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Islam in Canada

20 May 2003 8 Comments

AltMuslim has a front page story on the rise of Islam in Canada. As has already happened in Germany, France and England, Islam is now the second largest religion in Canada, surpassing the Jewish population by a few hundred thousand. This probably has already happened in the US too, but, as the AltMuslim article alludes to, CAIR used some creative accounting in the study they widely publicized, leaving the question in some doubt. But it is safe to say that by the next census it will be confirmed.

8 Comments »

Lan said:

Alhamdulillahi ladzi bi ni’matihi tatim-musholihaat

# 20 May 2003 at 8:32 pm

m said:

wa maa bikum min ni3matin fa-min Allah!

# 21 May 2003 at 9:58 am

Bill Allison said:

Actually, it probably won’t. The U.S. Census Bureau doesn’t collect information on religious belief. I think estimates of the number of Muslims in the U.S. are done by extrapolating from country of origin for the non-native population. There are perils in doing it this way — for example, Coptic Christians from Egypt might be wildly over-represented among Egyptian immigrants as opposed to their numbers in Egypt at large.

I read an article on the subject somewhere — I’ll try to track it down.

# 21 May 2003 at 5:44 pm

Bin Gregory said:

Yeah, that’s a problem, since converts are often estimated as comprising a third of the muslim population. Country-of-origin methods aren’t gonna catch me. But I guess my point is that if the numbers are too close to call now, for the US, by 2010 there should be no doubt.

# 21 May 2003 at 9:18 pm

Al-Muhajabah said:

Yeah, country of origin stats wouldn’t catch me either, lol.

Unfortunately, much of the criticism I’ve seen of CAIR’s estimates comes from groups that I do not consider unbiased. I’ve also been receiving their email alerts for almost four years and their estimate has remained constant during that time at about six million. If they’re playing a political game, it’s something they did a long time ago and apparently haven’t updated. *shrugs*

# 24 May 2003 at 12:14 pm

Bin Gregory Productions said:

Not to imply that it was political necessarily, simply that their survey was not carried out in a rigorous way. I beleive numbers were based on a questionaire sent to Imams asking for an estimate of attendance at the ‘eid or something like that, which amounts to a WAG estimate. Like I say in the post, I think 6mill is about right. In fact, I tell it to everybody I can here in Kuching, heheh. I just wish the numbers were a bit more firm. *shrugs back*

# 25 May 2003 at 9:10 am

Ikram Saeed said:

Canadian numbers are about 580K. The normal ratio for Canada to the US is 9:1 or 10:1. That gives between 5 and 6 million US Muslims.

Some caveats. Muslims make up 15% of the annual immigrant intake in Canada. (That’s 15% of around 250K.) Canadian immigration is more heavily wieghted towwards South Asia, the Middle East, and China than US immigration (which has a much much larger hispanic element). So I doubt Muslims make up 15% of US immigrants. This factor would probably lower the US proportion — maybe less than a 9:1 ratio.

On the other hand, Canada has a negligible African-Canadian population (large numbers of West Indians –that’s different). In the US, some 30% to 40% of Muslims are African-Americans. That would raise the US proportion — maybe more than a 9:1 ratio.

Altogether — it might net out. So a US muslim figure between 5 and 6 million is not unreasonable. Note that this is not far from the CAIR figure (6 million) and very very far from the figure given by the AJC sponsored study (and trumpeted loudly in the Weekly Standard, etc) of 1.5 to 2.5 million.

# 10 June 2003 at 12:15 pm

Razia said:

Please help to know about what to do for my sister as her husband was in bad company of women and now he is infected with hiv (aids),her husband asks for proof against him that he was in company of these women and she doesn’t have any proof as such .She is married to him since 15 years and they have three children two daughters and one son.please please help me as we don’t want her to stay with him. Can she give her divorse on these grounds

# 30 March 2010 at 7:21 pm

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Agripleasure # -
An article about Three Roods Farm by Garrison Benson.

When Dr. Greg uses the verb "observe" (which is often), he means a willful action, not a passively received effect. Once, for instance, we delivered a cartload of dead leaves to the adolescent chickens, to "stimulate their instincts," and Dr. Greg suggested that we observe them. We sat in silence for ten minutes (that’s a third of a TV show, for most of us) watching the chickens stand still and nervously eye the leaves. "Well," he said eventually, "We can come back later."
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Interesting critique of consumerism, counter-culture and the culture-jamming movement:

So here we have the paradox of anti-consumerism. The major remedy of the consumer society which has been adopted almost without question by the Left and by the radicals more generally has been one of the most powerful forces driving consumer capitalism. The Adbusters sneaker is just the latest and most extraordinary example. This is also why counter-cultural rebellion is not a threat to the system, but rather has become the system.[Update: link fixed]

[Via]

Vaguely related in ways I can't fully articulate to themes in Yursil's ongoing series on Suburban Capitalist Islam.
Brass Crescent Awards # -
Eid Mubarak, Selamat Hari Raya Korban! The 6th Annual Brass Crescent Awards have been announced. Congratulations to all the winners. If you haven't subscribed yet to Islam in China, Muslimah Media Watch and Seekers Guidance, you ought to do it right now. I'm very happy to be mentioned along with Folio, Al-Miskeenah, and the Manrilla, honorable people all. Keep your eyes on TalkIslam and AltMuslim to take part in the contest next time. Thanks to everybody who voted.