The global Muslim population stands at 1.57 billion, meaning that nearly 1 in 4 people in the world practice Islam, according to a report Wednesday billed as the most comprehensive of its kind. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life report provides a precise number for a population whose size has long has been subject to guesswork, with estimates ranging anywhere from 1 billion to 1.8 billion. The project, three years in the making, also presents a portrait of the Muslim world that might surprise some. For instance, Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon, China has more Muslims than Syria, Russia has more Muslims than Jordan and Libya combined, and Ethiopia has nearly as many Muslims as Afghanistan. "This whole idea that Muslims are Arabs and Arabs are Muslims is really just obliterated by this report," said Amaney Jamal, an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University who reviewed an advance copy. Pew officials call the report the most thorough on the size and distribution of adherents of the world's second largest religion behind Christianity, which has an estimated 2.1 billion to 2.2 billion followers. Among the report's other highlights: Two-thirds of all Muslims live in 10 countries. Six are in Asia (Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Iran and Turkey), three are in North Africa (Egypt, Algeria and Morocco) and one is in sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria). Indonesia, which has a tradition of a more tolerant Islam, has the world's largest Muslim population (203 million, or 13 percent of the world's total). Religious extremists have been involved in several high-profile bombings there in recent years. In China, the highest concentrations of Muslims were in western provinces. The country experienced its worst outbreak of ethnic violence in decades when rioting broke out this summer between minority Muslim Uighurs and majority Han Chinese. Europe is home to about 38 million Muslims, or about five percent of its population. Germany appears to have more than 4 million Muslims — almost as many as North and South Americacombined. In France, where tensions have run high over an influx of Muslim immigrant laborers, the overall numbers were lower but a larger percentage of the population is Muslim. Of roughly 4.6 million Muslims in the Americas, more than half live in the United States although they only make up 0.8 percent of the population there. About 700,000 people in Canada are Muslim, or about 2 percent of the total population.
Key congressional negotiators adopted a plan Wednesday to permit terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to continue to be transferred into the United States to face trial, boosting President Barack Obama's bid to close the prison. The House-Senate compromise was reached by Democratic negotiators on a $42.8 billion homeland security appropriations bill. It mostly tracks current restrictions put in place in June and is similar to a version backed by Republicans earlier in the year that allowed detainees to be transferred to U.S. soil for trial. Now, Republicans are pressing for an absolute ban on transfers of Guantanamo detainees into the U.S. The move sets up a clash with Republicans and, potentially, a difficult vote for dozens of House Democrats, who only last week voted in favor of a GOP plan to block any detainee transfers into the U.S. That vote came on a nonbinding motion, but Wednesday's compromise would carry the force of law for the budget year that began Oct. 1. Obama's order to close Guantanamo by mid-January has vexed his Democratic allies on Capitol Hill, who complain that it was dropped on them without a plan to carry it out. But amid the uproar over Guantanamo, Democrats have been on the defensive. Just Tuesday, the Senate passed a $626 billion Pentagon budget bill that would ban outright any transfer of accused enemy combatants from Guantanamo to US soil. And House Democrats were openly exploring the option of a legislative two-step on the underlying homeland security spending bill that would block Republicans from another vote on the detention center. Administration officials say that the deadline for closing Guantanamo may slip anyway because of difficulties in completing the lengthy review of detainee files and resolving other tough questions.
Israel's foreign minister declared Thursday that there is no chance of reaching a final accord with the Palestinians any time soon, casting a pall over the U.S. Mideast envoy's latest effort to get peace talks moving again. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman suggested that the two sides come up with a long-term interim arrangement that would ensure prosperity, security and stability. He recommended leaving the toughest issues — such as the status of disputed Jerusalem and a solution for Palestinian refugees who lost homes amid war — "to a much later stage." He did not elaborate or give a timeline. "Anyone who says that within the next few years an agreement can be reached ending the conflict ... simply doesn't understand the situation and spreads delusions, ultimately leading to disappointments and an all-out confrontation here," Lieberman told Israel Radio. Other conflicts have been defused with the sides making a "dramatic decision" to renounce violence and enter into a period of calm that would allow an accord, Lieberman said. "People have learned to live with it," he said.
Greece's new Socialist Prime Minister will fly to Cyprus October 19, for his first foreign visit, a government statement read. George Papandreou was elected in a landslide victory on October 4, ousting Greece's scandal-battered conservatives. He will personally handle foreign affairs. The peace process on Cyprus, divided between Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities, is a main foreign policy concern for Athens, intricately linked with Greece's wobbly relationship with neighboring Turkey. As Foreign Minister in the 1999-2004 Socialist governments, Papandreou championed rapprochement with Turkey. Cyprus' leaders will meet next week as part of yearlong talks that have so far produced limited progress. The island was split in 1974 when Turkey invaded.
French colleagues have promised never to use the insulting phrase 'privileged partnership' again as Ankara negotiates full EU membership, the minister of European affairs and Turkey's chief negotiator, Egemen Bagiş, told EurActiv in an exclusive interview. Egemen Bagiş was until recently the vice-chairman of the ruling AKP party, a member of parliament and a promoter of the election of Istanbul as 2010's European cultural capital. He was speaking to EurActiv's Georgi Gotev. A number of chapters in Turkey's negotiations are blocked, mainly over the Cyprus issue, if my information is correct. Who blocked those chapters and why? [Laughter] It's as complicated as who killed Jesus […] I think that the most important thing that we should focus is that that the most difficult part of the negotiations is behind us. And the most difficult part has been putting the Turkey train on the EU tracks. The most difficult part was starting the accession talks. Every country that has ever stated accession negotiations has at the end completed them. Turkey will not be an exception. It took us 40 years just to get a date to start accession talks. We did not give up. We were committed, we were decided, and we were patient. And today, we are even more committed, more decided and more patient than ever.
Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha has denied that he advocates Greater Albania, pointing out that closer cooperation does not necessarily mean accession of territories. This is what one may have believed in the past, said Berisha in an interview for the Vienna daily Die Presse, pointing out that when countries decided to have closer ties, it did not mean they were thinking of accession. We have a new highway that connects Kosovo with the sea, and this road is very important for the Albanian tourism, but it also helps Serbia and Macedonia reach the seaside, he added. Asked if the countries in the Balkans, considering the economical crisis, were welcome to the European Union at all, he indicated that "27 keys" were needed to open the door in Brussels. This is not easy, but the process of European integration of the Western Balkans is irreversible, the Albanian prime minister noted. Of course, the EU is not euphoric about the matter, but they assured the countries of our region that they would keep their promise, Berisha underlined.
Becoming a movie star or a space tourist is what many people might dream about - but what if you want to be a bell ringer? Moscow's giving you an opportunity to do just that. Moscow has attracted the best bell ringers from all across Russian and CIS countries to take part in the festival ”Moscow – the bell capital of Russia”. They are performing and giving master-classes to all those willing to get closer to the art of making music out of Russian Orthodox bells. “We have invited masters of bell-ringing from different cities from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok,” says the head of the festival, campanologist Ilya Drozdikhin. “While performing the gala-concert they will show all their skills and will be able to exchange their experiences. Especially for this festival, the best teachers and graduates of the Moscow School of Bell Ringers worked out a ring called “Triumph of Orthodoxy”, which will be performed in the new belfry of the Sergiy Radonezhsky Cathedral.” As part of the festival, a fair of hand-made goods will take place and guests will be offered drinks and treats.