Three items on Islam.

One. Peter Costello made some timely remarks on Islam and deserves support. All the papers are reporting the story, so please send in a letter to the editor. An edited version of his speech is found here: http://www.theage.com.au/news/…/1140670203748.html

Two. Des Higgs has a new monthly prayer ministry dedicated to reaching Muslims. Each month he provides detailed information on a Muslim leader that you can pray for. For more info contact Des: deziggs@smartchat.net.au.

Three. I include below some quick facts on Islam…

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Facts on Islam

Bill Muehlenberg

• Islam is the second largest religion in the world.
• There are around 1.4 billion Muslims in the world today (around 20 % of the world’s population).
• Christianity is the largest religion in the world.
• There are around 2 billion Christians (around 33% of the world’s population).
• There are two main branches of Islam:
  • Sunni, 83%
  • Shi’ite, 16%
  • Other, 1%
• Indonesia has the largest Muslim population, with 170 million Muslims.
  • Pakistan is next with 136 million.
  • Bangladesh has 106 million.
  • India has 103 million.
  • Turkey has 63 million.
  • Iran has 61 million.
• Some 5% of the European Union, or around 20 million persons, presently identify themselves as Muslims.
• Should current trends continue, that number will reach 10% by 2020.
• France has around 6 million Muslims out of 63 million people.
• Germany has around 3 million Muslims out of 82 million people.
• England has around 2 million Muslims, out of 60 million people.
• In London in 1960 there was one mosque. Today there are over 600 mosques in London.
• Seven out of the ten worst nations for persecution of Christians are Muslim.

Islam in Australia

• The 2001 census reported 282,000 Muslims in Australia.
• In the five years preceding that date the Muslim population grew by 40 per cent, while the Australian population grew by 5.7 per cent.
• Half of Australia’s Muslims live in NSW.
• The first Muslim mosque in Australia was built in South Australia in 1861.
• Today there are over 100 mosques in Australia.