Well of course "4 Muslim organizations" would try to inflate their own numbers. And of course the White House and State Department were going out of their way to try to say nice things about the islamics to try to prevent riots in the streets in post-9/11 days, but none of that means the numbers are true. What if I and 3 other people said "there are 7,000,000 members of FreeRepublic", would that be true just because someone says it frequently and loudly?
The problem with counting is that it is not 'politically correct'. You are not allowed to count our population by it's religious affiliation. You can confirm that on census.gov.
At http://www.islamfortoday.com/seattle.htm there is an article regarding Muslim populations in Seattle, Washington titled, "Muslim community grows to overflowing in Seattle area"
A few lines from the story follow....
By Phuong Le, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 7, 2000
The pilgrimage begins just before 1:30 p.m. each Friday.
It starts as a trickle, then grows as more than 100 vehicles cram into the tiny parking lot of the Islamic Center of South Seattle in SeaTac.
The Islamic expansion in Western Washington is part of a national trend, fueled by immigration and high conversion rates that have made Islam one of the fastest-growing religions in the United States, where there are an estimated 6 million Muslims.
.................At the Islamic Center of the Eastside in Bellevue, where Dandan's family worships, the mosque had become so crowded during Friday prayers that, six months ago, the community leased additional space in an old Redmond school. Now, mostly Microsoft workers pack the rented facility in Redmond.
When the Bellevue mosque first opened in 1996, some thought it was too big.
"People were saying at the time, 'There are not enough Muslims in Bellevue,'" said Salim Dada, 42, an investment banker. "Now, you can see we have no room."
Western Washington's burgeoning Muslim community is young compared with those in Los Angeles, San Diego, Calif., Washington, D.C., and Detroit, where Muslim voter-registration drives, youth camps and advocacy groups are well-established.
....................In the early 1960s, Muslims in Seattle all knew each other by name and could fit comfortably in the church basement where they met for prayers. Since then, the Muslim community has grown to more than 30,000 people of different races and nationalities - some immigrants, some American-born - worshipping at 14 mosques of differing degrees of orthodoxy.