World

The Muslim World

by YankeeJim | July 8, 2010 at 07:52 am

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The other day I read and wrote about a story that included the term, “Muslim World.” I paused at the phrase because I thought to myself; the world is too small and inclusive to be dividing it into religions orders. In fact, it is probably too small to be dividing into political and governmental orders, but we have not matured sufficiently to know that yet.

The phrase “Your-favorite-religion-here World” probably should be replaced with members of the Your-favorite-religion-here followed by faith or sect.

“The term Muslim world (or Islamic world) has several meanings. In a cultural sense, it refers to the worldwide community of Muslims, adherents of Islam. This community numbers about 1.3-1.5 billion people, roughly one-fifth of the world population.”

“Christian World,” or Christendom, has several meanings. In a cultural sense it refers to the worldwide community of Christians, adherents of Christianity.”

“(Sizes shown are approximate estimates, and are here mainly for the purpose of ordering the groups, not providing a definitive number. This list is sociological/statistical in perspective.)

Christianity: 2.1 billion

Islam: 1.5 billion

Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion

Hinduism: 900 million

Chinese traditional religion: 394 million

Buddhism: 376 million

primal-indigenous: 300 million

African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million

Sikhism: 23 million

Juche: 19 million

Spiritism: 15 million

Judaism: 14 million

Baha'i: 7 million

Jainism: 4.2 million

Shinto: 4 million

Cao Dai: 4 million

Zoroastrianism: 2.6 million

Tenrikyo: 2 million

Neo-Paganism: 1 million

Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand

Rastafarianism: 600 thousand

Scientology: 500 thousand”