>>>Yet in the last quarter of the 20th century Catholicism was displaced by Islam as the world’s largest religious community, as the global Muslim population grew from 571 million in 1970 to today’s 1.7 billion.
So let me get this right, Catholics are picked on as a sect of Christianity while Sunni & Shia r not sects of Islam? OH Plsssss! These pollsters should do a better job of comparing apples to apples... not a bushel of apples to one apple!
I usually object to the mixing up of Catholicism with innumerable Christian "denominations", but I agree that for the statistical purposes the major branches of Islam: Sunni, Shia, Allawi, Sufi should be counted separately just as the branches of Christianity are.
However, Christians should learn one thing from this: If you think you are fine having your statistical 1.9 children per family, study some Arabic.