*Reports of the Death of Religion Are Greatly Exaggerated, a New
Survey of People in a Dozen Nations Indicates.*
The May 22 _New York Times_ reports that "a majority of people
in all but the former East Germany said they believed in God.
Belief was most pervasive in the United States, Poland, and
Ireland, where 90 percent or more of the respondents in each
country said they believed in God. In the former Communist-ruled
East Germany, slightly more than a quarter of those surveyed said
they were believers."
The survey was conducted by the Rev. Andrew Greeley, who
concluded from his research: "It is too early to write an obituary
notice for religion....God didn't die; not even under socialism."
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*Islam Continues to Grow at a Fast Pace in the United States.*
The _New York Times_ recently ran a four-part series on
"Muslims in America," May 2-7. Part One in the series indicates
that at present there are between three and four million Muslims in
the United States. "If recent trends continue, they are likely to
surpass the six million Jews here sometime early in the next
century." As well, "there are now more than 1,100 mosques in the
United States; almost every state has at least one, and a recent
study indicated that about 80 percent had been founded within the
last 12 years."
"Islam is an American religion," Professor Yvonne Y. Haddad, an
expert in Islamic studies at the University of Massachusetts, is
quoted as saying in the article. Haddad "sees Islam taking on an
American flavor, and at the same time influencing the nation's
culture." Indeed, "many thousands of American citizens face Mecca
and pray to Allah five times a day, and some girls in public
schools are wearing head covers in traditional Islamic fashion.
There are tens of thousands of children for whom religious teaching
is not catechism or lessons in Hebrew, but an introduction to the
Five Pillars of Islam and the Arabic language."...
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