Athena
March 31st, 2008, 11:03 AM
Muslims More Numerous Than Catholics
Vatican: Islam Surpasses Roman Catholicism As World's Largest Religion
By ALESSANDRA RIZZO Associated Press Writer
VATICAN CITY Mar 30, 2008 (AP) The Associated Press
http://a.abcnews.com/images/International/rt_muslims_080331_mn.jpg
Pakistani Muslims offer Maghrib (evening) prayers at the Badshahi mosque in Lahore May 30, 2007 under the leadership of visiting Sheikh Abdur Rehman Al-Sudais, the Imam of the Grand mosque in the Islamic holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
(Mohsin Raza / Reuters)
Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the world's largest religion, the Vatican newspaper said Sunday.
"For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us," Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. Formenti compiles the Vatican's yearbook.
He said that Catholics accounted for 17.4 percent of the world population — a stable percentage — while Muslims were at 19.2 percent.
"It is true that while Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer," the monsignor said.
Formenti said that the data refer to 2006. The figures on Muslims were put together by Muslim countries and then provided to the United Nations, he said, adding that the Vatican could only vouch for its own data.
When considering all Christians and not just Catholics, Christians make up 33 percent of the world population, Formenti said.
Spokesmen for the Vatican and the United Nations did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment Sunday.
_______________
Is it simply because Muslims seem to be procreating at a faster rate? Might the fact that Islam is the state religion in several countries add to these numbers? Either way, do you think the growth of Islam and potential shrinking of the Catholic Church will have a significant impact on world society? Or is it simply one evil being overtaken by another?
Vatican: Islam Surpasses Roman Catholicism As World's Largest Religion
By ALESSANDRA RIZZO Associated Press Writer
VATICAN CITY Mar 30, 2008 (AP) The Associated Press
http://a.abcnews.com/images/International/rt_muslims_080331_mn.jpg
Pakistani Muslims offer Maghrib (evening) prayers at the Badshahi mosque in Lahore May 30, 2007 under the leadership of visiting Sheikh Abdur Rehman Al-Sudais, the Imam of the Grand mosque in the Islamic holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
(Mohsin Raza / Reuters)
Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the world's largest religion, the Vatican newspaper said Sunday.
"For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us," Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. Formenti compiles the Vatican's yearbook.
He said that Catholics accounted for 17.4 percent of the world population — a stable percentage — while Muslims were at 19.2 percent.
"It is true that while Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer," the monsignor said.
Formenti said that the data refer to 2006. The figures on Muslims were put together by Muslim countries and then provided to the United Nations, he said, adding that the Vatican could only vouch for its own data.
When considering all Christians and not just Catholics, Christians make up 33 percent of the world population, Formenti said.
Spokesmen for the Vatican and the United Nations did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment Sunday.
_______________
Is it simply because Muslims seem to be procreating at a faster rate? Might the fact that Islam is the state religion in several countries add to these numbers? Either way, do you think the growth of Islam and potential shrinking of the Catholic Church will have a significant impact on world society? Or is it simply one evil being overtaken by another?