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Islam: The second largest
world religion...and growing.

About Islam:

• Islam is the second most popular religion in the world. There were about 1.6 billion Muslims in the world in 2010, according to Pew Research. Muslims constituted about 23% of all people on Earth. The religion is currently in a period of rapid growth, and is expected to reach 2.8 billion by 2050, when the number of Muslims will probably approximately equal the number of Christians in the world. ₁
  
  
• Estimates of the number of Muslim adults in the U.S. have ranged from about 1 to 7 million. The former estimate is based on public opinion polls and assume that almost all adults who consider themselves Muslims are willing to respond openly to public opinion pollsters. Because of the widespread islamophobia in the country, this value is probably an underestimate. The latter estimate comes from Muslim groups in the U.S. who assume that all immigrants to the U.S. from Muslim countries were Muslims and have remained so to the present time. It is probably an overestimate. ₂
  
  A Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life report in 2015 concluded that the U.S. population of Muslim adults is 2.6 million -- 0.6% of the total population. This places Islam as the third most popular organized religion in the U.S. after Christianity (71%) and Judaism (0.9%). ₃
  
  
• In any discussion of Islam, the topic of terrorism, murder, mass murder and genocide by a radical, violent wing of Islam is not far from the surface. One important item to remember is that terrorists, and their supporters, represent a small percentage of followers within the religion who follow a type of Islam that has little regard for human life. It is also important to recall that most victims of these terrorists are fellow Muslims.

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₄ Topics included in this section:

• Introduction to Islam
  
  
• 1994 to now: The rise in Islamophobia: hate speech & violence against Muslims
  
  
• Promoting inter-religious understanding and friendship: books and videos.
  
  
• The Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, etc.) terrorist group
  
• Muslim leaders' statements condemning terrorism, from 9/11 to ISIS/Islamic State atrocities
  
  
• Information about Islam:
  
  
  • Beliefs about Islam, as expressed by Muslims:
    • Part 1: Gallup survey. "The Truth about Islam"
      
      
    • Part 2: Personal stories of 40 women, 45 men, and "The Muslim Next Door"
      
      
  • Introduction to Islam:
    • Part 1: Its origin, Muhammad, texts, beliefs,  etc.
      
      
    • Part 2: Its practices, schools, holy days, etc.
      
      
  • Comparing the beliefs of Islam and Christianity 
    
    
  • Comparing the growth rates of Islam and Christianity
    
    
  • Muslim population and ethnicity:
    • Part 1: The number of Muslims in the world. Attempting to estimate their numbers in the U.S. Ethnic origins of U.S. Muslims
      
      
    • Part 2: How many Muslims are living in the U.S., and Canada?
      
      
• Muslim information sources
  • Muslim information web sites
    
    
  • "Translations" of the Qur'an; books; publishers, etc: Part 1  Part 2
    
    
  • Web sites featuring clothing, cards, etc
    
    
• Quotations:
  • Quotations from the Qur'an
    
    

  • About the Hadith: sayings and deeds of Muhammad

    • Examples of Hadiths
      
      
  • Comparison of Qur'an verses with the Hebrew Scriptures' Ten Commandments
    
    
• Beliefs and Practices:
  • Apostasy  (Irtidad) -- abandoning Islam
    
    
  • The environment and global warming
    
    
  • The Hajj -- the pilgrimage to Mecca
    
    
    • The significance of Eid-Ul-Adha -- the Feast of Sacrifice or Day of Sacrifice after the Hajj
      
      
  • Holy days of Islam -- seasonal days of observance and celebration
    
    
    • Rabbi Allen Maller has donated an essay for this web site titled "Why Hanukah is for Muslim Jews"
      
      
  • Homosexuality
    
    • Reasons why SSM is unacceptable, as explained on a Muslim web site, Aljazeera: Part 1  Part 2
      
      
    • Books on homosexuality from a Muslim perspective
      
      
  • The concept of Jihad
    
    
  • Political Attacks from the 2nd century BCE to the present time against the Jewish and Islamic practice of male circumcision
    
    
  • Sharia law
    • Punishment for non-marital sex
      
      
    • Sharia law in Ontario, Canada
      
      
    • Sharia law in the UK
      
      
  • When is killing innocent humans permitted? Terrorist attacks and the principle of tattarrus
    
    
  • Paradise: life after death
    
    
  • The fast during Ramadan
    
    
  • Fasting for Ramadan and Yom Kippur
    
    
    • Determining the dates of Ramadan
      
      
  • Status of women:
    • Female genital mutilation among Animists, Christians, and Muslims
      
      
    • The role of women in predominately Muslim countries
      
      
    • Corporal punishment of women
      
      
• Items related to religious tolerance:
  • 2011-JAN: Status of religious freedom worldwide, with emphasis on predominately Muslim countries.
    
    
  • Accommodation for and by Muslims in North America
    
    
  • Should Americans fear Islam? -- An ABC This Week panel discussion/debate/free for all
    
    
  • Islamic prayers in public schools
    
    
  • Senate/House resolutions promoting religious tolerance towards Muslims.
    
    
  • Why do "they" hate the West?
    
    
  • "Terror has no faith" An essay by Ibraham Hooper of CAIR
    
    
  • "Is religious tolerance a passing phenomenon? Religious tolerance in the West's past & future, donated by Bilal Cleland
    
    
  • Speech by Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez at the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, in TN on 2012-NOV-18.
    
    
  • State in Germany adds Islamic class in schools
    
    
• Peace:
  • A prayer for peace and unity
    
    
  • Appeal for peace by Muslim scholars, sent to Christian leaders
    
    
• Conflicts:
  • Is Islam a religion of violence or peace?
    
    
  • 2002: The Washington-area sniper
    
    
  • A book about Islam on the University of Northern California reading list
    
    
  • Al Qaeda's beheading of Paul Johnson in Saudi Arabia
    
    
  • An excerpt about Iran from a book by Reza Aslan titled "No god but God"
    
    
  • Some Muslim statements condemning terrorist acts -- statements that the media rarely covers
    
    
  • Radical Muslim group(s) in U.S. Prisons
    
    
  • 2006 conference in Iran of Nazi Holocaust deniers
    
    
• Religious topics:
  • Can a person be both a Christian and a Muslim?
    
    
  • "Fundamentalism" within Christianity and Islam
    
    
  • Names given to the "Holy Land"
    
    
  • Religious terms used to refer to Islam and Muslims
    
    
• Essays donated by visitors to this web site:
  • Jocelyn Sophia:
    • "Alternate beliefs about Prophet Muhammad"
      
      
    • "How are future happenings determined?"
      
      
  • Rabbi Allen S. Maller:
    
    • Links among the main monotheistic faiths: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
      
      
    • "Choosing to be chosen: Multiple relationships between God and the nations"
      
      
    • "B'nai Israel in the Qur'an"
      
      
    • "A Rabbi Warns Against Islamophobia"
      
      
    • "The prophetic vision of religious pluralism From Micah to Muhammad"
      
      
    • "Muslim and Jewish Views of Jesus as 'Son of God' "
      
      
    • "How Muslims and Jews view Jesus" Part 1 Part 2
      
      
    • "Islamophobia and Banu Israel (The Children of Israel) in the Qur'an:" Part 1 Part 2
      
      
    • "A Rabbi warns against Islamophobia"
      

In addition to the above, we have short passages on:

• Virgin birth of Jesus (pbuh)
  
  
• Jesus' (pbuh) sinlessness 

References used:

The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.

1. Michael Lipka & Conrad HacketT, "Why Muslims are the world's fastest-growing religious group," Pew Research Center, 2015-APR-23, at: http://www.pewresearch.org/
2. The estimate of 1.1 million Muslim in the U.S. was derived from the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) of 2001. It was based on a telephone survey. See: http://www.gc.cuny.edu/ The seven million estimate was obtained from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) web site. It was based on the number of immigrants from Islamic countries. See: http://www.cair-net.org/
3. "Christians Decline Sharply as Share of Population; Unaffiliated and Other Faiths Continue to Grow," Pew Research Center, 2015-MAY-12, at: http://www.pewforum.org/
4. "Symbols of Islam -- Allah," Wikipedia, as on 2015-OCT-24, at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
5. "Muslim students have something to tell you," AhlulBayt Islamic Mission (AIM) on Monday, 2016-FEB-15, at: https://www.facebook.com/

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Copyright © 1995 to 2016 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Last update: 2016-NOV-28
Author: B. A. Robinson

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