"There were 1.8 billions Muslims in the world as of 2015 - roughly 24% of the global population - according to a Pew Research Center estimate. But while Islam is currently the world's second-largest religion (after Christianity), it is the fastest-growing major religion. Indeed, if current demographic trends continue, the number of Muslims is expected to exceed the number of Christians by the end of this century."
Pew Research Center Study
I suspect this will be a topic which I'll revisit several times during the next year, but I wanted to at least throw it out now. So, why will Islam, if the predictions hold true, be the world's largest religion by the turn of the century? A lot of it relates to factors that have nothing at all to do with the nature of the faith itself. For example, Islam is the main religions of a lot of areas that have much higher birth rates than areas where Christianity is the main religion. Similarly, there are areas in Western Europe and the US where the number of Christians are stagnant or dropping, so in this case Islam is sort of adding by subtracting. OK, so what about the allure of the faith itself? I can talk about my own personal path, and have, and will again, but are there bigger issues at play here that make the faith more appealing? Obviously, much more on this later as I consider the implications of this complicated question.
Oh, and if you want to make a devoted Islamophobe's head explode (essentially anyone in the present administration - or who voted for the present administration) just point out that in eighty years there will be more Muslims than Christians in the world.
Pew Research Center Study
I suspect this will be a topic which I'll revisit several times during the next year, but I wanted to at least throw it out now. So, why will Islam, if the predictions hold true, be the world's largest religion by the turn of the century? A lot of it relates to factors that have nothing at all to do with the nature of the faith itself. For example, Islam is the main religions of a lot of areas that have much higher birth rates than areas where Christianity is the main religion. Similarly, there are areas in Western Europe and the US where the number of Christians are stagnant or dropping, so in this case Islam is sort of adding by subtracting. OK, so what about the allure of the faith itself? I can talk about my own personal path, and have, and will again, but are there bigger issues at play here that make the faith more appealing? Obviously, much more on this later as I consider the implications of this complicated question.
Oh, and if you want to make a devoted Islamophobe's head explode (essentially anyone in the present administration - or who voted for the present administration) just point out that in eighty years there will be more Muslims than Christians in the world.
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