With Obama now touting the US as one of the largest Muslim countries...
UPDATE: here's a better estimate from the Volokh Conspiracy:
How Many Muslims Are There in the U.S.?
I should have noted in my post below that the 5-to-7-million American Muslims estimate was one of the higher-end estimates. Estimating the Muslim Population in the United States by Tom W. Smith of the National Opinion Research Center (2001) reports thatThe best, adjusted, survey-based estimates put the adult Muslim population in 2000 at 0.67 percent or 1,401,000, and the total Muslim population at 1,886,000. Even if high-side estimates based on local surveys, figures from mosques, and ancestry and immigration statistics are given more weight than the survey-based numbers, it is hard to accept estimates that Muslims are greater than 1 percent of the population (2,090,000 adults or 2,814,000 total).I haven't examined the matter closely myself, so I don't have a truly informed opinion. But to my knowledge, Smith is quite well-regarded in the field, and is the director of the very well-regarded General Social Survey. So at the very least the 5 to 7 million American Muslims figure should be viewed with some skepticism, recognizing that the number might be 2 to 3 million instead.
UPDATE: Thanks to commenter wm13, here's a 2007 Pew Research Report estimating the number at about 2.35 million. Pew, like the GSS, is a well-regarded survey organization, which to my knowledge has no axe to grind on this issue.
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In a country of about 310 million people, estimates are that there are only about 1.8 million Muslims. I know politicians are wont to stretch the truth, but that's a bit much. Plus, consider the following observation and see if Islam is compatible with American values (emphasis mine):
Jihad is not trying to convert you; it is seeking the imposition of Allah’s law. That law happens to be antithetical to bedrock American principles: It establishes a state religion, rejects the freedom of citizens to govern themselves irrespective of a religious code, proscribes freedom of conscience, proscribes economic freedom, destroys the principle of equality under the law, subjugates non-Muslims in the humiliation of dhimmitude, and calls for the execution of homosexuals and apostates. Nevertheless, its adoption produces what Islamists portray as the non-coercive environment in which people then “freely” embrace Islam. . . .
Think there's a problem? Keep looking around at other Muslim countries and see how free they really are. Religious freedom? I'll believe it when a Christian church is built is Saudi Arabia...
(H/T: The Corner)
