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.
Anything that helps Christians in the Global North (or other westerners) learn more about Islam in an objective fashion is to be celebrated. It’s a huge mission field, as well as a serious fival, that we need to be devoting far more time, effort, and money to reaching for Christ.
I look forward to the corresponding Pew Forum report on global Christianity next year. It should prove equally enlightening and useful in exploding common myths about the Christian faith as a primarily western phenomenon.
David Handy+