More Americans say they have NO Religion

By RACHEL ZOLL

The study found that the percentage of Americans who identified themselves as Muslim grew to 0.6 percent of the population, while growth in Eastern religions such as Buddhism slightly slowed.

[My addition: The Muslim population multiplied 10 (ten) times faster than the rest of society, in UK (Great Britain or England) in 4 (four) years; the research by the Office for National Statistics done during the period of 2004-2008 reveals. In the same period the number of Christians in the country fell by more than 2 (two) million.

In India Islam is India's largest minority religion, with Muslims officially constituting 13.4% of the country's population, or 138 million people as of the 2001 census. However, unofficial estimates claim a far higher figure supposedly discounted in censuses. For instance, in an interview with a well circulated newspaper of India The Hindu Justice K.M. Yusuf, a retired Judge from Calcutta High Court and Chairman of West Bengal Minority Commission, has said that the real percentage of Muslims in India is at least 20%.

Muslims constitute nearly one-third of the state population (30.9%), in Assam the second highest after Jammu & Kashmir. Goalpara, Dhubri, Barpeta, Nagaon, Karimganj and Hailakandi are some of the Muslim concentration districts of Assam.
The indigenous Muslim community of the Brahmaputra Valley, in Assam locally known as Garias, numbers 35 lakh. The term Gariya is believed to have been derived from the word gaur, the then Muslim capital of Bengal, from where the Muslims trace their origin. They have a history of 800 years in Assam. A series of campaigns by Muslim rulers from Bengal and Delhi took place from the 13th to the 17th centuries. The indigenous Muslims or the Garias are mainly the descendants of the Muslims who stayed back after these campaigns. They settled down by marrying local girls.The earliest record of Muslim settlement in the Brahmputra valley region dates back to the campaign of Nawab of Bengal Alauddin Hussain Shah (1493-1519), who after overpowering the ruler of Kamrup in 1498 annexed it.

The history of the Muslims of South Assam or Barak Valley goes back to 13th century.There the first evidence of the large scale Muslim settlement is found in modern Karimganj District. It was in 1303 A.D. when Hazrat Shahjalal the famous Sufi Saint of Bengal and Assam conquered Sylhet and he asked at least six of his followers to spread Islam in the Karimganj region.The works of those Sufis brought a large numbers of local into the fold of Islam since the early 13th century. These Muslims along with their fellows of undivided Sylhet gradually came to known as the Sylheti Muslims dring the time British rule. Presntly the population of the Sylheti Muslims of Assam is around 15 Lakhs..

The release of religion-based census data of 2001, generated considerable controversy. While some political parties with pro-Islamic leanings have voiced their anger at such data being released in the first place, others have expressed concern at the possibility of such data being misused by Hindutva organizations. Moreover, the date showed that there are seven states where the literacy rate of Muslims was actually higher than the literacy rate for Hindus.

In Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh - the difference is quite significant. It is also notable in Gujarat and Karnataka. Muslim literacy is marginally higher in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, and the difference between Hindu and Muslim literacy in Kerala is statistically insignificant. .
Notwithstanding the statistical anomalies that arose from a lack of Census Data for 1991 in Assam and Jammu & Kashmir, one of the most significant findings of the data has been the substantially higher growth rate of the Indian Muslim population as opposed to other communities - such as Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists and Hindus.
Excluding Jammu and Kashmir and Assam, the decadal growth (10 year growth) rate for Muslims was 29.3%. This was substantially higher than the growth rate for Sikhs (which was 16.9%) or Hindus (20%). On the surface, this data substantiates the common wisdom that Muslims are reproducing at a much faster rate than Hindus, and that religious conservatism and/or retrograde clerical pressures are at the heart of the matter. The literacy data also appears to reinforce common stereotypes regarding Muslims - that they are less educated than Hindus, and are 'less interested in improving their lot'.

Moreover, the population of Muslims has increased at almost DOUBLE THE RATE OF THE HINDUS in states like Assam which also reinforces the common suspicion that there has been a steady migration of economic refugees from Bangladesh into India. In this respect, the propaganda of the Hindutvadis may well have an element of truth to it.

There are also many unreliable claims and rumours, especially for conversion rates, that often spread as urban legends. Data on conversion rates are hard to verify. For example, it has been claimed by the New York Times that 25% of American Muslims are converts to Islam. In Britain, there are also claims that around 10,000 - 20,000 people convert to Islam per year.

However, there are sources that claim that conversions to buddhism outnumber those to Islam]

A wide-ranging study on American religious life found that the Roman Catholic population has been shifting out o of the Northeast to the Southwest, the percentage of Christians in the nation has declined and more people say they have no religion at all.

Fifteen percent of respondents said they had no religion, an increase from 14.2 percent in 2001 and 8.2 percent in 1990, according to the American Religious Identification Survey.

Northern New England surpassed the Pacific Northwest as the least religious region, with Vermont reporting the highest share of those claiming no religion, at 34 percent. Still, the study found that the numbers of Americans with no religion rose in every state.

"No other religious bloc has kept such a pace in every state," the study's authors said.

In the Northeast, self-identified Catholics made up 36 percent of adults last year, down from 43 percent in 1990. At the same time, however, Catholics grew to about one-third of the adult population in California and Texas, and one-quarter of Floridians, largely due to Latino immigration, according to the research.

Nationally, Catholics remain the largest religious group, with 57 million people saying they belong to the church. The tradition gained 11 million followers since 1990, but its share of the population fell by about a percentage point to 25 percent.

Christians who aren't Catholic also are a declining segment of the country.

In 2008, Christians comprised 76 percent of U.S. adults, compared to about 77 percent in 2001 and about 86 percent in 1990. Researchers said the dwindling ranks of mainline Protestants, including Methodists, Lutherans and Episcopalians, largely explains the shift. Over the last seven years, mainline Protestants dropped from just over 17 percent to 12.9 percent of the population.

The report from The Program on Public Values at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., surveyed 54,461 adults in English or Spanish from February through November of last year. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 0.5 percentage points. The findings are part of a series of studies on American religion by the program that will later look more closely at reasons behind the trends.

The current survey, being released Monday, found traditional organized religion playing less of a role in many lives. Thirty percent of married couples did not have a religious wedding ceremony and 27 percent of respondents said they did not want a religious funeral.

About 12 percent of Americans believe in a higher power but not the personal God at the core of monotheistic faiths. And, since 1990, a slightly greater share of respondents — 1.2 percent — said they were part of new religious movements, including Scientology, Wicca and Santeria.

The study also found signs of a growing influence of churches that either don't belong to a denomination or play down their membership in a religious group.

Respondents who called themselves "non-denominational Christian" grew from 0.1 percent in 1990 to 3.5 percent last year. Congregations that most often use the term are megachurches considered "seeker sensitive." They use rock style music and less structured prayer to attract people who don't usually attend church. Researchers also found a small increase in those who prefer being called evangelical or born-again, rather than claim membership in a denomination.

Evangelical or born-again Americans make up 34 percent of all American adults and 45 percent of all Christians and Catholics, the study found. Researchers found that 18 percent of Catholics consider themselves born-again or evangelical, and nearly 39 percent of mainline Protestants prefer those labels. Many mainline Protestant groups are riven by conflict over how they should interpret what the Bible says about gay relationships, salvation and other issues.

The percentage of Pentecostals remained mostly steady since 1990 at 3.5 percent, a surprising finding considering the dramatic spread of the tradition worldwide. Pentecostals are known for a spirited form of Christianity that includes speaking in tongues and a belief in modern-day miracles.

Mormon numbers also held steady over the period at 1.4 percent of the population, while the number of Jews who described themselves as religiously observant continued to drop, from 1.8 percent in 1990 to 1.2 percent, or 2.7 million people, last year. Researchers plan a broader survey on people who consider themselves culturally Jewish but aren't religious.

The study found that the percentage of Americans who identified themselves as Muslim grew to 0.6 percent of the population, while growth in Eastern religions such as Buddhism slightly slowed.