Props to all the Muslim mothers around the world for having lots of children!
Muslims more numerous than Catholics
By ALESSANDRA RIZZO, Associated Press Writer
Sun Mar 30, 2:48 PM ETVATICAN CITY – Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the world’s largest religion, the Vatican newspaper said Sunday.
“For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us,” Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. Formenti compiles the Vatican’s yearbook.
He said that Catholics accounted for 17.4 percent of the world population — a stable percentage — while Muslims were at 19.2 percent.
“It is true that while Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer,” the monsignor said.
Formenti said that the data refer to 2006. The figures on Muslims were put together by Muslim countries and then provided to the United Nations, he said, adding that the Vatican could only vouch for its own data.
When considering all Christians and not just Catholics, Christians make up 33 percent of the world population, Formenti said.
Spokesmen for the Vatican and the United Nations did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment Sunday.
Source: Yahoo!
69 Responses for "Islam is Officially the World’s Largest Religion!"
Islam is Officially the World’s Largest Religion! | MR’s Blo…
Islam is finally AND officially number one in the list of the largest religions of the world!…
The larger a religion becomes, the more it becomes corrupted. and besides Christianity is still larger if you include all the sects, not just catholicism.
Salaam
I don’t know if its such a good thing, quantity doesn’t equal quality, lol. plus, most muslim nations are growing at a pace that may seem good when we can say we have the most people in the world, but its unsustainable.
Isn’t it unfair to compare a denomination to an entire faith?? Comparing Catholics to Sunni Muslims would be more fair…and I think they just about equal out (or Catholics have a slight lead)…
I don’t think we’re really number 1. A question though: Is our Ummah worth praising right now? We’re in a horrible state in Iman as a whole people, subhana’allah.
^however bad the Ummah may seem, it still has good in it, and has many ppl with top Imaan and great Deen.
May Allah SWT increase these ppl, and let us benefit frm them inshAllah.
Alhamdulillah, I am so glad I made the right decision to cross over 10 years ago.
Stranger, alhamdulillah for the abundant good we do have, but we have a lot of work to do.
About time.. Go Islam!
- http://www.musliminamerica.org
ALLAH S.W.T already said it “They plan, but we too are planning and ALLAH is the best
of Planners” Sure nuff our enemies planned but it lloks like it is backfiring he he he hee:-)
Allahu Ahkbar!
it’s a great feeling to know that 19.2% of the world population are our fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters! Muhammad(PBUH) has indeed delivered the message. La ilaha Ila Allah Muhamadon rasoolAllah.
Party at MR’s place!!
Whose bringing the sheesha?
But yo fo real ya’ll still think like you are #2. Start acting like #1.
This is STATUS. This is like being ELITE. So stop whining!
Everybody is quoting the foam over the sea hadith but yo chillax and relax.
Muslims still think like a bunch of losers man. We gotta change our attitude. Stop talking and start ACTING like we’re ELITE.
1 : When comes the Help of Allah
2 : And you see that the people enter Allah’s religion (Islam) in crowds,
3 : So glorify the Praises of your Lord, and ask for His Forgiveness. Verily, He is the One Who accepts the repentance and forgives.
(Quran 110: 1-3)
Yeaaaaaaaaa boyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!
We doinnng it big
We the best! – DJ Khalid
lol
Alhamdulillah was once being spread by one single person our beloved Prophet Muhammad (SAW)… now the largest religon.
df
To compare Catholicism and Islam doesn’t make sense. Catholics are a sect. Islam is a religion. When talking in sects, Catholicism and Sunni Islam are almost the same size at 17%, while Christianity is around 33%, making it much larger than Islam.
i love your blog. i’ve
tivoedblogrolled it.You dont get it do you…. the vatican time and time again has stated that CATHOLICISM is the ONLY AND TRUE CHRISTIANITY. FYI, i was catholic for 18 years, converted to Islam back in 2003.
^ALLAHU AKBAR!
If that is true, then we must apply that to Muslims too. Shia’s believe that Sunnis are not going to heaven, so they cannot be mixed with Sunnis. With that in mind, Sunnis only make up 16.3% to 17.2% of the world, making Catholics still larger with 17.4%.
Apples and oranges, folks. Christianity rules at 33% of the global population and Chuck is right. Besides, Christianity respects freedom of conscience and freedom of speech. Islam is totalitarian in nature. People everywhere just want to be free to think what they want.
To say Christianity supports freedom of speech and Islam doesn’t is to ignore the entire history of Christians and Muslims. Last time I checked intellectuals like Galileo during the Renaissance were killed by the Catholic Church. Not to mention the fact that the Christianity and Christians were the main reason 80% of Native Americans were killed off. And if talking in modern American terms, Christianity is what people used to justify racism against minorities and justify racial slavery.
You’re right. christianity still remains dominant. I’m aware of that. also. are you muslim? if you knew muslim doctrine, most muslims beleive that we should divide ourselves and say one muslim is going to hell. Shia islam as well as sunni does not have the heirarchy and structure the way catholicism has; yes, islam has been divided soo many times by “people” but one thing is for sure… every soo-called “sect” gathers together in worship of Allah in Mecca, Saudi arabia. Go to the vatican (catholicism capital city), you’ll hardley see protestant, greek orthodox and coptic christians praying side by side in unity and same mind together the way muslims have done (regardless of differences) for many many years during the hajj. But again, Christianity still remains dominant in numbers; mostly coming from Latin America; read up on the history of how latin america became the powerhouse of Catholicism (Gold, God, Glory). The gold that was used to build the ornaments and idols of saints in spanish/portuguese churches came from america; they melted the incan, aztec, caribs and other native american gold jewelry/crowns/idols. Thats why europe in GENERAL is as rich as they are today; exploiting and stealing by way of the catholic imperial church. Columbus was catholic.. and so were most of the european conquistadors.
My theory is that christianity was spread by 3 main factors in Americas.
(1) Because GOD was depicted as WHITE; purity and innnocence. The same could be applied in the Phliippine Islands. To this day, black is seen as ugly and white is seen as beauty. this ideology stems from the WHITE depictions of Jesus(pbuh) and Mary(pbuh). If god were depicted as a true semite; im sure not many nordic/germanic europeans during antiquity would have converted en masse into christianity knowing their god was brown and dark. FYI, read the chronicles of Ahmad Ibn Fadlan and how he was seen a dirty (brown skin) amongst the northern europeans.
(2) By force; remember montezuma was tied up ready to be burned to the stake? The spanish wanted to know where the gold was. His wife wanted to STOP THE EXECUTION, so she married a spanish conquistador and told the spanish where the GOLD WAS!!! When montezuma was forced to convert to christianity; he said: “IF heaven is full of you people, id rather be in hell!” So they burned him alive; despite finding the hidden montezuma gold.
I meant TWO.. not three (3)
1. Yes Ayoub I Am Muslim, but I am a revert just like you.
2. Yes I know Catholcism spreading invovled a lot of killing and cheating. Thats what I told Connie.
3. My argument was that if Catholics can’t be put with Protestants, then Shia’s can’t be put with Sunnis for the same reasons. Shia Islam is structured very similarly to Catholicism, with a Supreme Leader, appointed clerics, etc. To say that Shia’s have no hierarchy is a very misinformed thought. My point was that Shia’s believe that Sunnis are VERY deviated and that they support murderers, meaning Sunnis are hellbound (but in the end Allah judgement overrules all), Yes Sunnis and Shias “come together” for Hajj, but Shias still believe that Sunnis are misguided.
im at ork right now, so ill make this short.
Where is this heirarchy of shiaism??? IRAN??
I would talk to some local Shia friend if I were you. If that isn’t possible, simply scroll the Wikipedia article about Shia Islam:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imamah_%28Shi%27a_twelver_doctrine%29
it’s inevitable really.
dont worry we will make up that defecit…my friend is getting married soon. lol Its funny how .2 % is so significant at certain times.
Whoever is the majority is none of my concern. The most important thing is HOW THESE DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS HARMONIZE THEIR FAITH TO PEACEFULLY CO-EXIST.
Remember if all Christians (not just chatolic), it’s get 33%
You should all grow up and start acting like real people of faith. True Catholics and true Muslims wouldn’t be bickering about material things like status, how big they are, or how one or the other religion is flawed, but would be genuinely concerned for the welfare of ALL of their brothers and sisters, no matter their religion. GROW UP and spend less time arguing, more time praying and doing good for all humanity.
“You should all grow up and start acting like real people of faith. True Catholics and true Muslims wouldn’t be bickering about material things like status, how big they are, or how one or the other religion is flawed, but would be genuinely concerned for the welfare of ALL of their brothers and sisters, no matter their religion. GROW UP and spend less time arguing, more time praying and doing good for all humanity.”-L
YOU ALL??? Not everyone here thinks the same way about this. READ THE COMMENTS BEFORE POSTING SUCH A STUPID KNEE-JERK REACTIONARY RESPONSE!!!
CONNIE, you are wrong. The vatican COMBINED CHIRISTIAN AND CATHOLICS at 33%…..vs Islam alone is little over 19%……
simpler math for you.
ISLAM AT little over 19% of world population.
Catholic at 17%
that would put Christian at 16%….
16+17=33%…..
ISLAM HAS NO SECTS, WE HAVE SUNNIS, SHIA, N TWO OTHERS…BUT WE ALL BELIEVE IN ALLAH…..THATS ALL IT SHOULD MATTER, WE BELIEVE IN THE SAME PRINCIPLES, SAME PROPHET, PRAY 5 TIMES..
ALLAHUAKBAR…NOW ITS TIME THAT WE DO THE RIGHT THING AND DEFEND OURSELVES. BUT AGAIN WE SHOULD NEVER DISRESPECT OTHER RELIGION, EITHER CATHOLIC, CHRISTIAN, HINDU, OR WHATEVER.
BUT WE MUST DEFEND AGAINST ISRAELI AGGRESSION.
It’s all about Israel.
You’ll have a bigger fish to fry when Hillary attacks Iran.
Let’s get this straight guys, Sunni Islam is much larger than Roman Catholocism so there is no competition here. The true islam is larger than the true Christianity, case closed. Alhamdullilah. However that’s not the point, the point is that the enemy is growing in secrecy and Israel must be stopped before…never mind. It’s already written in stone what’ll happen to them, the real question is which side will YOU be on. Religion, or Israel
Allah Hu Akbar!! No one can challenge The Creator!!!
What’s unimportant is which religion has the most followers. Allah looks at each of his followers individually and it is as individuals that we will be judged. These comparisons are pointless and only of meagre benefit to those who wish to feel better by knowing them. The truth is that although there may be a greater number of muslims in the world than any other religion, how many of those muslims are actually practicing their faith? The same could be said for other faiths too but I’m a muslim so I’m talking about Islam. The term ‘moderate muslim’ has been applied to a large number of muslims who generally follow Islam. By that, I mean they might pray a little, maybe go to mosque (on Eid!!), fast during Ramadan (because there is no better weight loss programme!!) and so on. These ‘moderate’ muslims are insults to their faith because they’re just posers essentially. But fools they are because Allah knows what is in the hearts and minds of all mankind and none can hide anything from him.
I pray that we each gain the knowledge to see the right path, the wisdom to choose it and the strength to endure in our faith. Aameen.
wot how do christians believe in freedom of speech, the quran says that we must seek knowledge where eva we find it, but da bible dont even say anyfing bout educatin ureself. infact, be4 democracy was introduced and da country was bein run by kings havin ur own say was against da churche coz science and christianity has always been against eachother. but on da other hand islam and science has always been side by side. science proves islam and islam proves science. the quran has loads and i mean loads of scientific fact dat have been confirmed by scientists who r now muslims by da way ppl.
I am a former Christian. But I found truth in Islam. It recognizes both the Torah and the Bible. But yes, I do agree that truth has been compiled in ISLAM considering the many inconsistencies in Christian religions. However, it should be a challenge to every Muslim to make himself/herself true Muslims.Number does not matter. Our complete submission to the will of God matters
fine then if jesus is a god then prove it , my proof is that jesus isnt god coz god cant be given birth b y human dat is so like dumb believe wot u want but jesus isnt a god hes a myth
Islam is the only true religion in the world.
Salaam
Gud news it is, aint it. We are growing in numbers…
There’s this Hadith that says one day a Muslim will enter a Masjid and he will be stricken by the strange looks of the dwellers of the Masjid towards him. The Hadith continue by saying that Muslim guy will be surprised that no one in the Masjid would want to know who he is. And it says this will be because Muslims will be suspicious of one another.
I read the comments here and I believe if this was a virtual Masjid and I enter here to do some salat, or just to meet some Muslims, no one would bother to know who I am. Such is the ‘ego’ and the ‘pride’ of the people who comments here! Walahaula…
The comments about Islam being the biggest faith is so damaging and damning that it make realize that the predictions in the hadith I mention above has effectively happened. When I enter a Masjid in Istanbul, Dakar, Johannesburg, Dubai or Kuala Lumpur, such is the look that I get that I feel dispossessed and unwanted!
Here too, I think we are showing the grain of ‘suspicion’ against each other. Enough of this and pls behave like true Muslims. Lets welcome all good news and lets welcome all brothers and sisters on the same footing!
To do so, lets learn more about our own brothers and sisters please.
Wasalam.
yes ISLAM WILL SPREAD EVEN FURTHER . PRINT AND GIVE THIS OUT TO FRIENDS AND COLLEGES:
Try this for the next few nights/weeks/months, it will clear things up and help you, your family and friends enormously NOW AND IN YOUR FUTURE .
YOU WILL SEE ITS NON BIAS ALSO.
PRAYER’S DESTINATION: CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE
PRAY IS A TRANS-DIMENSIONAL UP-LINK TO THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE
ASK to your Creator in a state that you are CERTAIN that your Prayer will be RESPONDED to, and Know that Your Creator WILL NOT ANSWER REQUEST’S that comes from a CARELESS and INATTENTIVE HEART. Pray onto Him as though you SEE HIM and if you don’t see him, then verily HE SEES YOU.
Never will YOUR CREATOR ALLOW YOUR PRAYER to be lost and the GOOD work any of you be lost, be he male or female.
NOTHING CAN REPEL PREDESTINATION except PRAYER/OR YOUR REQUEST/ASKING HIM
SAY THE FOLLOWING TONIGHT OR AT ANY TIME………………..you may start with O LORD….. Or O CREATOR OF MY
O Lord / O Creator of my Mind, Body and Soul, if there is a Way Of Life which you love over all other ways of life in this Universe then please direct me towards it, show me the Truth as Truth and render me help towards that and make it very easy for me to understand. Show me Falsehood as Falsehood and help me to avoid that with the greatest of ease. I plead with you today for help and understanding in this matter with your Infinite Knowledge and Mercy on these matters.
O Lord / O Creator, save and protect me and my family and friends from sudden major and minor illness, car accident, terrorist bombings, rape, murder, kidnapping, drowning, burning, plagues and poisoning, and something falling on me and that we fall of something.
O Lord / O Creator of my mind, body and soul, you have not Created this Universe aimlessly, you are with blemishes, so save and protest me, my family and friends from all Major Calamities, Disaster, Miseries, illness’s and depression, sorrow and grief and save and protect us from the Evils in and around my life, in this Country and Evils of this World and the Hereafter.
O Most Merciful of those who show mercy, change my bad luck into good luck and change my Destiny into a good and pleasurable Destiny and shower your Special blessing and Mercies on me and my family and friends.
O Lord / O Creator, Forgive me for my past present and future sins and wrong doings that I may have committed, whether it was committed knowingly or unknowingly by me.
O Lord / O Creator, Open the doors to my mind, heart and soul and feed me data from yourself and give me knowledge of this world, and of the Next world and Spiritual world, make it easy for me to understand it, to act upon it and live my life in the best of ways in order to gain your infinite pleasure and that will Extremely benefit Me, My Family, Friends and My Country now and in our future.
HERE MENTION/ASK FOR WHATEVER YOU WISH, NEED and DESIRE FOR NOW AND YOUR FUTURE…………………
THEN END WITH EITHER…………PLEASE ACCEPT AND ANSWER MY REQUEST IN THE BEST OF TIME AND WAYS……OR………Amen / Ameen
Muslims outnumber the whole of CHRISTIANS anyway. in 2003 there were abour 2billion christians and 1.5 billion muslims… Now Muslims have taken a slight lead and there are approx. 2.3 Billion Muslims, But this is not important. What is important is that as a religion, islam is the most respected, followed, and more or less probably the only religion were over 80% follow it fully and properly, while (and this is not intended to be an offensive comment) in other religions e.g. Christianity, some rules are changed or blatently ignored, Example: every christian will know that in the bible, Jesus speaks against homosexuality, yet gay marriages are allowed to take place in Catholic AND protestant churches.
hahaha … 2.3billion Muslims …. aaaahahahaha we got a super-liberal here
Sorry to burst everyone’s bubble, but Islam as a whole (sunni and shia) has STILL not outnumbered Christianity as a whole.
The 2009 figures are 1.6 BILLION Muslims.
2.3 BILLION Christians.
I don’t know where “Fadi for his/her figures, but they are very far from being right.
We can’t judge on Catholic/Sunni or Romanian Orthodox/Shia.
It makes no sense.
Those who follow Allah and Mohammed have about SEVEN TO EIGHT HUNDRED MILLION more people to catch those who follow God and Jesus.
Maybe in time, it is very possible, but not in our lives.
I just would like to reiterate what I’ve said few months ago before I proceed. :Whoever is the majority is none of my concern. The most important thing is HOW THESE DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS HARMONIZE THEIR FAITH TO PEACEFULLY CO-EXIST”.
Friends, it is not the number of members of a particular religious group that matter. So, to say that Islam has greater members, or Catholic still commands greater membership, or any other religious group for that matter, has, to me, no bearing on the real purpose why God believers worship Him, i.e. so that they will be sent to heaven after their death.
If the last statement is what God believers owes, the best thing that we do is to find out what religion can save us. I believe that truth is unique that if one thing is TRUE, the other thing claiming with the same characteristics is FALSE. For example, Christianity has so many denominations. And following my argument, it may be that only one Christian religion is true, if not partially true. And on all their major denominations (e.g. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc.), only one is TRUE and the others are FALSE.
As rationale beings, we need to assess which religious belief can save us. So we need to study and evaluate independently these religions.
Al
Not to mention, real numbers are no where near these ammounts.
There are people who do not practice the religion they were brought up with.
The numbers most likely look more like this:
Islam 600 MILLION
Christianity 1 BILLION.
“As rationale beings, we need to assess which religious belief can save us. So we need to study and evaluate independently these religions.”
LMAO
Good luck with that
Numbers of muslims should not matter. Muslims have always been the underdog, we were victorious in battles when the enemy was much larger and stronger than us.
ditto to what ayoub said.
In this particular issue, numbers should not matter. You know what you are [a Muslim] and you know what you have [Islam]. From a dawah role & responsibility perspective, you should be concerned with simply relaying the message, and not worried about the final result [someone becoming Muslim or not] because that is up to God alone.
Two Facts need to be really be brought upto surface
1. Islam does not have the largest follower base – Re Pew’s report
Islam’s followers are est at 1.57 billion (23% of world’s pop) and it puts Islam at No. 2 in terms of followers, behind Christianity’s estimated 2.1 billion to 2.2 billion.
2. Followers of Islam are dispersed accross the globe and do not really form a concentrated geographical block as with Christianity or Buddhism, Jews or Hindus. Hence, economic, political and religious benefits always evade Islam.
Myths of Islam having largest followers are spread as scare strategy to stop spread of Islam across other religions as it is offers real understanding of God and best and comprehensive way of life.
may allah increase it even more. im very proud
ALHAMDULILLAH
Well after reading these comments it really helped me to realize that the majority of followers here are kooks. Who really cares if your mythical god has the biggest fan base. If you dig HeeSuse or Alibabwaa good for you, hope it makes your life better. Before you pick your god/religion make sure you try being a non follower for a month. just think Sundays to enjoy your life, no more putting out your yoga mat 3 times a day and doing push ups.
Remember without followers there would be no religion, guess since I am not a follower I am a leader. Hmmm maybe I should write a book so a few hundred years from now people would chant my name before they did crazy things.
Cheers
allahu akbar, islam is the worlds largest religion and inshallah nothing can change it, for all you other people who decline this, too bad, becasu all the religions agreed that islam is the largest religion. so haha, sucks for you guys!!
islam is the worlds largest religion and inshallah nothing can change it, for all you other people who decline this, too bad, becasu all the religions agreed that islam is the largest religion. so haha, sucks for you guys!!
islam is the worlds largest religion and inshallah nothing can change it, for all you other people who decline this, too bad, becasu all the religions agreed that islam is the largest religion. so haha, sucks for you guys!!!!
fuck you shawn!!
its like this:
Islam: Infinity
Christianty:………………………………..
Jumbo Shrimp? And that status will last until the entire world is speaking Arabic maybe?
loll
The Jews make up a fake religion, then the Jews and Christians make more false religions from the original false religion of Judaism. Then you have idiots celebrating who has the bigger false religion, to see this happen this day and age makes me LOL!
yup
Alright, just to set the record straight.. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are one and the same religion. The message of Allah SWT revealed to his prophets (Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad [PBUT]). Unfortunately, the similarities between our faiths are overlooked, and the differences disproportionately emphasized. To all my muslim brothers and sisters who retaliated to the comments with negative comments of their own, you are just as wrong if not more so than the offender. Dont forget, the Prophet (SAWS) prayed for forgiveness the Jews who threw rocks at him. Animosity has no place between out faiths and we should, as suggested many times above, bridge the gap between our faiths and learn to accept and embrace one another as human beings… at the very least. We are all the creation of the One we worship, shouldn’t be a bond strong enough to overshadow our differences….
food for thought
salam! i am so proud now that the islam becanme largest religions in the worlds. It is because nothing is the truth religion except islam.
I would love for someone to explain what the religious significance of the Vatican in Rome is. For Jerusalem to be considered one of the holiest sites in the world for the 3 religions of the book makes all the sense to me. The significance of Mecca for all Muslims is very clear. Is there anyone who can explain how Rome became a site of worship for Catholics when, to my knowledge, there was nothing of religious historical significance that occurred. Maybe what Aypub mentioned of the glorification of white holds some merit as well as the reasoning behind this.
I have no intention of joining in with the bickering match of who is greater in number…but one point that i have always been aware of with the religion of Christianity is there is no one when I have asked what their religion is has answered me, “I am a Christian” It has always been I am Catholic/Baptist/Coptic/Greek Orthodox… In contrast, I dont know of any Muslim who has ever specified his sect when referring to his faith. He is simply a Muslim.
Regardless of whether Islam is the largest religion in the world or not, one thing is certain. It is the seal of all the religions and therefore, the perfect religion.
/\ lol Saleh. A perfect religion does not exist. They all contradict, and they all have a tyrannical past.
The reason Rome (Actually the Vatican) is the seat of the Roman Catholic religion is because it was the Capital of the Roman Empire. The Romans had gods of their own and persecuted Christians, until they themselves realised it may have been a religion worth following, and so it was instituted as their national religion. It simply spread from there.
Jerusalem is the holliest place for Christians.
I hope wherever you are, you have access to history books.
LOL @ Shawn
As if he would know how to define a perfect religion.
http://bit.ly/9jiyD3 Wfol.tv interview Huwaida Arraf of the Free Gaza Movement: Resisting Israel with peaceful means!
[...] Islam is the fastest growing and the largest, and the many acts that happen around the world are due to the misunderstanding of this great [...]
What is it with you people and the way you say things about Islam being the largest religion now? Using Inshallah and other Holy Words is not the way it is said.