> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of JC Helary
> As a lot of people agree
> here, islam has various forms, and reducing a group of half a billion people
> (more ?) regardless of geopolitics economics and history does not make a lot
> of sense.
Actually, the number of Muslims as of 1998 (using the brittanica.com site, awesome resource) is 1.16 billion people. Only Christians at 1.94 billion people makeup a larger proportion of the world population.
The diversity of these billion plus people is obviously large and it is notable how little most Christians know about Islam, ranging from the fact that Islam includes Jesus as a prophet in its doctrine and has an accompanying religious injunction to respect "people of the Book" - Christians and Jews - although it is hard theologically on Muslims who "backslide" to those faiths.
-- Nathan Newman