More Muslims than Roman Catholics
According to the Vatican, Islam has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the biggest single religious denomination in the world. Of course: there still are more Christians than Muslims in the world (protestants, orthodox), but Islam has become a good runner up. But it is the biggest single religious domination in the world; 19.2% of the world’s population are Muslim, against 17.4% who are Catholics.
However, if we look at religions, not denominations Christianity is still easily number one: 33% of the 6 billion people living on earth are Christian. That’s 2 billion souls.
19.2% means, give or say, 1.3 billion individuals. That number will go up in the coming years and decades because of the high birthrates among Muslims. Christians have less children these days; their total numbers are expected to remain the same, while Islam is likely to grow significantly.
One thing: we know that approximately, what is it 20%? of Muslims are Shiites. Aren’t they a different denomination than Sunnis? Yes they are. Are they included in the 19.2% figure though? If so, why? If talking about denominations shouldn’t we talk about Sunnis and Shiites, both in separate groups?
Before closing this post let me make one thing clear: we will not accept bigotry in this thread.
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"19.2% means, give or say, 1.3 billion individuals. That number will go up in the coming years and decades because of the high birthrates among Muslims. Christians have less children these days; their total numbers are expected to remain the same, while Islam is likely to grow significantly."
I disagree Michael. Birth rates are declining significantly in the Muslim world. Iran is one shining example of the declining population growth rate. During the 70s and 80s, Iran had a rapid population growth rate comparable to sub-Saharan Africa; now it has a growth rate comparable to Great Britain.
Fertility rates throughout the decades have been on a decreasing trend in the Muslim world.
"
Some Arab countries, notably Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and Lebanon, are either below or very close to that stability level of 2.1. Algeria and Morocco, at 2.4, are dropping fast toward it. Some other Islamic countries are also in this zone of population stability or decline, including Turkey (2.1), and Indonesia (2.2). Iran is listed at 2.0, below replacement level, but even more recent data suggests that Iran’s real rate is around 1.7, according to the latest CIA Fact book. Some scholars put it even lower.The figures for adolescent fertility in the Middle East are even more striking. The world’s highest birthrate among adolescents is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with 222 births per year among teenage girls. In Britain, it is 24, which is higher than the number of such births in Algeria (7), Morocco (19), Oman (10), Kuwait (13), Qatar (17) the UAE (18) and Tunisia (7). While Jordan (25) and Saudi Arabia (28) are close to the British level.Demographers in France have already refuted some of the wilder predictions of high birth rates among Muslim immigrants leading to "the cathedral of Notre Dame becoming a mosque by the end of this century." The birthrate of mothers of North African origin drops to the local norm within two generations. Now it seems that the birthrate of Muslim and Arab women who did not emigrate is plummeting in a similar fashion."http://www.metimes.com/Editorial/2008/01/25/editorial_mideast_fertility_rates_plunge/6336/
It seems pretty meaningless to compare numbers for one sect of Christianity (Catholics) against all of Islam. At minimum, you should probably divide Shia and Sunni if you are going to split Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Christians.
And if you are looking to do something a bit more telling with the numbers, it might be worthwhile to look at rates of increase or decrease. Especially if you split them between converts vs. those born into the faith.
The hard part, but perhaps relevant to the whole discussion, would be deciding what portions of each faith are devout, vs nominal, members. Also, what impact does any of these faiths have on the world-view of those who live among the faithful but are either a) of a different faith or b) agnostic or atheist?
Only after you do that kind of analysis could we get to the really explosive questions about what, if anything, does it all mean for the future of the world.
This is the first thought I had after reading this story. I’m not sure why they compared a denomination to an entire religion, and its strange that we haven’t seen more people comment on this point.
I was wondering the same thing. Although the Catholic church views itself as *the* Christian Church and all others as either heterodox or heretical, so that may partially explain it, if you add up the four types of Christian (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Evangelical) then you have to split Islam into at least its two main types, Sunni and Shia, and there are further divisions within those types. In fact most of Islam (especially Sunni Islam) is as informally organized as Evangelical Christianity.
I also agree that you have to look at future trends. There’s no way the current population growth in Muslim areas will stay static; as incomes rise and democracy spreads, we should expect birth rates to go down.
My reaction mirrors wj, karim & dean. Sunni Islam is a sort of arminian evangelism, if you can square that circle. While hierarchical, Shi’ite Islam itself has bizarre offshoots such as the ruling Aliwites in Syria and the large alevi minority in Turkey.
My job in the U.S. Embassy in Saudi entailed among other responsibilities reporting whether the Saudis recognized adherents of sects such as the sizeable Ahmadiyya [Sunni, I believe] in Pakistan and Sufi brotherhoods in Egypt and elsewhere as true Muslims.
The Saudis banished Sunni freemasons such as Zaki Yamani when they caught them, unless the countervailing clout in the Royal Family prevailed.
And the Vatican would count me as a "practicing" Catholic even though I’ve been lax on Church attendance and Easter Duty, among other "practices." Many Catholics would not be so generous, even though I do believe in the teachings of the Church and am a "cafeteria Catholic."
"I also agree that you have to look at future trends. There’s no way the current population growth in Muslim areas will stay static; as incomes rise and democracy spreads, we should expect birth rates to go down."
Income and industrialization would be more correct. World’s largest democracy(India, largely unindustrialized) is also second most populous and is expected to overtake China.
"It seems pretty meaningless to compare numbers for one sect of Christianity (Catholics) against all of Islam. At minimum, you should probably divide Shia and Sunni if you are going to split Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Christians."
well, that is irrelevant and uninteresting for Vatican. Holy father want to warn fellow potential crusaders – "Muslims are breeding like rats"
"My job in the U.S. Embassy in Saudi entailed among other responsibilities reporting whether the Saudis recognized adherents of sects such as the sizeable Ahmadiyya [Sunni, I believe] in Pakistan and Sufi brotherhoods in Egypt and elsewhere as true Muslims"
Ahmadiya Muslim consider itself as a part of Sunni Islam, though (most of) Sunni Muslims consider it as a heresy. They are mostly found in India and Pakistan. I wonder why US, which itself claims to have separated Church and state would be interested in Islamic theology. I don’t know whether Iran is entitled to have diplomats who secretly monitor whether Italy recognises Church of Trinity and Mormonism as valid as Christianity.
The answer to your questions are simple
The vatican consideres itself a separate entity and has had a brutal conflict with the Protestants … meaning they protested and thus it doesnt recognize other instutions as even christian
When it comes to islam the story is completely different . Shia and sunnah and some of the accepted forms of muslim worship are due to the fact of the rules They all use the same Quran and follow the same 5 pillars of worship
But differ in Other teachings of Hadith (sayings)
They recognize each other officially
But due to the fact that most Shia are inside of Iran this trows politics into the story .
All Sunnah and shia and Few others are considered muslim Due to accepting 5 pillars and using the same Quran
I would like to know how many men and women have converted to Islam. It appears to me the increase is more on the men side since Islam is a male controling religion than in faith.??
Islam is really a male dominated religion, where women dont have much freedom. There are conversions to Islam particularly because of the hype surrounding it that its the fastest growing religion (actually the growth is because of extremely high birth rate and not due to conversion). For example, hardly a day passes by without hearing anything about Islam in the media (whether it is suicide bombings or so…). Naturally the so called Christians in the west who have not read the Bible even once become more keen to know what Islam is all about and will get attracted to it. In the west all have freedom to choose the religion one wants. But in Muslim countries one who convert to other religions will be killed. Still… as a whole more Muslims are converting to Christianity than Christians converting to Islam… particularly in Africa.