ISLAM THE FASTEST GROWING RELIGION

- By Khadija Watson
In the last 50 years from the year 1950 until the year 2000 Islam has increased by 235 percent!! While at the same time Christianity has grown 57% and Judaism only 5%. (World Almanac and Book of Facts 1992 pg 725, U.S. News and World Report Oct 8, 1990, Encyclopedia Britannica 1989 vol. 22) As you can see these facts are not from Muslim publications where one might expect to find such things. However, they are from other well respected sources as well.

Over 1 in 5 people in the world today are Muslims!! Islam is the second largest religion with Christianity being first followed by Islam and then Judaism.

During the 1991 Gulf War 7000 American soldiers embraced Islam!! Because of the large number of service personal embracing Islam, the United States government was force to incorporate Muslim chaplains or Imams as they are called, as part of their service personal. An Imam is the counterpart of Christian pastors, Catholic priest and Jewish Rabbi. They also had to allow these new Muslim service personal time on Fridays to attend the Jummah Prayer, which is the counter part to Christian Sunday service or the Jewish Sabbath services.

Islam is the fastest growing religion in the United States . Before 911 there was an average of 1000, Americans across the United States embracing Islam every month. From the time of September 11 until November, in just two months more than 35,000 Americans embraced Islam!! (CAIR report 2001). This covers every sector of society, economic backgrounds, professions and races. One would wonder why after 911 the increase was so great, as the natural inclination would be for a decrease not an increase.

What made these people embrace Islam when these are Americans, for the most part born and raised in Christian America not Arab or Muslim emigrants? Islam does not propagate itself through healing crusades, music crusades, street corner evangelism or any of the usual strategies used by Christian and non-Christian organizations and churches. Another interesting aspect is that the women in America embracing Islam are holding more academic degrees then the men who embrace Islam! In other words, more women with Bachelors, Master's and PhD's. Why would such educated women embrace a religion that is suppose to regulate them to the status of a second class citizen? Americans are inquisitive people and when presented with the true facts are capable of coming to their own conclusion and making a rational decision.

The last few years people have started to seek in earnest to understand what Islam teaches, to find out if this a terrorist religion. So they started turning to the only independent sources which were readily available and that was the Internet and Islamic Centers. Much false propaganda has been projected by the media, government and evangelist about what they think Islam is or what they want you to believe Islam is for what ever purpose they have in mind. In the past much of the material on Islam available about the religion of Islam was not written my Muslim but others outside of the religion. Anyone who does research knows that you most authentic sources are the primary not secondary sources. In other words, one looking into the belief and practices of Islam should seek the primary sources written by Muslims themselves.

In spite of the bad press about Islam, with such large number of people embracing Islam and the population of the Muslims growing in the United States, and while it is true that Muslims are still experiencing difficulties in practicing their religion, that there is persecution and prejudices, Islam is making an impact and is slowly being incorporated into mainstream America. Every Ramadan we see Capitol Hill hosting a yearly Iftar (breaking of the daily fast during the month of Ramadan) dinner attended by Congressmen, congressional staffers, elected officials, American Muslim leaders, as well as ambassadors from Islamic nations.

Rep. John Conyers in his welcoming remarks (in 2004) said that they plan to do this on yearly bases. Retailers are also sitting up and taking notice of the ever growing Muslim population. This year IKEA highlighted the month of Ramadan with a month long campaign showing a women wearing hijab and South Asian dress, photos of Mecca, sweet trays used for the end of fast celebrations and a text explaining the religious meaning of the holiday. Although this is not as yet a nationwide mail-out campaign it is on their web site http://www.ikea.ca/. It is a first for IKEA and part of a trend by retailers to acknowledge a minority celebration. In 2004, retailers such as the Hudson's Bay Company included Ramadan greetings in flyers for The Bay, Zellers and Home Outfitters, plus posters and door signs. It will do the same for the Jewish Chanukah, Christmas and other holidays. Hallmark greeting cards is also adding a new line of cards for Ramadan and Eid celebration. For the second year running the U.S. Postal service has produced a stamp commemorating the Eid. Celebration just as they do for Christmas and Chanukah. A handful of Public Schools across the nation which in the past has closed for Christmas and Jewish holidays have now included the Muslim holiday Eid.

Frank Belluscio, a spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association said about his district, “We are diversifying and I am sure this is something we'll see other districts doing in the future.” Some Public Schools have even set aside a small room where Muslim high school students can go to pray in keeping with the fulfillment of their religious duty to pray 5 times a day. This is in keeping with Christian students holding prayer meeting and part of the First Amendment of freedom of religion. While these are only small first steps in the acceptance of the Fastest Growing Religion in the United States and the world, we must remember that every minority whether people or religion: German, Irish, Italian, Jews, Spanish speaking people, Japanese, Chinese, Viet Names, Hawaiians, Blacks, Native American Indians, Catholic, Mormons, Hara Krishna's, Christian sects, denominations and Occults have all at one time or another experienced suspicion, hatetred, prejudice, and persecution and yet these have never made the impact on society that Islam is making.

In the very near future Islam and Muslims will be such a part of grassroots America as to hardly be noticed. Islam does not belong to an Arab country, but is a religion that is in every county of the world. The United States is not one race of people but a blending of all nations and religions of the world and is truly a Christian, Islamic, Judeo society.

According to statistics from the U.N., Islam is now the worlds second largest religion after Christianity. The U.N. statistics state that the Islam annual growth rate of Islam is around 6.40% compared to 1.46% during the same time period for Christianity. Also according to these statistics, one in five people on the planet are Muslim (by birth or geographical reference).

Statistics from the U.N.:

Islam in North America since 1989 increased 25%

Islam in Africa since 1989 increased 2.15%

Islam in Asia since 1989 increased 12.57%

Islam in Europe since 1989 increased 142.35%

Islam in Latin America since 1989 decreased -4.73%

and Islam in Australia since 1989 increased 257.01%

Source: Islam.com

Sulthan.org.

தேங்க்ஸ்: டு Mohd.sheriff