Study Counts About 3.5 Million U.S. Muslims
WASHINGTON--There are as many as 3.5 million Muslims in the United States, according to the latest estimate from a Muslim researcher. That’s fewer than other efforts to count the population have found.
Mohamed Nimer of the Council on American-Islamic Relations presents his figure in The North American Muslim Resource Guide, the first comprehensive listing and analysis of all types of Muslim organizations in the United States and Canada.
Nimer says the “minimum” number of Muslims in the U.S. is between 2,560,000 and 4,390,000;3.5 million is a rough average.
He bases that figure on data for immigrants (factoring in that many people from Islamic lands or with Arabic surnames are Christian), plus projections for U.S.-born Muslims from religious identifications on high school SAT test questionnaires.
A survey co-sponsored last year by Nimer’s council, The Mosque in America, estimated that there are 6 million to 7 million U.S. Muslims, 2 million of whom attend mosque during major religious festivals.
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