saraja

Why do you think Islam is the fastest-growing religion in America?


A NATION CHALLENGED: AMERICAN MUSLIMS; Islam Attracts Converts By the Thousand, Drawn Before and After Attacks
By JODI WILGOREN
Source: The New York Times: October 22, 2001, Monday
Section: National Desk
http://www.whyislam.org/discoverwhy.htm
Or:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/22/national/22CONV.html
Or:
http://www.alhewar.com/
Or:
www.islam-guide.com

"Islam is the fastest-growing religion in America, a guide and pillar of stability for many of our people..." Hillary Rodman Clinton, Los Angeles Times, May 31, 1996, p.3

"Already more than a billion-people strong, Islam is the world's fastest-growing religion." ABCNEWS, Abcnews.com

"Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the country." NEWSDAY, March7, 1989, p.4

"Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the United States..." NEW YORK TIMES, Feb 21, 1989, p.1

"Moslems are the world's fastest-growing group..." USA TODAY, The population reference bureau, Feb. 17, 1989, p.4A
"Islam is the fastest growing religion in North America." TIMES MAGAZINE

"Islam continues to grow in America, and no one can doubt that!" CNN, December 15, 1995

"The religion of Islam is growing faster than any other religion in the world." MIKE WALLACE, 60 MINUTES

Libraries have run out of books on Islam and the Middle East... English translations of the Koran head the American best-seller list...

Biff the unclean

Because African Americans are rejecting Christianity (and they like the cool new names that they get) and there is a great deal of immigration from the middle east.

Tenek

Probably something to do with the perpetual virgins, man. Plus you have the advantage of thinking that you're running Christianity v.2.0.

Maybe the Muslims are just better at converting others.

Rousseau_CHN

just a fad, actually

PopeInTheWoods

Because it provides Americans of non-European ancestry (Africa, Middle East, etc.) with a belief system that ties into their historical culture, while retaining an Abrahamic monotheistic tradition. Like xianity, it also comes in many different flavors (fairly liberal to extemely fundamentalist) to appeal to a wide audience, and can provide the same sense of community, simplistic morality, source of authority, and other emotional wish fulfillment as xianity.

Maybe also because there's a lot of immigration from predominantly Muslim countries (Pakistan, Indonesia, etc.). I'd bet that 100 years ago, Roman Catholicism was the fastest growing religion in the USA (massive immigration from Italy and Poland).

Andy

lugotorix

It's not, actually. I think this is just another factoid that gets repeated as if it were true. According to this PBS website , it's actually the third fastest-growing organized religion, ranking behind Hinduism at #1 and Buddhism at #2. The actual percentages of Americans belonging to these religions are: Hinduism 0.4%, Buddhism 0.5%, and Islam 0.5%, so they are still far out-numbered by Christians.

This info is for net change between 1990 and 2000.

lugotorix

Mageth

I've heard estimates on the number of people professing the Islam faith in the U.S. as high as 7 million (generally between 3 and 6 million). That's obviously more than 0.5%. So just how many Moslems are in the U.S.?

lugotorix

According to the 2001 ARIS survey, there were about 1.1 million.

lugotorix

Mageth

That number seems way low by most estimates I've seen.

This Department of State document (from U.S. News & World Report) estimates between 5 and 6 million.

This article estimates between 6 and 7 million.

This site between 7 and 9 million.

Similarly, other sites I've viewed give numbers ranging from a low of 2-4 million up to 10 million. I suspect the actual number is somewhere in the middle, perhaps 5 million.

sphinx wui

Islam has an appeal to African Americans cause they consider it color blind religion and I think the experience of Malcolm X can give you an idea about it. Many of the African American Muslims have not been recognized as real Muslims in the Islamic world like the Nation of Islam organization cause of its racist views and the founder of it declared himself as a prophet, which put you out of Islam automatically but they still considered Muslims in America.

Other Americans I think convert to try something new as they go to Chinese or Indian restaurants! Or got bored with Christianity and if you already Christian your brain can accept almost everything and I think Sultana Freedman, the woman that sued the DMV in Florida can fit in this category.After 9/11,Islam got portrayed in an ugly way in the media but still it got publicity, which eventually will convince few to convert even if the majority has bad attitude towards it.


Regarding the numbers of Muslims in America, every body tries to shift the number to his side to support his cause, some estimated it up to 10 millions and others down to 1 million to undermine their significance in elections as Daniel Pipes tries to do but I think the real number is in the middle of those figures.

I think Muslims are not good at proselytizing as their fellow believers in Jehovah witnesses and other sects and I think no body here has an experience with a Muslim knocking his door trying to convert him even before 9/11, Muslim Americans who came to America from the middle east and other Islamic countries never consider themselves part of the American society even if they are citizens and most of them consider themselves in a business and scientific trip that will end one day and they have to go back to their countries ( I never saw in NJ a Muslim cemetery for example and this can give you a clue about how they think) and I think this is because of cultural differences; American society is very scary for regular Muslims let aside the conservatives, for example Muslims look at any body who drink even beer socially as middle class American look at heroin addict! And you can imagine the reaction if you invite such a person to a party or rock concert!and i think most Americans never felt their existence even socially but things started to change after 9/11 and they felt under attack and this created sense of solidarity and need for organization to speak for them and I think there are many Muslim organizations now in America and their voices started to be heard.