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The Muslim world is a topic that I, as most Americans, know very little about. I thought it would behoove my understanding of reality to run a brief survey of various relevant topics from the interwebs.This is not a particularly profound writeup, merely a quick survey of some of the important facts of which one should be aware.

Islamawho?

First of all, where are Muslims, and how many are there? According to adherents.com, there are 1.5 Billion Muslims in the world, making it the second most popular faith in the world after Christianity, with 2.1 followers worldwide. The map below shows their distribution by country around the world:

(Image from wikimedia.org.)

Sunni and Shia sects

85% (1.28 Billion) Muslims are Sunni; the rest Shia. The fundamental difference is that Sunni Muslims believe leadership should be elected on utilitarian merit, while Shia Muslims follow a line of leaders which are believed to be direct descendants of the prophet Mohamed. Shia Islam primarily finds its home in Persia as the following map indicates:

(Image from www.spiritrestoration.org.)

Tags: america, arab, christianity, distribution, islam, muslim, persia, sect, shia, sunni, survey

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 26th, 2008 at 11:38 pm and is filed under Demography, Economy, and Society.