Steve Chiotakis: At a conference in Tehran today, Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, warned of “plots” by the United States and Israel during the Arab Spring. Saying the two countries are looking after their own economic interests in the Muslim world. And the Muslim World is the subject of our Globalist Quiz. Specifically, how vast that world is.
Joining us now is our quizmaster Stephan Richter from TheGlobalist.com. Good morning Stephan.
Stephan Richter: Good morning Steve. Are you ready for today’s Globalist quiz?
Chiotakis: Indeed I am.
Richter: So my question to you today is: Where do most of the world’s Muslims actually live? Is it A) in the Middle East or North Africa, much in the headlines these days; B) in Sub-Saharan Africa; C) in the Asia Pacific region; or D) in Europe?
Chiotakis: Where do most of the world’s Muslims live? Well, all right, obviously, the Middle East-North Africa, there’s a lot of people of the Islamic faith in that region, so I’m going to go with Middle East and North Africa.
Buzz
Richter: Not quite. It’s 20 percent of all Muslims. It is 322 million Muslims live there, but that accounts for 20 percent of global population of Muslims.
Chiotakis: All right, then I’m going to say — because I know Indonesia is, what, it has the most Muslims of any country in the world, right? — so I’m going to say the Asia Pacific Region.
Ding, ding
Richter: You’re a brilliant man. You’re absolutely right. Sixty-two percent of all Muslims around the world live there. Most interestingly — you mentioned Indonesia as the largest one — Pakistan in that region ranks number two. But India has almost as many Muslims in its population, at 177 million, as Pakistan with 178 million, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Chiotakis: That’s a nice little tidbit to know. All right, Stephan, thank you so much. And Stephan Richter, we do appreciate your time.
Richter: And I appreciate your brilliance on that one today.
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