck in the Dark Ages until the Cults of Abraham are relegated to the Dark Hole in the desert they crawled out of.”

If you include the offshoot of one of the “Cults of Abraham”, namely “Christianity”, then I agree with you.

Report this

By ender, October 9, 2009 at 5:57 am Link to this comment

The Catholic Church claims everyone that ever received confirmation as a Catholic regardless if they have ever stepped foot in a church again.  With the Catholic Church as the largest branch of the Christian Cults, we can assume that the numbers of practising Christians are highly exagerated.

That said, the majority of the Western World supports secular gov’t regardless of whether they are christian or not.  That is the real line in the sand between the Extremist of the Cults of Abraham, whether they will try to impose their beliefs on others or live religious lifes in a secularist world.  We just got through eight yrs of an attempted theocratic coup in the US, the Jews are an apartheid theocracy, and the Wahhabis of the middle east are the most repressive nations on the planet.  Iran’s shias are not much better.

The line in the sand, or in the middle of Constitutional Blvd., isn’t religion vs religion but religion vs secularism.  If the nation I live in tried to impose and form of Islam I would become a terrorist the likes of which Palestinians can’t even imagine.  To even consider allowing Sharia law with its murder of ‘apostates’ and harsh and even capital punishment of moral transgression, such as punishing rape victims, is the end of the move to civilization and the return of the human race to the ignorance and superstition that ruled the planet until the Age of Enlightenment and the advent of Ethics and Science over religious superstition and the priesthoods and mullahs as part of the ruling class.

Much of the world is stuck in the Dark Ages until the Cults of Abraham are relugated to the Dark Hole in the desert they crawled out of.

Report this

By Jim Yell, October 9, 2009 at 5:53 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Fundamentalist Religions make it very difficult to remember that in my belief system everyone has the right to believe or not to believe.

The fact that Islam is so large is a tribute to irresponsible reproduction, something that is similiar to the Pope’s call to keep sex only for reproduction. It is stupid and dangerous to reproduce without responsibility.

As to negative views about Islam the list for why this isn’t a bad thing, but in fact is necessary to survive groups who have no respect for other people. Islam is at heart fundamentlist. The reason there are no Buddists in Muslim countries is the fact that Buddists are not aggressive by and large, where as Islam encourages all sorts of outrages against non-believers and even as we see day after day do not blink from killing their co-religionists. Untargeted murder. Unfortunately in mis-directed response our government involves us in the same type of disrespect. The question what can you do about a group that will not live and let live?

Report this
ardee's avatar

By ardee, October 9, 2009 at 1:42 am Link to this comment

Georgann Marks, October 9 at 1:24 am

So, you stand against the demonizing of Muslims, good for you. Then you stand and demonize Jews, bad for you.

Report this

By johannes, October 9, 2009 at 12:13 am Link to this comment

All I know you stupid people, where the Islam gets a
change they pus slowly but sure other way’s of thinking out.

Go to Indonesia, first Bali with its nice culture, woman in Sharongs nice made up hair, and beautifull movements, people are nice and free.

Then to Java, woman as Pinguîns, no culture, only their religion with all his repressive measures, their resentfulness way of speeking about the west, and they are afraid of their own governement.

I have traffeled in the 60 all over the world, Azia in to the middle east, it wash there the Islam, but not as now, its become an religion as the Katholic religion in the middel ages with their Inquisition.

No I say let us alone stay where you are or go back where you came from, we have liberated our selfs from all this dogmatic thinking, we are back, we are humans again with our persenal God inside.

This so called group who kils out name of Allah, is practically never criticized in public by other so called beliefers, so they think the same way.

Salutation.

Report this

By Robert, October 8, 2009 at 10:56 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

How many so called Muslims, just like so called Christians, are religious in name only, in order to avoid persecution by fundamentalists. How many others are religious not because they believe but because they wish to ruthlessly exploit believers and use them to force others to pretend to believe. Let’s at least try for some accuracy, how many people ‘claim’ a belief, you can not state it as a fact that people believe unless they can demonstrate that belief by action, so no miracles by true believers, no proof of belief. How many factual true believers in this world today, zero.

Report this

By Georgann Marks, October 8, 2009 at 9:24 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

What is more amazing than this statistic - is the 2% in America who actively demonize Islam - and succeeded in selling 2 wars.

The good news is that 1.5 billion Muslims will probably survive the best efforts of Jews to exterminate them - using surrogate armies like America, Germany, Canada and everywhere else they control media and therefore the perception of Islam.

Report this

By Andy Zadrozny, October 8, 2009 at 6:01 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

The article and many of the comments are predicated in the idea that we are “us” and they are “them.” 

The point of the article is that not all Muslims are terrorists, in fact most of them aren’t even in the middle east, and they’re numerous and so “c’mon Christians, let’s loosen the grip of some of your dearly-held biases…”

This is a good point to make to both “sides,” since the separation between “us” and “them” really is a lie, one that’s heavily corroborated in the context of the basic Christian tenet of personal entitlement as a believer to dominion over the Earth. 

My point is that if any part of this article comes as news to you then dear reader, you are operating on a kindergarten level as a world citizen and please for your sake and mine educate yourself!  Travel, for God’s sake!!!  There’s no law against going to Egypt, Iran, etc.

Quit hiding behind your faith.  Don’t be a “child of God.” Be an “Adult of God.” 

All I’m saying is please wake up before it’s too late.

Report this
ardee's avatar

By ardee, October 8, 2009 at 1:15 pm Link to this comment

So, considering that AlQaeda is estimated at about 30,000 folks, and the Islamic people are at 1.5 billion, we see that those who spew hate at all muslims are a bit over the top.

Report this

By Ghazi, October 8, 2009 at 12:46 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

We movin’ on up like George and Weezie Jefferson!

Report this

By Jean Gerard, October 8, 2009 at 11:25 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Right off the bat, the point needs to be made also that Muslims come in a wide variety of nuanced beliefs.  Beyond the broad, century-old differences between Sunni and Shiite, are the Sufis. Also, my limited understanding is that the influence of Zoroastrianism varies in different districts.  Then there is the broad division between “fundamentalism” and “liberalism” as in Christianity, with varying shades of “reform” in different places.  The wide extent of Muslim belief proves that it has considerable ability to adapt to many different cultures. 
  Also, for the sake of tolerance, let’s point out at the start that Islam is one of three “Abrahamic Faiths” because it shares common historical/biblical roots with Christianity and Judaism. There have been times in the past when the three have lived together in relative peace. So sad to be warring against history instead of understanding it.  (This goes for all sides.)

Report this

Add Your Comment

Posts by unregistered readers are moderated. Posts by members
are published immediately. Why wait? Register today!






                        Number of characters remaining: 4000

Are you a human? Retype the word you see here.

     

Please read and abide by our comment policy.
By submitting this comment, you agree to this site's terms and conditions.

Newsletter

Get Truthdig in your inbox


 
 
 
Join the Liberal Blog Advertising Network
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
Copyright © 2012 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.