The Top Ten Myths about Islam

3. All Muslims are Arabs

The religion of Islam was revealed for all people, in all places, at all times. The Quran was revealed in the Arabic language and Prophet Muhammad was an Arab, but it would be wrong to assume that all Muslims are Arab, or for that matter, that all Arabs are Muslim. In fact the vast majority of the world's 1.57 billion[8] Muslims are not of Arabic ethnicity.

Although many people, especially in the West, associate Islam with countries in the Middle East, according to the Pew Research Centre nearly two-thirds (62%) of Muslims live in the Asia-Pacific region and in fact more Muslims live in India and Pakistan (344 million combined) than in the entire Middle East and North African region (317 million).

Also according to Pew, "Muslims make up a majority of the population in 49 countries around the world. The country with the largest number (about 209 million) is Indonesia, where 87.2% of the population identifies as Muslim. India has the world's second-largest Muslim population in raw numbers (roughly 176 million) though Muslims make up just 14.4% of India's total population."

Islam is not a race or ethnicity - it is a religion. Thus Muslims can and do exist in all parts of the world from the alpine tundra of Scandinavia to the warm coastal waters of Fiji.

"O humankind, We created you all from a single man and a single woman, and made you into races and tribes so that you should recognize one another..." (Quran 49:13)

Endnotes:

[8] According to the report, "Mapping the Global Muslim Population," by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.