Islam is an Abrahamic, monotheistic faith regarded as revealed through Muhammad as the Prophet of Allah. Islam’s religious text is the Quran, believed by Muslims to be the verbatim words of God and the teachings and normative examples of Muhammad.
Islam is the world’s second-largest religion, with over 1.9 billion followers known as Muslims. The countries with the highest Muslim populations are Indonesia, Pakistan, and India. Islam is the world’s fastest-growing religion and is forecasted to grow faster than Christianity by 2050.
Islam is the third-largest religion in the United States after Christianity and Judaism. There are a total of 3.45 million Muslims in the United States, according to a 2017 study, comprising about 1.1% of the total US population. American Muslims are one of the most racially diverse religious groups in the US with no majority race, split as 25% black, 24% white, 18% Asian, 18% Arab, 7% mixed race, and 5% Hispanic.
It is unclear when Islam first arrived in the United States. Approximately 10-20% of slaves brought to colonial America arrived as Muslims but were suppressed on plantations. During the 20th century, the United States saw the largest increase in the Muslim population. Between 1991 and 2012, approximately 1.7 million Muslims entered the United States as legal permanent residents. Approximately 72% of the American Muslim population are immigrants or “second generation.”