Every fourth human being living on earth is a Muslim, a report from the department of religion of the US-based Pew Research Center said.
There are 1 billion 570 million Muslims living in the world today, the research said. Brian Grim, a senior researcher at the think-tank said that the number was more than he originally expected.
Up to 60 percent of Muslims live in Asia, 20 percent – in the Middle East and North Africa. The report also mentioned that over 300 million Muslims live in the countries where Islam is not the basic religion.
A recent research from the above-mentioned center said that 58 percent of the polled Americans acknowledged that Muslims were subjected to discrimination most. The poll was held in September, on the threshold of the 9/11 anniversary.
The results of the poll showed that the number of Americans studying Islam has been growing steadily recently. The number of US citizens who consider Islam a source of violence has reduced considerably.
In 2007, 45 percent of Americans considered Islam as a violence-inciting religion, although in 2009 the number reduced to 38 percent. In addition, the number of Americans familiar with peculiarities of Islam increased. The number of people who know that Allah is the Muslim god and Quran is the Muslim holy book increased from 33 percent in 2002 to 41 percent in 2009.
