Muslim Americans the Most Racially Diverse Religious Group in the U.S.

The Gallup Center for Muslim Studies has published results from "the first-ever nationally representative study of a randomly selected sample of Muslim Americans." The study covers numerous subject areas, including Religion, Politics, Ethnicity, Education, Economic Levels, Gender Equality, and Social Participation. Some of the more fascinating results:

Muslims are the most racially diverse religious group in the United States, with 35% African-Americans, 28% White, 18% Asian, another 18% "Other" and 1% Hispanic.





In comparison, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and Mormons are all at least 76% White.






Muslim Americans have the highest levels of education after Jewish Americans, with 40% holding a college degree or higher. The other percentages are: Jews 61%, Protestants 35%, Mormons 32%, Catholics 29% and the U.S. General Population 29%.

Muslim American Women also have the second highest level of education, with 42% holding college degrees or higher. Jewish women were at 58%, Protestants 33%, U.S. General Population 29%, Mormons 28% and Catholics 28%.

"In addition, as a group, Muslim Americans have the highest degree of economic gender parity at the high and low ends of the income spectrum."

Politically, 49% of Muslim Americans identify themselves as Democrats, 37% as Independents and only 8% as Republicans. Looks like the Cheney-Bush efforts to woo Muslims over the last eight years really paid off.

Unfortunately, young Muslim Americans between 18 and 29 are the least likely to be registered to vote. Only 51% are registered. Compare that to young Protestants 78%, Jews 73%, Mormons 69%, Catholics 56% and the U.S. General Population 65%.

The Full Report of the survey has a lot more interesting information.

Gene Test Shows Spain's Jewish and Muslim Mix

El Transito Synagogue, Toledo, España, dedicated in 1357.

From an article by Nicholas Wade in last Friday's New York Times.

The genetic signatures of people in Spain and Portugal provide new and explicit evidence of the mass conversions of Sephardic Jews and Muslims to Catholicism in the 15th and 16th centuries after Christian armies wrested Spain back from Muslim control, a team of geneticists reports.

Twenty percent of the population of the Iberian Peninsula has Sephardic Jewish ancestry and 11 percent have DNA reflecting Moorish ancestors, the geneticists have found. Historians have debated how many Jews converted and how many chose exile. “One wing grossly underestimates the number of conversions,” said Jane S. Gerber, an expert on Sephardic history at the City University of New York. . . .

Because most of the Y chromosome remains unchanged from father to son, the proportions of Sephardic and Moorish ancestry detected in the present population are probably the same as those just after the 1492 expulsions. A high proportion of people with Sephardic ancestry was to be expected, Dr. Ray said. “Jews formed a very large part of the urban population up until the great conversions,” he said.

I was actually surprised by the 20% figure. The Sephardic population was a large and important one on the peninsula for hundreds of years, but I didn't expect one-in-five Iberians today to have Jewish ancestry. And the scientists doing the study believe that's the percentage AFTER the terrible expulsion in 1492.

The 11% figure for Muslim ancestry was closer to what I expected.

This is going to have a significant impact on the study of Spanish history, as well as on politics. Right-wingers like the late dictator Francisco Franco and his current proteges are going to have a harder time now claiming that weird Spanish-Catholic-Visigothic purity.

The President (Elect) and the Pope

According to a press release from the new administration, President-elect Barack Obama called His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI yesterday.

Benedict congratulated Obama on his victory and said he welcomed the opportunity to continue improving his relations with Muslims.









Bada-boom! :-)