Islam

Nearly one out of every four persons in the world today is Muslim, according to the results of a comprehensive demographic study of more than 200 countries.

Though estimates on the size of the global Muslim population have ranged widely in the past, from one billion to 1.8 billion, the new study by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life puts to rest the uncertainty, pinning the number of Muslims of all ages living in the world today at 1.57 billion.

 The study also revealed more clearly how Muslims are distributed in the world, noting that more than 60 percent of the global Muslim population is in Asia and about 20 percent is in the Middle East and North Africa. more >>

With growing numbers of people concerned about the end times, frontier mission strategist David Taylor (a pseudonym) offers an in-depth look at history, current events, and biblical prophecies that together point to 21 specific signs that should occur before the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Taylor, who spent 10 years working with Muslims in the Philippines, spoke to The Christian Post this week about his new book entitled 21 Signs of His Coming.

The following are excerpts from the interview. more >>

An expected 50,000 Muslims are preparing to descend on Capitol Hill on Friday, September 25, to enable the “peace, beauty and solidarity of Islam to shine through America's capitol.”

It would be easy for many Americans to believe that Islam is a religion of peace and beauty. By far the majority of Muslims in North America are law-abiding citizens who seek to live out their lives without recourse to violence. However, there is a strong and influential movement in the Muslim community that is positioning Islam to gain world dominance in the social, political, financial and religious sectors of nations.

The advertised objective of Friday’s gathering is “to invite the Muslim Communities and friends of Islam to express and illustrate the wonderful diversity of Islam.” more >>

An unprecedented Muslim prayer rally to take place on Capitol Hill Friday afternoon has Christian leaders responding with calls for prayer and fasting of their own.

Christian evangelist Lou Engle of TheCall has partnered with Shirley Dobson, chair of the National Day of Prayer Task Force and wife of Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, to issue an urgent nationwide call for Christians to pray and fast on Sept. 25 – the day when up to 50,000 Muslims plan to pray in front of the Capitol building.

The leaders urge the Church in America to fast and pray that Muslims would be moved by the Holy Spirit, be convicted by the testimony of Christ, and be visited by Jesus in dreams like many Muslims who have come to Christ have experienced. more >>

ISTANBUL, Sept. 23 (Compass Direct News) – A funeral for a Coptic Christian gruesomely killed on a village street north of Cairo by a Muslim assailant last week turned into a protest by hundreds of demonstrators in Egypt.

Galal Nasr el-Dardiri, 35, attacked 63-year-old Abdu Georgy in front of the victim’s shop in Behnay village the afternoon of Sept. 16, according to research by a local journalist. Other Copts watched in horror as El-Dardiri stabbed Georgy five times in the back, according to interviews by Gamal Gerges, a reporter for newspaper Al-Youm al-Sabeh.

As Georgy fell to the ground, El-Dardiri took his knife and stabbed him four times in the stomach. He then disemboweled him, slit his throat and began sawing off his head, according to Gerges. The Rev. Stephanos Aazer, a Coptic priest who knew Georgy and saw photographs of his mutilated body, said the victim’s head was attached to the body by a small piece of flesh. more >>