Arabs comprise only a small minority of American Muslims (12.45 percent) and are far outnumbered by groups from the Indian subcontinent (24.4 percent).42 A 2004 survey conducted for the Muslims in the American Public Square project estimated that 20 percent of the Muslims in the United States are converts, most of whom are African American.43 Finally, the proportion of youth among Muslim populations in Europe is generally far higher than the proportion
among the population as a whole.44 Their levels of unemployment tend to increase the unemployment rate among Muslim populations in general, in part because youth unemployment is always higher than the mean. Indeed, what is sometimes referred to as the “youth bulge” has been understood in both positive and negative ways. Second- and third-generation Muslim youth help to alleviate the demographic deficit now endemic in Europe, bolster programs of the welfare state that are increasingly
Table 1 The Muslim Population in Various Countries (in thousands)
106
Country
Number of People from Muslim Countries or Estimated as Muslim
Year
Percentage of Population
France Netherlands United Kingdom Germany Italy Belgium Sweden Denmark Norway Spain Greece Europe 15 United States
4,150 945 1,600 3,000 825 355 351 250 73 485 370 12,000-15,000 1,100-6,000
1998 2004 2001 2004 2003 2003 2003 2005 2003 2003 1990s 1990s 2000
7% 5.8% 2.8% 3.6% 1.4% 3.4% 3.9% 5.0% 1.6% 1.1% 3.7% 3-3.2% +/-1.0%-2%
Sources: American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), 2001, Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), 2001; Césari, When Islam and Democracy Meet: Muslims in Europe and in the United States (New York: Palgrave, 2004), pp. 9-11, p. 221, pp. 181-182; U.K. Muslim population—Office for National Statistics, 2001 figures; German Federal Statistical Office, 2004 figures; Muslim population—Federal Ministry of the Interior estimate; Muslim population—Statistics Netherlands, 2004 figures; BBC News, Muslims in Europe: A Country Guide, December 2005.