Did you know? 03

Assalaamu alaikum [Peace be to you],


Many different religions currently or previously have claimed to be the fastest growing religion. The world's largest religions that are showing increases that outrun birth-rate include Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism.


Note: I made sure to disregard all Islamic sources when I searched statistics in this topic.

WE HAVE A WINNER... BUT

At first sight, the contest should be a shut-out, leaving Christianity the clear winner. During the 20th century, Christian numbers expanded mightily around the world, but especially in the Global South. According to the respected World Christian Database, since 1900 the number of African Christians has grown by an incredible 4,930%, and the growth in Latin America was 877%.

But before we open the envelope and hand over the statuette, it's sobering to compare Islamic growth in the same period.
Both religions have acquired vastly more adherents in the past century, but in some ways, Muslims have significantly outpaced Christians. However staggering their growth rate might seem, Christian numbers have actually proved strikingly stable as a share of global population. In 1900, about 1/3 of the world's people were Christians, and that proportion remains more or less unchanged today. Moreover, if we project our estimate forward to the year 2050, that proportion should still be about 1/3.

Seen in those terms, Islam's surge has been still more impressive. In 1900, the 200-220 million Muslims then living comprised some 12-13% of humanity, compared to 22.5% today, and a projected figure of 27% by 2050. Christians in 1900 outnumbered Muslims by 2.8 to 1. Today the figure is 1.5 to 1, and by 2050 it should be 1.3 to 1. In historical terms, the gap is closing fast.

Put another way, four times as many Christians are alive today as there were in 1900; but over the same period, Muslims have grown at least seven-fold.


According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Islam is the world’s fastest-growing religion by number of conversions each year: "Although the religion began in Arabia, by 2002 80% of all believers in Islam lived outside the Arab world. In the period 1990-2000, approximately 120.5 million more people converted to Islam than to Christianity". Part of the books quote can be seen online from this extract from Google Books.
This was again shown in the 2005, 50th anniversary edition of Guinness Book of World Records, although the number of conversions was not mentioned this time.

According to CNN, “The second-largest religion in the world after Christianity, Islam is also the fastest-growing religion."

In The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCCCUSA) website, we can read: "Islam is the fastest growing religion in the World. Right now there are about 1.2 billion Muslims in the world. By 2025, Islam is expected to grow by 50%. Christianity is the next fastest growing, expected to grow by 31%. "



I WANT TO KNOW WHY?

Now this begs for the Question: "If Islam is as bad as the Media tells us, then why are there more and more people converting to Islam?"
It is true that in general the image of Islam is bad in the west. and the expected consequence would be that people would leave Islam, not come to join it. right?
As a Muslim, I can reply. but before that, allow me to tell you a story:

When the prophet Moses -peace be upon him- was sent by the Almighty God -Glory be to him- to call Pharaoh to Islam and to worship none but the God, Pharaoh rejected this invitation and instead, challenged Moses -peace be upon him- to a dual with his wizards. Pharaoh wanted to show to all people how Moses will be defeated, so he did an amazing thing: he ordered his men to announce to people of Egypt to come and watch a great show and see how Moses -peace be upon him- will be defeated. little did Pharaoh know that he plans and works hard. and the almighty God plans. and God's plan is the one that succeeds.
Many people gathered in order to watch how Pharaoh's wizards would defeat Moses -peace be upon him-. the wizards threw their sticks and ropes and they appeared as snakes to the public. Moses threw his staff as well. and it changed into a snake.
What the people witnessed was that Moses, with God's power and help defeated the wizards and his snake ate theirs..
Now the Wizards of Pharaoh used magic to trick people into believing that their sticks and ropes changed into snakes. but they knew for sure that Moses' staff literally changed into a real snake. and that was not magic. So they (the wizards) prostrated and announced that they believe in the God of Moses.
Now the public who was there witnessed not only the defeat of Pharaoh and the failure of his plan, but they witnessed the servants of Pharaoh (the wizards) following the faith of Moses. this was a great miracle witnessed by many.
Pharaoh, with his arrogance and stupidity, did a big favor to the prophet Moses -peace be upon him-. for Moses would not be able to gather all these people to witness a miracle of the God.

Returning to today's world and our question "If Islam is as bad as the Media tells us, then why are there more and more people converting to Islam?".
My answer is very simple: Islam is not the bad religion the media tries to portray. The western Media tries hard to vilify Islam. they plan and work hard. and the God plans. and in the end, God's plan succeeds. The media is doing Pharaoh's work, and many people, out of curiosity for this so called 'evil' religion, go to check it out. Thanks to God Western people are intellectual people. they like to search and investigate things. which is a very admirable quality. Many of them, when they search about Islam, they discover the opposite of what they had heard. this makes them hungrier for more truth. and the obvious result is that many of them end up embracing Islam.

You may not believe me here. Don't believe me. I don't want you to believe me. I want you to go and check by yourself. Remove all prior knowledge you got from the Media, school, family, friends... go take the Qur'an with an open mind and an honest intention to find out the truth. Ask the God to guide you and to protect you from any falsehood and misguidance and start reading from page 1. and you will find by yourself why this religion attracts many people. and in the end, even if you don't want to follow Islam, at least you would have learned something new that may benefit you.


I hope this was beneficial.

references:
- The World's Fastest Growing Religion [link]
- Claims to be the fastest-growing religion [link]
- Fast-growing Islam winning converts in Western world [link]
- Basic Facts about Islam [link]


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If I am right, it is from the God. if I am wrong, it is from myself. I only did my best. so God, forgive me.