Jumlah Muslim Dunia Melonjak Tajam
By Republika Newsroom
Kamis, 08 Oktober 2009 pukul 16:06:00
Berapa jumlah Muslim di dunia saat ini? The Pew Forum on Religion and Public
Life menyodorkan data: jumlah Muslim dunia melonjak hampir 100 persen dalam
beberapa tahun ini. "Rata-rata di tiap negara bertambah dari semula 1 juta
menjadi 1,8 juta penganut," tulis laporan terbaru tentang riset yang dilakukan
selama tiga tahun itu.
Angka pastinya, menurut laporan itu, jumlah penganut Islam di seluruh dunia
saat ini mencapai 1,57 miliar jiwa. "Kini, hampir satu dari empat penduduk
dunia mempraktikkan ajaran Islam," tulis laporan itu.
Dari jumlah itu, dua pertiga Muslim tinggal di 10 negara. Indonesia -- yang
disebut dalam laporan itu sebagai negara yang sangat toleran kendati Muslim
dominan -- disebut sebagai negara dengan jumlah penduduk Muslim terbesar di
dunia. Jumlah Muslim di Indonesia adalah sebesar 203 juta atau 13 persen dari
seluruh penduduk Muslim dunia. Sebanyak 60 persen jumlah Muslim dunia tiggal di
kawasan Asia, bukan di Timur Tengah, tempat asal ajaran agama ini.
Eropa disebut sebagai negara yang pertumbuhan jumlah penduduk Muslimnya sangat
cepat. Kini benua itu menjadi rumah bagi 38 juta Muslim, atau lima persen dari
seluruh populasi. Jumlah penduduk Muslim di Jerman lebih kurang 4 juta orang,
hampir sama dengan jumlah gabungan Muslim di Amerika Utara dan Selatan. Prancis
dalam laporan itu memiliki jumlah Muslim paling sedikit di Eropa, namun secara
prosentase adalah tertinggi.
Di Benua Amerika, sebanyak 4,6 Muslim tinggal di sana. Hampir separuh dari
jumlah itu tinggal di Amerika Serikat. Sedang di Kanada jumlah Muslimnya
mencapai 700 ribu jiwa, atau 2 persen dari seluruh populasi.
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life juga menyodorkan data yang cukup
mencengangkan. Misalnya saja, jumlah penduduk Muslim di German ternyata lebih
banyak dari Lebanon, Muslim di Cina lebih banyak dari Suriah, dan Muslim di
Russia lebih banyak dari gabungan jumlah Muslim di Yordania dan Libya. Sedang
jumlah Muslim di Ethiopia, negeri Katholik Ortodoks di Afrika, jumlahnya
sebanding dengan Afghanistan .
"Pendapat bahwa Islam identik dengan Arab dan Arab adalah islam sama sekali
keliru," ujar Amaney Jamal, asisten profesor di Princeton University yang
mereview penelitian itu. Ia menyebut hasil penelitian The Pew ini sangat
konprehensip, khususnya dalam data terkini jumlah Muslim di dunia. Apalagi
setelah perang global melawan terorisme yang kerap diterjemahkan sebagai perang
melawan Islam oleh penduduk di banyak negara non-Muslim.
Menurut forum ini, penelitian yang dilakukan di 232 negara itu baru penelitian
pendahuluan. Tahun depan mereka berencana merilis hasil penelitian dengan
menyodorkan data terkini plus prosentase tingkat pertumbuhan jumlah penduduk
Muslim di masing-masing negara di dunia. Pada tahun yang sama, mereka juga akan
merilis studi tentang perkembangan penyebaran agama Kristen di dunia. n ap/tri
Mapping the Global Muslim Population
A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Muslim Population
October 2009
Executive Summary
A comprehensive demographic study of more than 200 countries finds that there
are 1.57 billion Muslims of all ages living in the world today, representing
23% of an estimated 2009 world population of 6.8 billion.
While Muslims are found on all five inhabited continents, more than 60% of the
global Muslim population is in Asia and about 20% is in the Middle East and
North Africa . However, the Middle East-North Africa region has the highest
percentage of Muslim-majority countries. Indeed, more than half of the 20
countries and territories1 in that region have populations that are
approximately 95% Muslim or greater.
More than 300 million Muslims, or one-fifth of the world's Muslim population,
live in countries where Islam is not the majority religion. These minority
Muslim populations are often quite large. India , for example, has the
third-largest population of Muslims worldwide. China has more Muslims than
Syria , while Russia is home to more Muslims than Jordan and Libya combined.
Of the total Muslim population, 10-13% are Shia Muslims and 87-90% are Sunni
Muslims. Most Shias (between 68% and 80%) live in just four countries: Iran ,
Pakistan , India and Iraq .
These are some of the key findings of Mapping the Global Muslim Population: A
Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Muslim Population, a new
study by the Pew Research Center 's Forum on Religion & Public Life. The report
offers the most up-to-date and fully sourced estimates of the size and
distribution of the worldwide Muslim population, including sectarian identity.
Previously published estimates of the size of the global Muslim population have
ranged widely, from 1 billion to 1.8 billion.2 But these commonly quoted
estimates often have appeared without citations to specific sources or
explanations of how the figures were generated.
The Pew Forum report is based on the best available data for 232 countries and
territories. Pew Forum researchers, in consultation with nearly 50 demographers
and social scientists at universities and research centers around the world,
acquired and analyzed about 1,500 sources, including census reports,
demographic studies and general population surveys, to arrive at these figures
- the largest project of its kind to date. (See Methodology for more detail.)
The Pew Forum's estimate of the Shia population (10-13%) is in keeping with
previous estimates, which generally have been in the range of 10-15%. Some
previous estimates, however, have placed the number of Shias at nearly 20% of
the world's Muslim population.3 Readers should bear in mind that the figures
given in this report for the Sunni and Shia populations are less precise than
the figures for the overall Muslim population. Data on sectarian affiliation
have been infrequently collected or, in many countries, not collected at all.
Therefore, the Sunni and Shia numbers reported here are expressed as broad
ranges and should be treated as approximate.
These findings on the world Muslim population lay the foundation for a
forthcoming study by the Pew Forum, scheduled to be released in 2010, that will
estimate growth rates among Muslim populations worldwide and project Muslim
populations into the future. The Pew Forum plans to launch a similar study of
global Christianity in 2010 as well. The Pew Forum also plans to conduct
in-depth public opinion surveys on the intersection of religion and public life
around the world, starting with a 19-country survey of sub-Saharan Africa
scheduled to be released later this year. These forthcoming studies are part of
a larger effort - the Global Religious Futures Project, jointly funded by The
Pew Charitable Trusts and the John Templeton Foundation - that aims to increase
people's understanding of religion around the world.
http://pewforum. org/docs/ ?DocID=450
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