Islam 101
Muslims today
Nearly a quarter of humanity
3 min, Intro
There are nearly two billion Muslims, about a quarter of the world's people. Most live in Asia, not the Middle East. They speak hundreds of languages. Islam is also the world's fastest-growing major religion.
Draft written with AI help: awaiting scholar review
The thread
Nearly two billion people, about a quarter of the world, are Muslim. Most of them are not Arab. This lesson follows them: where they live, why their number is growing, and how one shared core is lived in very different cultures. It ends at Lantern's own home, South Africa.
Where Muslims live
Which country has the most Muslims? Indonesia. Then come Pakistan and India (estimates differ on which is second), then Bangladesh.
Now the whole map. Roughly six in ten Muslims live in Asia and the Pacific. Only about one in five lives in the Middle East and North Africa.
So most Muslims are not Arab. Most do not speak Arabic as a first language. But they pray in it, and learn to read the Qur'an in it.
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقۡنَٰكُم مِّن ذَكَرࣲ وَأُنثَىٰ وَجَعَلۡنَٰكُمۡ شُعُوبࣱا وَقَبَآئِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوٓاْۚ إِنَّ أَكۡرَمَكُمۡ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ أَتۡقَىٰكُمۡۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرࣰ ١٣
13 O people, We have created you from a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes so that you may recognize one another. Indeed, the most noble of you before Allah is the most righteous among you. Indeed, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware.
Most Muslims are Asian, not Arab.
Growing fast, and why
That map is not standing still. Researchers at the Pew Research Center project that Muslims will grow faster than any other major religious group in the coming decades.
Why? The main reasons are age and family size. Muslims are the youngest major religious group, with a median age in the mid-twenties. They also have more children on average. Conversion plays a smaller part.
Muslim growth comes mainly from youth, not conversion.
One faith, many cultures
So what do all these Muslims have in common? The core. They share one God, the Prophet, the Qur'an and the five pillars.
Beyond that core, cultures differ widely. A wedding in Senegal looks nothing like one in Malaysia. Mosques in China look like pagodas. Muslims also differ in how strictly they practise, and in their politics.
Then there is Lantern's own home. South Africa has roughly a million Muslims by recent estimates, with Cape, Indian and growing Black African communities.
Muslims share one core, lived out in very different cultures.