1 in 4 human beings are Muslim- new study claims

[English; français; Afrikaans]

Note by Marc Aupiais

Called the most comprehensive of its kind, by the prestigious Pew Forum, a new study on the Earth's second most practised faith has found there are about 1.57 billion muslims. Islam, was once smaller than The Roman Catholic Church- which currently has 1.4 Billion followers, and is still smaller than the combination of Catholic and Eastern Orthodox- old guard Christian religions, and than Christianity itself- which is numbered at 2.1 to 2.2 billion followers.

That is to say- one in three people are Christian, with Catholicism accounting for over half the world's Christians, and nearly one in every four human beings. While about one in four people are Islamic in their religious affinity- with Asia holding the largest numbers of Muslims.

Only recently did Islam's religious sects, grouped together: surpass Catholicism, Christianity's largest grouping: in numbers- according to church statistics released by the Vatican prior this latest survey of population statistics. The size of Islam was then attributed to the difference in birth rates in the Western Culture, as compared that of Islamic norms.

It is notoriously hard to gauge the size of Islam, and even more so to separate voluntary followers, from those who are... let us call it "less so".

C.f.

AP [Associated Press] (Secular; Independent; American)

Hosted on:

News 24 (Secular; Independent; South African)

http://m.24.com/content/FullArticle.aspx?aid=49c75b03-e3cc-4c06-9920-79d9abd28bd0

Monasticism points to God: Pope- in Africa, Asia, and Latin America: calls to the monastery growing

(Journey in a Broken World; c.f. Catholic News Service 20/11/08)

Article By Marc Aupiais

As calls to the religious life in America, and Europe are threatened, Africa and Asia are shining stars of the church, as the pope: has said that Monasticism shows Catholics the essentials!