Some believe that the population of the Shi’a there is much...
Some believe that the population of the Shi’a there is much higher than official figures, because of a lack of accurate statistics, or because of political problems. [^1]: The world population on 01/01/2002 is estimated to have been 6,196,141,294. (See U.S. Census Bureau official website at: www. census. gov [^2]: 2 Britannica 2002, Deluxe version. According to this source, the overall Muslim population of the world Mid 1998 was 1,164,622,000, that is 19.6 percent of the world population.
[^3]: Britannica, 2002, Deluxe version. [^4]: For example see Islam Outside the Arab World by D. Wester land and I. Svanberg. [^5]: The rest are mostly Sunni Muslims consisting of Hanafis (can be found in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey), Malikis (dominant in Morocco and Sudan), Shafi’is (The Shafi’i school is applied in Syria, Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait, and c o-exists with other schools in Jordan and Egypt) and Hanbalis.
According to MEDEA, the entry “SUNNISM”, the Hanbali school is the official school in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. [^6]: Yann Richard (1991, English translation 1995), p.2 using mainly figuresmput forward Md-R. Djalili, Rligionet revolution, Paris, Economica, 1981, p.23ff, and M. Momen, An Intoduction to Shi’i Islam, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1985, pp.264ff. Thus, Richard’s figures relate to no later than 80’s.
His break Down is as follows: Iraq: 55 percent or 18,000,000; Bahrain: 70 percent or about 170,000; Kuwait: 24 percent of the Kuwaiti citizens or 137,000; Qatar: 20 percent of the population or 50,000; United Arab Emirates: 6 percent or 60,000; Saudi Arabia: 7 percent of Saudi citizens or 440,000; Lebanon: One third or one m illion; India: 15 to 20 percent of Mus lim population whic h reaches 80 million or 12 percent of the total population (Imam is and Ismailis) ; Pakistan: 12,000,000; Afghanistan: 15 percent or about 2.5 million; Azerbijan: a large Shi’a community (4.5 million); Turkey: 1,500,000 apart from ‘Alavites; Syria: 50,000 apart from ‘Alavites.