[Luis Gonzalez]

Most Muslims live in countries that have no population counts...I'll take the 2 billion figure anytime.

If you split up the world's Christians into Catholics, Protestants, etc. Islam would be the largest religion on earth. They now have nearly 20% of the world's population.

The fastest-growing religion in America is Islam.

[Douglas]

The number of Muslims is 1.5 to 2 billion now. Even grouping Orthodox, Catholics and Protestants together, Islam is about equal in number or larger than Chrisitianity.

One of the reasons so many are converting to Islam in Europe, southern Africa and South America now is the theological unity of Islam.

In contrast to Christianity which is now really made up of distinct faiths that are still loosly grouped as Christian but encompass a diversity of belief that you don't se in Islam.

Think of it - there are the Orthodox, the Catholics and the Protestants. And w/in Protestanism the gamut runs from Anglicans to Baptists to 7th Day Adentists, pentecostals, the JW's, Mormons and Chrsitian Scientists.

What you really have here is the emrgence of new distinct faiths out of the originally unified Christian faith.

That disunity is proving fertile ground for Muslim missionaries in the West.

[Publius6961]

If you split up the world's Christians into Catholics, Protestants, etc. Islam would be the largest religion on earth. They now have nearly 20% of the world's population.

What an asinine and puerile attempt at spin.

Split the sand-maggots into their various sects and the opposite occurs.

Why do we even bother to attempt dialog with such mental giants?

[mdmathis6]

It depends on how you look at the data...Islam may be getting a lot of converts among young disenfranchized black males...but you don't see the conversions occuring in white or Asian Americans. The Hispanics are heavily Catholic with a sizeable minority of them becoming attracted to evagelical protestant churches.

It's the growth of Evangelical protestant/many charismatic/churches that is the unsung story(or suppressed) in the media. The Democrats know about them and centrist/liberal Republicans see them as a pain in the behind,(they need their votes but despise the morality). You can argue that Catholic and Protestant church growth is flat or declining over-all but the numbers aren't tracking the fact that the declines in mainline church attendance are being matched by the double digit growths being seen by the new mega churches and unaffiliated evangelical community churches.

The Southern Baptists remain strong and vibrant as well.