Some thoughts on the US Muslim PopulationMuslimMatters.org

Some thoughts on the US Muslim Population

23. May, 2007 by Guests Editorials 42 comments

By Tariq Nelson

Honestly, I've always thought that the Muslim population estimation given by Muslim organizations seemed to be bit inflated (especially in smaller areas). They usually come up with the number by multiplying by three the number of people or families that attend a mosque because they say that two thirds are not religious. So if there are 100,000 Muslims in a city at the 'Īd, they will multiply that by three and come up with 300,000.

Here are some estimates for the cities with the largest populations:

New York-NJ area: about 800,000

Los Angeles area: about 500,000

DC-Baltimore area: about 400,000

Chicagoland about 300,000

Detroit area about 300,000 (some estimate about 3% of Detroit's metro population is Muslim)

Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington area about 200,000 (according to some, 85% of that is African-American)

Just those 5 metro areas – according to those estimates – would give you around 2.5 million Muslims in the US and if you ask the average person if there – Muslim or non-Muslim – about those numbers, they would probably not dispute it because there are a lot of Muslims in those areas with a significant and visible presence.

Then the next tier of cities:

- Dallas-Ft Worth, Houston, Atlanta, San Diego, the Bay Area, and Seattle which all claim to have around 100,000 Muslims

These cities have pretty large Muslim populations, but most would be a little surprised at that large a number.

- St Louis and the Miami/South Florida areas claim to have around 70,000 Muslims

- Columbus, Memphis, Cincinnati, Nashville all claim to have around 20,000-25,000 Muslims

I can tell you that the average person in a place like Memphis would be shocked to see an estimate of 25,000 Muslims in their city and the first question that would come to their mind is: “Where are they??” and they just simply would not believe it. As a Muslim I asked the same thing about the number given for Memphis as a person can easily drive from one side of the city to the other everyday for weeks and not see a single practicing Muslim except at the masjid.

Memphis usually gets an 'Īd crowd of about 2,500 – 3,000 Muslims including all men, women and children. Even if you quadrupled that number, you still only get around 10,000-12,000 or so. I just don't know how or where the number 25,000 came from by any stretch.

My point is that the numbers of Muslim in the smaller cities may be even more inflated which may skew the numbers nationwide.

We report this – and the unprovable 'Islam is the fastest growing religion' mantra – as if it is an article of Iman. Anyone who questions it, then his Iman is questioned.

Even if Islam is shrinking in size, this has no bearing on whether or not Islam is the truth. Even if there are only 1 million Muslim in the US this has no bearing on us.

So why the need to inflate numbers?

About MuslimMatters

Muslimmatters.org began in 2007 as a collaboration between various Bloggers and Shuyukh in order to bring attention to issues faced by Muslims, especially in the West. We have focused on issues of Religion, Society, Ethics, Sex Education, Politics, Civil Rights, Family, as well as the random issues that pop up from now and then, all with some ranting and humor mixed in.

We challenge ourselves and our readers to engage in discourses that touch our lives as citizens of the West, while maintaining our individual Islamic identities: Ultimately to cooperate, but not to compromise.

http://www.muslimmatters.org Amad

salam.. its not a matter of inflating the number, it’s a matter of getting to the truth.

Numbers mean a lot… that is why Muslims need to fight for the conservatively ‘right’ number just as many Islamophobic organizations are trying to keep it low.

I will be addressing this question in Update#4 on the Pew Research report.

Khadija

Why label anyone who wants to get an accurate statistic as an Islamophobe? When that is done, Islam is being sullied by making it about politics. But Islam is not primarily about politics. It’s about building societies and social networks amongst observant believers.

Those who argue about Islam being the fastest growing religion are actually celebrating the downfall of those who claim to be Muslims. Every Muslim is supposed to believe that, upon death, every human being will admit to believing in the existence of God. That’s why the disbelievers and unbelievers will wish that judgment day never comes. After the time of judgment, every person will also accept the second part of the Muslim creed: the prophethood of Muhammad (SAW). Regardless of the fact that not all people will believe in the existence of God before they die, Muslims are supposed to proselytize (spread the teaching of Islam). They are not instructed to _convert_ people to Islam. They are simply instructed to _teach_ people about Islam. A Muslim is supposed to believe that only God controls who accepts or reject Islam, and God does not need helpers. So it would be impossible for a Muslim to convert anyone to Islam. A Muslim could only instruct others, and nothing more. When a believer accepts God’s command to proselytize, his intent must be to instruct, not to convert, or it does not warrant blessings.
Also, only God knows people’s hearts, i.e. only God knows who is a true believer. A person who has studied hadith would know that Islam is destined to split into 73 sects, of which only one is righteous. That means the “Muslim” members of the other 72 sects of Islam will spend the rest of eternity in hellfire. So very few people will up in heaven. Abdullah bin Amarra relates that the Holy Prophet (SA) said â€˜Surely things will happen to my people as happened earlier to Israelites, they will resemble each other like one shoe in a pair resembles the other to the extent that if anyone among the Israelites has openly committed adultery with his mother there will be some who will do this in my Ummah as well, verily the Israelites were divided into 72 sects but my people will be divided into 73 sects, all of them will be in the fire except one.”
Furthermore, only .01% (1 of 1000) are destined to live in paradise eternally, while 99.99% (999 out of 1000) will spend eternity in hell. Narrated in Bukhari and Muslim: Allah will say, Send forth those who are destined for hell? Adam (pbuh) will say.Who are those? …Allah will say Out of every thousand, 999 go to hell and 1 to paradise”. – Bukhari 6:60:265 Implicit in the hadith is that only 1/1000th of all people are true believing Muslims.

So…. be careful about claiming a huge population of believing Muslims. It’s arrogant, and it contracts hadith of Bukhari.

Furthermore, people – especially those with children – need to make the best decision as to where to move. When organizations such as CAIR provided overinflated statistics, the damage to the ordinary person can be great.
A person hopes to arrive in a city or town which is replete with Muslims, with Islamic-friendly public schools, with Islam-friendly entertainment, with Quran-teaching institutes, with mosques, and (hopefully) the athan played out loud. So he reads the CAIR or other Muslim organization statistics

However, if statistics are overestimated, one could inadvertently choose to move where the Muslim community is very dispersed. Such a population cannot possibly be the source of fortification that the person what seeking.

http://www.muslimmatters.org Ahmad AlFarsi

Assalaamu alaykum,

Wait a minute… Houston is only at 100k? and that’s an overestimate ?!?!?! (ahmad reconsiders move to houston….)

Just one second people… salatomatic.com says there are 50 masjids in the Greater Houston area… that number is HUGE compared to my experience in Baltimore area (maybe 10-20 masjids in total) and the Boston area (10+ masjids… 20 according to salatomatic).

How does Houston have soo many masjids and only 100K muslims??? And I have heard so much from SO many different people about the awesome Muslim community it Houston… from what I heard and from I saw at TXDawah… I expected only NYC/NJ to rival Houston.

Amad and Sh. Yasir, our local Houstonites, any idea what is going on here?

wassalaam,
ahmad
http://www.muslimmatters.org Amad

Houston is easily 200k. 80 Masajids…
http://tariqnelson.com Tariq Nelson

My issue is mainly with the smaller cities like Memphis.

I don’t think the number of masjids is necessarily an indicator of the number of Muslims. They say that there are about 400K Muslims in the DC area and there are about 40 or so masjids. Masjids are easier (i.e., less expensive) to build in some areas of the country than others. Dar Al Hijrah – for example – draws about 3,000 Muslims on any given Friday. The four masjids in Memphis collectively draw about 1,200. So you have to consider the price of building masjids into consideration. Boston – for example – is much more expensive than many other places in the country

@Amad

I am not disputing your number, but how did you arrive at that number? Do we have anything other than anecdotal evidence?
http://muslimmatters.org Ruth Nasrullah

Asalaamu alaikum.

Yes, the Houston Muslim community is awesome!

This is the only place I’ve been really involved in a Muslim community, so can’t meaningfully compare with elsewhere, but I can say that when I lived in Boston I found the number of masajid woefully small.
http://www.muslimmatters.org Amad

Tariq, my gut-feeling ;)

I’ll try to dig up more evidence… I am still trying to finish Update#3 for the Pew Report.
http://ibnalhyderabadee.wordpress.com ibn alHyderabadee

i woudl say houston and dallas/ft.worth metroplex (my new second home) are about the same…..and I woudl eik to side with tariq’s estimate….Allahu ‘Alam…..

Hosuotn has 80-100 islamic institutions….even if we take that number as big huge masjid that can hold about 500 people

that woudl give us an estiamte of about 50,000…..and if we multiply that by 3 – it’s still at 150,000 -

considerign that hosuton has only about 10-20 maxx big masaajid the rest are small tiny ity bity masjids

i doubt houston has 200,000 ….highly unlikely even if you include the ismailis in 2002 the estimate according to them was about 15,000
human

please check detroit and its suburbs’ population too. Arabs, Desis and African-Americans…all of them have a very large concentration. Last time, I checked it was only after NY and Cali.
http://sophister.wordpress.com sophister

I have seen this mentality all too often amongst Muslims. As muslims we are concerned with truth, and not painting a pretty picture. If that involves people leaving islam, or that we are not the fastest growing religion, so be it. Islam relies on faith in God and the finality of the prophethood of our beloved Rasul (saws).
Ron

Houston’s muslim community is very large and diverse. The Houston metropolitan area easily has over 400k.

Los Angeles is one city but the surronding 87 other cities have significant numbers of Muslim. The County of Los Angeles has at least 1 million muslims. We have so many illegals it is hard to give an accurate figure because it is easy to blend in L.A.
http://inexplicabletimelessness.blogspot.com/ inexplicabletimelessness

Bay Area, CA has a big Muslim pop too, about 200,000 according to CAIR.

Allah knows best.
http://tariqnelson.com Tariq Nelson

I think that when we are in a Muslim enclave we can get a very skewed picture of the reality. We see full Jumuahs, activities, Muslim businesses and Muslim everywhere and we think that there are more Muslims than there are in reality.

When this is the case, we can tend to live in a bubble to some extent and think of ourselves as larger than we actually are.

400,000 Muslims in Houston would mean that about 1 in every ten people are Muslim there. While there is a nice Muslim presence in Houston, masha Allah, one in ten people is a very significant figure and one would think that there would be around 1,000 masjids if that was the case.

I think that if there was an accurate way to census religion – with the way we are inflating our numbers – we would be a little disappointed in what we would find
Hood

Most take many of the smaller cities into consideration when calculating for Houston. So Galveston, pearland, Engellton (spelling?), Missouri city, SugarLand, Conroe, Baycity, Katy and a slew of other small cities are mashed in the numbers.
There are stlll neighborhoods in Houston that don’t have masjids: NE Houston, East Houston (well Uvalde is new), and the 5th ward and the area between downtown and north zone don’t have Masjids. So the community is definitely not 200K.
If I recall the Eid prayer at the G.R Brown center or the Astrodome only got to about 30,000 at its peak (including late people), with at least seven other Eid prayers happening in and around the city mostly with non-ISGH associated masjids. Ismailis and Shia communities counted as well, I doubt that the population goes over 120K.
http://muslimmatters.org Abu Bakr

The number of masjids in Houston has more to do with coordinating to build masjids where needed as opposed to the mentality in most cities where each group is trying to rival the other by building larger (and therefore, emptier) masjids, rather than trying to build modest-sized – but strategically located – masjids
http://www.mujahideenryder.net Mujahideen Ryder

New York-NJ has easily 1 million
Nazir

Salaam…
I currently live in NY suburbs and want to provide a better Islamic environment for my family – esp school for my kids…would Houston be a good choice? Dallas? Thanks for your time.
http://www.muslimmatters.org ibnabeeomar

i think both are good options. houston has an amazing community mashallah. dallas though i think may have some better schools at this point
http://www.muslimmatters.org Amad

ASA… having intimate knowledge of both Dallas and Houston (lived in Houston, uncle in Dallas)… I believe Iman Academy does pretty good for Islamic school and you cannot beat the community of Houston. Dallas is quite Dull(as) if you get the drift :)

waslaam
http://ibnalhyderabadee.wordpress.com ibnalHyderabadee

Dallas beats Houston, hands down as far as islamic schools are concerned as of right now…..in my opinion….

but as far as community activities and islamic environment…..houston blows dallas away

and houston community is far more structured and organized than dallas…..

Allahu ‘Alam
Peaches

Possibly, those statistics may be/may not be inflated, but far as seeing the Muslim population in Atlanta, I wouldn’t suprise me if it was around that 100,000 number for a few reasons:
1) The biggest mistake that I come across with some non- Georgians is that they only focus on Atlanta the city opposed to the smaller cities around them. For example, the ” metro Atlanta ” area may be a small town 50 miles away from it, but yet, it’s part of the ATL.
2)The difference between most Northern cities and Southern cities like ATL is that their Muslim communities are older, more established, older and concentrated than in the ATL. Where you may find a ” Little Lebanon”, in a places like Dearborn, Michigan or Baltimore, the Muslim populations are spreaded and though they may not number those to that of the following cities, but there are some exceptions :
1)Clarkston, Georgia( a very diverse area where you will see many Somail/Ethiopian Bosnian and Iraqi Muslims)
2)Midtown Atlanta( Although it is known as a gay community, anybody lives there. There are also a lot of immigrant Muslims who live there, especially the young students attending Georgia Tech)
3) The West End-Whether it’s the N.O.I( yeck!) or just regular Muslims, they also live in this religiously diverse community.
4) East Lake- While you may not not see them as much as the other places I’ve listed on here, There is also a small community of Muslim in this golfing community.
5)Another thing to consider: In some Georgia towns/counties, they can be pretty populated areas. Fulton( Over 3,000,000) county is one of them, but another example would be it’s neighbor DeKalb County( Over 350,000) along with other counties/cities that make up the metropolitan Atlanta area. Those are two examples of counties/towns with a population of over 100,000 people in them but, there are several more as the Metro ATL consist of over 12 different counties/”towns”(I don’t know why they call it that when some of them resemble small cities)

Atlanta may not have the larger , more established Muslim neigborhoods like in other big cities, but they are not as invisible as people think. There are there , but they aren’t just confined to one area of the ATL. Maybe those imams could be inflating the numbers some, but it could be that possiblity(??)
Peaches

Oops! I see a mistake in my post far as the ATL(metro Atlanta) area. I was also looking in the US Census Bureau quick stats concerning the general population of counties of the general populations in Georgia and some examples of the top ones, in which , in some ways I can believe that Atlanta , Memphis or any other small city can have Muslim populations reaching (or go over )100,000. For example(s)
1) Fulton-960,000( Example city ATL: 423,000+)
2) Dekalb-723,000( Example city: Decatur ,Ga over 18,000+)
3)Gwinnett-757,104( Example city: Duluth,Ga 22,000+)
4) Cobb-679,325( Example city: Marietta,Ga 58,000+)
5)Clayton-271,240( example: Riverdale, Ga: 12,000+)
6)Henry-176,033( example city : Stockbridge,Ga 9000+)

Including the cities( which are smaller than the counties) , the diverse populations( whether they be AA,Latino ,Arab or Asian who may be inclined to be of that or join the faith) that are here ( and still continue to come here), there could be a possibilty that the statisticans can come up with the 100,000 count( or more) from those and the other 22 other metro ATL counties.( I also say “example city” because they are the larger/largest cities in their counties as there is more than other cities in those counties).

In the past (1976), there wasn’t as many Muslim /Arab related stuff in the city of Atlanta,( though there were maybe a couple of store front Mosques at the time). In recent years, I’m able to see more than several Halal meat markets, restaurants shopping areas in some of these cities/counties, Pick up an Azizah magazines, An Nour newspapers( Both which are based in ATL) and other Arab/Muslim items. It’s not as predominate as it is in Maryland, but it’s getting there.
http://www.muslimmatters.org Amad

Thanks Peaches for the useful information.
Khalid Shaheed jr.

I am tempted to join the debate about what size the muslim community is in top 10 metro areas like the Bay Area, ATL, Dallas and Houston but I see the larger point that was made in the argument. Is size all that matters?? How many are practicing Islam anyway? How many are part of community life in their respective cities?

Almost anywhere in the country you can find a hole in the bottom of the bucket. A lot of new muslims are coming in but we are loosing many.
Examples include: Children not being reared in Islam or not being reared at all, new muslims who are being failed by poor communities (as a result they leave the fold of Al-Islam before they ever got firmly rooted), muslims having babies out of wedlock with NON-MUSLIMS, populations that come to America to seek a better life only to forget that Islam is the best way of life.

These examples take a toll on our populations and if you were to count that in to the numbers you would see smaller numbers across the board, no exceptions. The debate is NOT how many Muslims or how many Masjids the debate should be over how to best maintain community life by cultivating the young, encouraging the new and supporting the existing muslim families. The numbers can only show you our true potential.
Ibiary

Assalamu alaikom everyone,

I’ve been searching for more than an hour now for “the Muslim population in Miami” alone,
but I couldn’t find anything specific to Miami.

Would anyone please help me?

Thanks a lot
yellowdaisy42

Can anyone tell me where there are strong, predominately Sunni muslim communities in the US, preferably not in the large metropolitan areas. Suburbs are okay. I’m looking for masjids with new revert and children’s classes, and at least a small muslim neighborhood, so my son can be surrounded by muslim children 24/7.

ty
Syed

Columbus Are has register 150000 somalis and Afgans. I would doubt only 20 % of them being muslim. + the huge south asian and arab communities.

eaisly 100 K
http://www.madinahsmall.info Madinah

Assalam ‘aleykum warahmatullah wabarakatuh.

Serious, the number debate thing is ridiculous to be honest. The point is to give an estimate to Muslims who want to migrate to cities with big Muslim community. Right now I am searching for a city with an active Muslim community. I want to move out of where I am now when I’m done with school insha Allah (in few months). So the whole number thing does not convern me that much. I just want to know where there is a hug ACTIVE MUSLIM COMMUNITY (Practicing of COURSE). There are many like me searching. So yea, that is the point. Those who live in Muslim populated cities, please kindly share! It would be GREATLY appreciated insha Allah.

Ma’salama:)
LeighAnn

Hmm. Dallas or Houston? Is Houston mostly Shi’a or Sunni? Dallas?
http://mstrohl@eaglecom.net Marguerite Strohl

I am trying to understand the Muslim religion. Also am trying to locate my grand daughter, Brooke Michelle Alam. If you know of her whereabouts, then please contact me. She lives in Sugarland, I think, but I cannot locate anyone by the name Alam that is acquainted with her. Thank you for your help. I really do want to understand your religion.

http://muslimmatters.org/author/amad/ Amad

Marguerite,
If you have questions about Islam, feel free to post them here.

Hope to hear from you soon.
um mariam

Hi, Marguerite. I was so sorry to hear that you’ve lost touch with your granddaughter. Have you visited all the mosques in the area you believe she’s in? I think you should personally visit all the mosques in the area and show her picture to the people there, and leave it to be posted on the bulletin boards.

Do you know where Brooke’s father is from–city and country? Do you have his full name? Do you know where he was living and working when you were last in contact? Have you tried tracking him down? If he’s from an Arabic-speaking country, I could try having people contact his family for you.

Did you know that one of the rules of Islam is that Muslims must keep their family ties and stay in contact with their relatives? The only reason a Muslim would be allowed to break family ties would be to protect someone from harm. If Brooke’s parents have prevented her from seeing you without a reason, their action is clearly wrong and sinful, from the Islamic point of view. Perhaps you could try having an Islamic scholar speak with them about this issue. Grandparents and grandchildren are a treasure for each other, and that bond and relationship should not be broken without serious cause.

I wish you all the best. Please respond to my reply if you would like me to try to contact Brooke’s father’s family for you.

Sincerely, Um Mariam, from Dubai

http://muslimasisterhood@gmail.com Azizah

Salaams
In my experience most Muslims do not attend the masjids, so a small jumuah is not a reflection of how many Muslims there are, it just reflects how many are practicing -that day-.
Most of the Muslims in my area are undetectable unless you actually knew to ask them if they are Muslim, other than that, nothing else would tell them apart from anybody else, except for very few. Increasingly Muslims are trying not to stand out, so if you’re doing a headcount by head scarves or beards then you’re going to grossly underestimate the Muslim population.

I’m considering a move to Atlanta for grad school and possibly to permanently settle down because I was given the impression there was a large progressive Muslim population but I’m starting to question that. Even if there is a large Muslim population that doesn’t mean I’m going to feel at home because there could be a small practicing population. I want to find a diverse community that at least has a large practicing Muslim population.
http://www.IslamicAnswers.com Wael – IslamicAnswers.com

An estimate of 100,000 for the entire SF Bay Area is ridiculous. This area is heavily Muslim, with huge Muslim populations in many cities around the Bay including SF (Arabs and others), Santa Clara (Arabs, Indians and others), San Jose (large Indian community), Fremont (one of the largest Afghani communities in the West), Oakland (Palestinians, Yemenis and African-American Muslims everywhere), etc.

This region has scores of masjids, Islamic organizations of all kinds, an Islamic radio show, dozens of halal restaurants ranging from Pakistani to Thai to Chinese, halal butcher shops, independent Islamic bookstores.

I do not think that typical Muslim estimates of the U.S. Muslim population are inflated. I see Arabic names all the time now, in every field. And Islam has made serious inroads into the African-American population, to the point that many African-American Christian preachers have become quite alarmed. I’m quite sure that we outnumber Jews by a large margin, and they are estimated to be 6.5 million.
peaceforall

Greetings and salam to all,

Great thread and very informative! Peaches your info was very helpful. I live about an hour and 30 minutes NW of Atlanta and have been offered a job in Stockbridge/Riverdale/McDonough area but don’t know anyone living there. Have 2 small kids and would love to move to an area where there’s a mosque and an Islamic school, preferably. We considered moving to DFW or Houston but moving and uprooting is not that easy in my field.

I know of some nice Muslim populated Nothern ATL metro areas including Marietta, Smyrna, Kenessaw, Alpharetta, Roswell, Swanee, Lilburn etc but the commute to south of ATL will be a bear and hence not a reality taking into account the notorius traffic. If someone reading this post lives in that area and is/was in the same boat as I am, I ld love to hear from them. Any help, however, is welcome. This would ease our confusion as we try to take the best possible decision for our family.

Wasalam.
http://www.averagemuslim.com AsimG

Whatever the numbers are, we gotta fight to maintain and grow them.

The Youth, The Youth, The Youth.
Tanvir Ansari

I have lived in Chicago,San Francisco,NYC-NJ, Detroit, Dallas, Houston & now recently moved to Atlanta. My passion is to roam around eat at halal restaurants, pray at different mosques driving length and breadth of city and outskirts as well.

My opinion:
1) NYC/NJ has huge muslim population, so I am okay with 1 million count for NY/NJ/CT/PA whole state.

2)MI/IN/OH- Detroit again is huge as large afro-american community & whole of Dearborn. so again 500K.

3)CA/NV/AZ/WA/OR/AK – SF/LA/Bay Area huge muslim, again 1 Million is an okay number here for these 4 states.

4)IL/WI/IO – Again lot of muslim here in Chicago & suburbs, total for the state 500K

4)Texas/FL/LA/MO/OK – Huge growing Muslim community, and a very much practicing Muslim community, big mosques, big Islamic schools, big Sunni community, big Shia community, big Ismaili’s – I will put the number of muslim here to be 500K for whole of Texas/FL. Most vibrant community of all I have seen in US is in Dallas Fortworth (Irving, Plano, Richardson, MCKinney) & Houston

5)GA/NE/MS/AL/TN- I have been going to different mosques here, and really speaking I find it hard that Atlanta has more than 20K muslims (I am including Apharetta, Roswell, Metro Atlanta even Chattanooga). Whole of Georgia, I will say wont be more than 30K then. For the 4 states, I will put the count to be 100K

6) All VA/MD/DC/NC/SC may be 500K as there is again sizable population here.

7) Rest of US, I will say add 500K more.

Also I have not much gone in the African-American/Mexican neighborhood, so I expect them to be 1-1.5 Million+ in addition to what I have already counted.

So my guess is muslim population is~ 6 million, but since most of them are just immigrant an in age group of 20-30, hence it will really double up in next 10 years for sure.
Rinat Ki

Assalyamu Aleykum Wa RahmatuLaah

Dear brothers and sisters let me ask you question which has been asked repeatedly many times InshaLaah. I live in area where there is almost no muslims at all. So my main intention, idea i want to move anywhere, to any place as long as it has big, practicing muslim community. All i want is just to live among muslims, practice my religion, be helpful for community, study and spread Islam. I’ve been looking for this kind of place for a very long time but so far at every internet sourse there are different numbers,fact etc. Plus I’m very young and came overhere from another country. So i’m just looking for muslim community to be in.
May Allah Subhana Wa Ta’alya help us, guide us on right path.
Jazzaka Laahu Khair
Assalyamu Aleykum
Pingback: Battle on dallas vs. Houston - Texas (TX) - Page 34 - City-Data Forum
http://www.alihsaan.com Madinah

Assalaam ‘alaykum warahmatullah wabarakatuh.

Does anybody know how diverse Houston or Dallas are as far as the Muslim community goes? (in terms of ethnic groups). I really like diversity and I’m trying to move out to either of these places because I have heard a lot that there are a lot of practicing Muslims there. Of course I’m planning on making more research insha Allah. I would also like to know if anyone knows the population of women wearing the niqab in Houston or Dallas. I mean to ask if it is something widely accepted there or not (or if there are many women wearing it).

Jazak Allahu khayr.
Ismail Abdur-Raheem

As-Salaam Alikium, I’m currently living in Sacramento CA but I am planning to move out of the area. I am looking for the best city to move to which has a great community and business savvy people to work with. The cost of living must be good and the community mixed with different people. Please everyone give your reasoning on why your city would be a good fit for me.
Abdul

@TanvirAnsari – I live in the Atlanta metro area and wanted to comment on your posting. There are over 40 masjids in the Atlanta area. Unlike Houston and other cities, there is no single umbrella organization that oversees the various masajids. Either the masjid operates independently or maybe be integrated with one or two other masjids in the area. Therefore, the existence of masjids and muslims is not as great unless you live in areas where there are established Muslim communities. There is also a very diverse muslim population in Atlanta. Beliieve it or not, the largest ethinicity of muslims in this area are African Americans. (Other larger ethic groups include Arabs, South Asians, Persians, Turkish, Bosnians, Somalis, and Ethopians.) If you have ever spent time in areas south of downtown (Dekalb county and South Fulton County), you will see that there are a number of businesses and religious institutions that are very well established. These communities have been around since before muslim immigrants from Asia, Africa, and other parts of the world began to settle in this area. That area alone has a muslim population of 30 or 50 K. If you combine that with the muslims that live in Cobb, North Fulton, Dekalb, and Gwinnett, you are easily over 100K, just in Atlanta. That’s just 4 of the 25 counties making up Atlanta metro.

To elaborate furher on these numbers, let’s just take Eid Salah attendance throughout the area:

North Atlanta Trade Center = over 10K
Alpharetta/Roswell = over 5K
Gwinnett Civic Center = over 10K
Lakewood = over 20K

Larger masjid Eid prayers:
Masjid Al-Islam = over 5K
Masjid Al-Farooq = over 5K
Masjid Ash-Shura = over 2K

These are just some of the places where a large number of people go for Eid Salah (and ones that I can recall). Adding these numbers up puts you right around 60K and only covers less than 1/4 of the metro area. Even if you double that number for the remaining 3/4 of the metro area, you are over 100K just for Atlanta. I would even go out on a limb and estimate that the Muslim population just within the Atlanta metro area is close to or over 200K.

Certainly if you combine with other cities in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi, you are closer to 200K, rather than 100K as you state in your post.

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