Slidey said:
Insects also outnumber humans in the world, but they are still just insects.
Anyway, you're wrong. Christianity is the biggest religion in the world by far - you just gave figures for the Catholic subset.
Insects outnumber humans in the world? Serious? I wasn't aware. It doesn't scare me though. I'm pretty sure Muslims outnumbering the world frightens you as much as it infuriates you.
I didnt think it was necessary for the full article. Here you go..
Islam overtakes Catholicism as world's largest religion
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Richard Owen of The Times in Rome
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Islam has overtaken Roman Catholicism to become the world's largest single religious denomination, according to L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.
In an interview with the paper Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, compilier of the Annuario Pontificio, the Vatican yearbook, said "For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us." He said that figures for 2006 showed that Catholics accounted for 17.4 per cent of the world population while Muslims accounted for 19.2 per cent.
Asked for an explanation Monsignor Formenti observed 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". He said the figure for the Muslim global population was derived from data submitted to the United Nations by Muslim countries.
However Christians as a whole, including Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants and Anglicans make up 33 per cent of the world population. Mosnignor Formenti said Latin America remained "the stronghold" of Catholicism, and the American continent as a whole had nearly half the world's total. He noted the decline in numbers of Catholic priests, and said the number of nuns was also suffering a "drastic reduction".
The figures were released as both the Vatican and Muslim leaders sought to pursue a recently initiated Muslim-Catholic dialogue despite tensions over Pope Benedict XVI's high profile baptism at Easter of Magdi Allam, a converted Italian Muslim journalist of Egyptian origin. Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said the opinions of Mr Allam, an outspoken critic of Islam as inherently violent and repressive, were not in any way "the official expression of the positions of the Pope or the Holy See".
The Vatican puts the number of Catholics in the world at 1.13 billion people, while the figure for Muslims is estimated at around 1.3 billion.
Rome has Europe's largest mosque, opened in 1995 and paid for by Muslim countries, mainly by Saudi Arabia, which at present bans Christian worship but is reported to be considering allowing the construction of a church on Saudi soil as part of negotiations for the establishment of diplomatic relations.
In a provocative short story entitled "The Last Christmas" (L'Ultimo Natale) the popular Italian writer Valerio Massimo Manfredi imagines a future in which Islam has become the dominant religion in Italy, with the Pope obliged to leave St Peter's and make way for an Imam.
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Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said,
[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman]"The Last Day will not come until ISLAM has entered into every home on earth." [/FONT]
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Question:
[/FONT][FONT=Courier New,Courier New]Is it true, the Catholic chuch said Islam is now in first place of world religions, ahead of Catholic?
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Answer:
[/FONT][FONT=Courier New,Courier New]Yes, this is correct.
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Read this from the Catholic church:
Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, the compiler of the 2008 Pontifical Yearbook and director of the Vatican statistical service, said,
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Verdana]the number of Muslims has overtaken that of Catholics worldwide.
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More? And answers to the HOT QUESTIONS ABOUT ISLAM'S FAST GROW (click Read...)
According to an interview in the Italian-language version
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Verdana]Osservatore Romano [/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Verdana]newspaper this weekend, Monsignor Formenti said ""For the first time in history we are no longer at the top: the Muslims have overtaken us," and said that Muslims now make up around 20 percent of the population of the world as opposed to Catholicism’s approximately 17 percent. [/FONT][FONT=Arial,Arial]____________________________________________________________________________
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Question: Is it really true that ISLAM is the world's fastest growing religion, even today -
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Verdana]Especially after Sept. 11, 2001??
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Answer: Yes.
Today we see many people of all walks of life; politicians, lawyers, housewives, artists, doctors, actors, singers and even priests and preachers, choosing to submit to God Almighty and enter into the submission to Him in peace (this is the meaninng of the world "Islam").
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Question: Is it a fact, more women enter into Islam than men?
Answer: Yes.
According to the former National Muslim chaplain for the U.S., Yusuf Estes, between five and seven times more women enter Islam than men over a 10 year period within the communities where he served.
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Question: Is it true, preachers, ministers, priests and nuns from Christianity have entered Islam?
Answer: Yes.
This is a well established fact throughout the history of Islam. Jewish teachers, thinkers and leaders along with Christian monks and priests, as well as pundits from the Hindu religion have been entering into Islam ever since the time of the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.
One such person has the story of him, his father, wife and a Catholic priest who all embraced Islam in July of 1991 - in Bush's home state of Texas:
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And this rapid growth at a time when Muslims are in the worst shape should prove to any rational thinker,
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Verdana]"Islam is not spread by the sword." [/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Verdana]After, all how could it be Islam is growing so rapidly around the world at the same time Muslims are the number one most oppressed and least in a position to even defend themselves?
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Another very interesting point must be concluded according to these facts, Islam must have something very amazing to attract so many of these people at such a time when Islam is being so heavily attacked and slandered in the media around the world.
Just thought you guys may be as interested as Slidey..
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