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The Muslim and Christian populations could be nearly equal by 2050, with Islam expected to be the fastest-growing faith on the planet, according to projections released Thursday, April 2.   The Pew Research Center's religious profile predictions assessed data from around the world on fertility rates, trends in youth population growth and religious conversion statistics. "Over the next four decades, Christians will remain the largest religious group, but Islam will grow faster than any other major religion," according to the report. The authors predicted there will be 2.76 billion Muslims on the planet by then, and 2.92 billion Christians. Those figures...

AL-QAEDA in Iraq has said in response to remarks by Pope Benedict XVI linking Islam with violence that it will wage jihad until the West is defeated, in a statement posted on the Internet today. "We say to the servant of the cross (the Pope): wait for defeat ... We say to infidels and tyrants: wait for what will afflict you. "We continue our jihad. We will not stop until the banner of unicity flies throughout the world," said the statement attributed to the Mujahideen consultative council. "We will smash the cross ... (you will have no choice but) Islam...

According to the report, at least five terrorists believed to be linked to al-Qaida murdered six or more Christians by gunfire after asking them if they believed in Christ on the front doorsteps of their homes. The incident occurred on the morning of Feb. 2 in the village of Patikul on the small Philippine island of Jolo, which is predominantly Muslim. At least one witness said a baby girl was among the casualties. Five people were injured during the door-to-door questioning. The Islamic terrorist group Abu Sayyaf, which means "Bearer of the Sword" is assumed responsible for the attacks, as...

The leader of the nation's first Muslim political party says all Australians should be living under Islamic law dictated by the Koran. The Best Party of Allah in Australia applied for registration in the ACT yesterday, claiming to provide a political voice for Muslims. Founder Kurt Kennedy, a Vietnamese-born Muslim convert and candidate in the ACT assembly elections last year, said the party wanted to "implement the laws as stated in the Koran". "The positive part of sharia law is (about) treating everybody fairly," he said. "I don't think anybody should have any worries about it. "If they read through...

The father of a murdered New Jersey family was threatened for making anti-Muslim remarks online — and the gruesome quadruple slaying may have been the hateful retaliation, sources told The Post yesterday. Hossam Armanious, 47, who along with his wife and two daughters was found stabbed to death in his Jersey City home early Friday, would regularly debate religion in a Middle Eastern chat room, one source said.

A family of Christians who fled persecution in Egypt ran into a bloody nightmare in Jersey City - where the husband, wife and their two daughters were found knifed to death in their home yesterday.The bodies of Hossam Armanious, 46, his wife, Amal Garas, and their two youg daughters - Sylvia, 15, and Monica, 8 - were found gagged with their throats slit at 4 a.m. yesterday inside the green, two-story, wood-frame home they moved into five years ago.Investigators were struggling to figure out who could have slaughtered the religiously devout family.Jersey City Police Chief Robert Troy Said police are...