Vatican Reports that Muslims more numerous than Catholics

[bullmoose88]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKL3068682420080330?rpc=92

Muslims more numerous than Catholics: Vatican
Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:29pm BST  Email | Print | Share| Single Page| Recommend (41) [-] Text

• VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Islam has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the biggest single religious denomination in the world, the Vatican said on Sunday.

Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, who compiled the Vatican's newly-released 2008 yearbook of statistics, said Muslims made up 19.2 percent of the world's population and Catholics 17.4 percent.

"For the first time in history we are no longer at the top: the Muslims have overtaken us," Formenti told Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano in an interview, saying the data referred to 2006.

He said that if all Christian groups were considered, including Orthodox churches, Anglicans and Protestants, then Christians made up 33 percent of the world's population -- or about 2 billion people.

The Vatican recently put the number of Catholics in the world at 1.13 billion people. It did not provide a figure for Muslims, generally estimated at around 1.3 billion.

Formenti said that while the number of Catholics as a proportion of the world's population was fairly stable, the percentage of Muslims was growing because of higher birth rates.

He said the data on Muslim populations had been compiled by individual countries and then released by the United Nations, adding the Vatican could only vouch for its own statistics.

(Reporting by Silvia Aloisi; editing by Andrew Roche)

[Хahar 🤔]

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=73442.0

Of course, the title of this thread makes a lot more sense. So let's keep the sematics there and the real discussion here, shall we?
I'm surprised that this wasn't the case before.

[tik 🪀✨]

I'm surprised that this wasn't the case before.

Same here. I thought it had been true for a while now.

[bullmoose88]

My only question is, what exactly does the number of muslim comprise?

Is it all muslims? Or is it one sect (Sunni)...because if it takes the whole number of Muslims and compares it to just catholicism, that doesn't see like a fair comparison.

[Gustaf]

My only question is, what exactly does the number of muslim comprise?

Is it all muslims? Or is it one sect (Sunni)...because if it takes the whole number of Muslims and compares it to just catholicism, that doesn't see like a fair comparison.

Haha...read the thread Xahar linked to. 3 pages all devoted to exactly that question. If you just want the answer, it's yes, all muslims.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

As said before, this is a f**king stupid comparison.

[phk]

Combined Muslims: 19.2%

Catholics: 17.4%

Sunni: 17.28% (assuming 9 to 1 ratio with Shi'ites)
Sunni: 16.32% (assuming 17 to 3 ratio with Shi'tes)
Sunni: 15.36% (assuming 4 to 1 ratio with Shi'ites)

[Stranger in a strange land]

As said before, this is a f**king stupid comparison.

yes. Catholicism is a single, organized, heirarchical faith while Islam is a diverse, diffuse relgion. Gather 100 Muslims together, and every Muslim in the crowd will consider at least one other Muslim a heretic. In addition to Sunni and Shiite, and within that divide, there are ibadis, awalites, wahabbis, sufis, twelvers, and dozens of other sects

[12th Doctor]

As said before, this is a f**king stupid comparison.

If the Vatican said the sun will comeup tomorrow, I have a feeling you would oppose it.

[John Dibble]

Gather 100 Muslims together, and every Muslim in the crowd will consider at least one other Muslim a heretic.

Sounds like Christianity.

[Stranger in a strange land]

Gather 100 Muslims together, and every Muslim in the crowd will consider at least one other Muslim a heretic.

Sounds like Christianity.

my point is that compared with Muslims, Catholics are pretty standard and homogenous in their beliefs.

[John Dibble]

Gather 100 Muslims together, and every Muslim in the crowd will consider at least one other Muslim a heretic.

Sounds like Christianity.

my point is that compared with Muslims, Catholics are pretty standard and homogenous in their beliefs.

Yes, you were quite clear on that, I was just making a note.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

As said before, this is a f**king stupid comparison.

If the Vatican said the sun will comeup tomorrow, I have a feeling you would oppose it.

This has nothing to do with who reported it. You're comparing an entire religion to one denomination of a religion. It's pointless. It's like pointing out there's more people in Wyoming than the city I live in.

[memphis]

First time in history, my a$$. The Catholic Church didn't begin as the most popular religion in the world.

[Хahar 🤔]

First time in history, my a$$. The Catholic Church didn't begin as the most popular religion in the world.

Well, it did come before modern Islam.

[12th Doctor]

As said before, this is a f**king stupid comparison.

If the Vatican said the sun will comeup tomorrow, I have a feeling you would oppose it.

This has nothing to do with who reported it. You're comparing an entire religion to one denomination of a religion. It's pointless. It's like pointing out there's more people in Wyoming than the city I live in.

Well, don't Catholics think that Protestants aren't even Christians?  I seem to recall you having said that.  If that's true, oh learned one, then from the perspective of the RCC, they are counting all the Christians.

[Stranger in a strange land]

also, I have a feeling Muslims probably outnumbered Catholics for the whole period from about 1000-1600 or so.