Question of the day from my Islam Q & A series. Please share with family and friends especially kids. For more information and to browse questions on my website or sign up for my email list at:
Q: How many Muslims are there?
A: There are currently 1.6 Billion Muslims in the world, with about 2-3 million living in the United Kingdom. Contrary to popular perception, only 20% of Muslims are Arabs and live in the Middle East. The countries with the largest Muslim populations are India and Indonesia with about 175 million Muslims each.
Contrary to the most recent portrayal, Muslims are living peacefully, contributing, investing, earning and positively engaging into the societies around the world. Like any other community, extremism exists among Muslims due to political motivation, ignorance, lack of knowledge and education about true teachings of Islam. A practicing Muslim would never resort to violence. But the misguided Muslims do resort to their own interpretations. This is also caused by foreign invasion in Muslim lands, due to sectoral conflicts and due to foreign interests being penetrated within Muslim societies.