A greater number does not add any value nor a lower number takes away any. If the Shia segment is taken out, Catholics would still outnumber Sunni Muslims. What is the point?Is there a race? Is God sitting at the finish line watching?
Qur'aan is clear about one thing - no one has a free pass to his grace. One has to earn it the old fashion way; through good deeds.
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) defines a good deed as serving mankind . He gives an example; when you sow a seed, you know it well that by the time that become a tree and gives shade or fruit, you may not be the beneficiary, but you did it to benefit others, as you benefit from what was done before you.
Worship to God is self purification, serving others is service to God and is true worship. I hope the race should be which group would do more to benefit the mankind in terms of justice and peace. Taking care of the hungry, taking care of the needy. God likes competition in serving his fellow beings with arrogantless humility.
To be a Muslim is to be a peace maker; one who constantly seeks to mitigate conflicts and nurtures goodwill for peaceful co-existence. God wants us to live in peace and harmony with his creation; life and matter. Indeed that is the purpose religion.
http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2008/03/muslims-more-than-catholics.html
Mike Ghouse
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
Muslims More Numerous Than Catholics
Vatican: Islam Surpasses Roman Catholicism As World's Largest Religion
By ALESSANDRA RIZZO Associated Press VATICAN CITY Mar 30, 2008 (AP)
Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the world's largest religion, the Vatican newspaper said Sunday.
"For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us," Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. Formenti compiles the Vatican's yearbook.
He said that Catholics accounted for 17.4 percent of the world population — a stable percentage — while Muslims were at 19.2 percent.
"It is true that while Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer," the monsignor said.
Formenti said that the data refer to 2006. The figures on Muslims were put together by Muslim countries and then provided to the United Nations, he said, adding that the Vatican could only vouch for its own data.
When considering all Christians and not just Catholics, Christians make up 33 percent of the world population, Formenti said.
Spokesmen for the Vatican and the United Nations did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment Sunday.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed
