Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Administrative Area

login

password

Daily News

8486

The 1.57 billion world Muslim population figure is larger than the frequently used one of 1.3 billion, and even a little bigger than the 1.5 billion usually cited by the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

When it comes to the U.S., however, the Pew survey offers a figure significantly smaller than those favored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and other organizations. Pew says there are 2.454 million Muslims in the U.S., about 0.8 percent of the country’s total population.
 
The U.S. Census Bureau does not collect religious data.

Last year, the American Religious Identification Survey conducted by scholars at Trinity College found the number of American adults self-identifying as Muslims to be 1.3 million, up from 1,1 million in 2001.

But also in 2008, by contrast, a Newsweek article previewing Pope Benedict XVI’s first visit to the U.S. made reference to “the nation’s eight million Muslims.”

The Islamic Society of North America states in its press releases that there are “more than seven million Muslims in the United States,” while CAIR releases have also included the assertion that “there are an estimated seven million Muslims in the United States.”

In his “address to the Muslim world” in Cairo in June, Obama made reference to “nearly seven million American Muslims in our country.”

One Muslim leader watching the speech on television at a media event at CAIR’s Washington office was Ibrahim Ramey of the Muslim American Society (MAS).

In his response to the address afterwards Ramey noted approvingly that Obama had “mentioned, quite accurately, a number of important contributions that Muslims have made, and continue to make, for the advancement of American civil society, including that the fact that the Muslim American community numbers in excess of seven million.”

A statement issued by MAS on the day of the speech went further, describing the U.S. Muslim community as “in excess of eight million strong.”

Writing about Obama’s speech, Islam specialist Daniel Pipes said that “Islamist organizations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Islamic Society of North America relentlessly promote the notion of seven or even ten million American Muslims.”

“Obama’s accepting their version amounts to a giveaway, a cheap way to win the approbation of Islamists who so widely influence Muslim opinion,” he said.

Pipes has argued that by presenting a bigger number, Islamic groups get “enhanced access and clout.”