Rabat - Islam is broadening its influence everywhere as it is speedily growing across the globe.
Rabat – Islam is broadening its influence everywhere as it is speedily growing across the globe.
According to a Pew Research Center study published in April 2017, out of the 7.6 billion people on the earth, 84 percent belong to an organized religion.
The study was based on numbers from 2015.
While Christianity forms the largest religious group, with 31.2 percent of the world population, Islam is growing more than twice as fast as the overall world population between 2015 and 2060, according to the study.
Islam is predicted to outpace Christianity as the globe’s largest religious group in the second half of this century.
Pew’s study forecasted an increase of the world’s population by 32 percent in the coming decades.
However, the number of Muslims is expected to grow by 70 percent: from 1.8 billion in 2015 to an estimated 3 billion in 2060.
Muslims made up 24.1 percent of the world’s population in 2015.
The number of Muslims is set to grow because of the “fact that Muslims have the youngest median age (24 in 2015) of all major religious groups, more than seven years younger than the median age of non-muslims (32),” the study finds.
More than 1/3 of Muslims are in Africa and the Middle East
The study shows that more than a third of those who identify as Muslims live in Africa and the Middle East. The two regions are also predicted to have the highest increases in numbers of Muslims.
“But even within these high-growth regions – as well as others – Muslims are projected to grow faster than members of other groups,” the study said.
The increase in the number of Muslims in the world was projected because of the growing population in sub-Saharan Africa, a region with a younger median age and higher fertility levels in the region.
Pew’s findings also forecast an increase in the number of Muslims across the world, except in Latin America and the Caribbean due to the small number of Muslims who live there.
According to Pew, the number of Muslims in India is growing faster and will reach 19.4 percent by 2060.
Other religions, like Judaism and Hinduism are also set to grow by 15 percent and 27 percent, respectively, between 2015 and 2026.
Despite losing its influence compared to Islam, Christianity will also see an increase of 34 percent, owing to the number of Christians in sub-Saharan countries in Africa.
Religion-phobia still a struggle
Despite Islam’s remarkable influence in the world, extremism and radicalization linked to the religion have impacted views of Muslims.
Muslims living in non-Muslim-majority countries are subjected to oppression due to their religion.
A 2017 study by the center, which used FBI statistics, showed that assaults on Muslims in the US have “easily surpassed” the previous modern peak of attacks on Muslims in 2001.
The research showed that there were 127 reported violent crimes in 2016 compared to 91 in 2015 and 93 in 2001.
Hate crimes not only target Muslims, but also Jews. Pew said that hate crimes targeting Jews in the US increased in 2016 to 684.
