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…
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.
