Well, you must admit, there's a difference between believing in your particular faith solely because your parents told you "this is true", and choosing a faith once you're an adult?
The reason that Islam will be growing is because, conversely, the very poorest people breed the most (you need to have many kids, as most will die, and then you have some left to support you). In many societies Islam props up the usual patriachal (male-dominated) order, e.g. keeping women wrapped up, in the home, stopping them from entering the labour market, which of course keeps people poor: They are more likely to have kids - and as living conditions increase, they KEEP having kids - who then all survive - and so we end up with over population and even more poverty.
Borborygmi:
What a masterful epidemiologist you are -- here are some basic facts about Muslim earnings in the U.S. should take care of how poor we are
also Most (covered up) Muslim women I know have a doctorate or equivalent pharmD.. how many Muslim women do you know?
Middle Eastern immigrants were highly educated, with 49 percent holding at least a bachelor's degree, compared to 28 percent of natives.
Median earnings for Middle Eastern men were $39,000 a year compared to $38,000 for native workers.
they tend to be better-educated than native U.S. residents — about half hold bachelor's degrees, compared to 28 percent of natives. They also perform as well economically as natives — 30- and 40-year-old Middle Eastern males with a college education have the same median income as natives, and Middle East immigrants are more likely be self-employed.
Middle Eastern Immigrants in U.S. Educated, Prosperous, Study Says
Gannett News Service, August 15, 2002
(Also ran in Arizona Republic - 8/15)
WASHINGTON — Middle Eastern immigrants in the United States are well educated, earn more money than most Americans and are predominantly Muslim, according to a report released Wednesday.
They also are among the nation's fastest-growing immigrant groups, according to the report issued by the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, a think tank that supports reducing the number of immigrants to the United States.
The report says the number of Middle Eastern immigrants increased from fewer than 200,000 in 1970 to almost 1.5 million in 2000. The overall number of foreign-born residents in the United States tripled to 31 million over the same period.
The report offers a rare portrait of an immigrant group that has received intense scrutiny and negative publicity since the Sept. 11 attacks.
Project MAPS, a survey of "Muslims in the American Public Square" conducted in 2001-2002 by researchers at Georgetown University, found that 86 percent of all Muslim professionals were concentrated in three careers: engineering, computer science, and medicine. Law, law enforcement, and politics accounted for a minuscule 0.6 percent. American Muslims, some demographers say, have also been voting well below their numbers in the population -- registering to vote at only half the national rate, according to the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey [PDF], a project of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. "If they ever did play to their weight" in the electoral arena and in Washington, Muslims "would be a much more considerable force in public policy-making," says Steve Clemons, a Democrat who directs the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation in Washington.
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/pubs/DUSS_Arab_America.pdf
http://www.cis.org/articles/2002/mideastcoverage.html
peace!
It is said "The wish is bigger than Istanbul".
