Friday, April 4, 2008

Know your Muslims - Sunni or Shiite

I don't really care about the differences among the divisions of Islam, but I do believe that it is important to know who is who. Twenty percent of the world population is Muslim and there are now more Muslims than Catholics. So here is a scorecard.

Approximately 80-85% of Muslims are Sunni. Nations that are majority Sunni include Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt, Somalia, Sudan, Libya and the other N. African states, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Bangladesh, Syria, Kuwait and Turkey. Kurds and most Palestinian Muslims are Sunni. Russia and India are both over 10% Muslim and Nigeria (the most populated country in Africa) is 50% Muslim - all predominately Sunni. Although not typically thought of for its Muslim population, India has the third largest population of Muslims after Indonesia and Pakistan.

The balance of the world's Muslims are mostly Shiite (or Shi'a). Nations that are predominately Shiite include Iran, Bahrain, Azerbaijan and Iraq (65%). Lebanon's Muslims are nearly split 50-50, but the terrorist group Hizbollah is Shiite. Turkey, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and India all have substantial minority Shiite populations.

Sources: CIA World Factbook and Wikipedia

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