# What's the Largest Islamic Country... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 21, 2011, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-islamic-country/572107 "2011-02-21T12:56:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-islamic-country/572107/1 "2011-02-21T12:56:58Z")
…with fewer Muslims than the US? I ask because of Ayatollah Khameni’s recent jab that America shouldn’t have a voice in the Islamic world, and our considerable Islamic population might preclude that from happening. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-islamic-country/572107/2 "2011-02-21T13:00:45Z")
The first challenge is to figure out how many Muslims live in America. I’ve seen estimates ranging from 1.5 million to 7 million depending on the source and their particular axe to grind. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-islamic-country/572107/3 "2011-02-21T13:04:04Z")
What do you mean by “Islamic country”? Do you mean a theocracy where Muslim clerics rule? A country in which Islam is the established (official) religion? Or just a secular country that happens to have a lot of Muslim citizens? ---
**Author:** ![Bartman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@Bartman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bartman)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-islamic-country/572107/4 "2011-02-21T13:24:25Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > The first challenge is to figure out how many Muslims live in America. I’ve seen estimates ranging from 1.5 million to 7 million depending on the source and their particular axe to grind. So somewhere between #27 Tajikistan and #42 Bahrain. Basically somewhere in the range of Sierra Leone, Libya, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Chad, Lebanon, Kuwait, Albania, Mauritania, Oman, Kosovo, and The Gambia. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-islamic-country/572107/5 "2011-02-21T14:06:05Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > What do you mean by “Islamic country”? Do you mean a theocracy where Muslim clerics rule? A country in which Islam is the established (official) religion? Or just a secular country that happens to have a lot of Muslim citizens? Given the context of comparing it to the US, I’d say the OP is probably just asking for the country with the largest number of Muslims. But I agree its confusing, I usually think of an Islamic country as one where Islam has some official status in the gov’t. Anyhoo, the country with the most Muslims is Indonesia. Interestingly despite the fact that we usually think of Muslims as being Middle Eastern Arabs, the top four countries by Muslim population aren’t predomenantly Arab or in the Middle East. As with all things [wikipedia has a list](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_population) ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-islamic-country/572107/6 "2011-02-21T14:32:49Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Given the context of comparing it to the US, I’d say the OP is probably just asking for the country with the largest number of Muslims. Well, by that definition the US is also an Islamic country, but the way the OP is phrased implies (s)he doesn’t consider it to be one. So I thought I’d ask for clarification. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-islamic-country/572107/7 "2011-02-21T15:02:17Z")
I read the OP as saying that _Ayatollah Khamenei_ doesn’t consider the US an Islamic country, at the same time as considering countries with a smaller number of Islamic citizens to be Islamic countries. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-islamic-country/572107/8 "2011-02-21T15:13:59Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Interestingly despite the fact that we usually think of Muslims as being Middle Eastern Arabs, the top four countries by Muslim population aren’t predomenantly Arab or in the Middle East. Furthermore, of the top eight Muslim countries, only one is Arab (Egypt). ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-islamic-country/572107/9 "2011-02-21T15:32:46Z")
When it is asked as a trivia question such as “name the four largest Muslim countries by population”, remember Indonesia. By absolute population, rather than percentage, it ranks first with 202 million according to that wiki list. Also remember India and Bangladesh. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-islamic-country/572107/10 "2011-02-21T17:44:57Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Given the context of comparing it to the US, I’d say the OP is probably just asking for the country with the largest number of Muslims. No, the question appears to be the largest predominantly Muslim country that is still smaller in aggregate Muslim population than the U.S. population of Muslims. **Bartman** has the best stab at an answer so far. Since we have no accurate number of the Muslims in the U.S. ( the census doesn’t track that data ), there is no way to give a fully accurate answer. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-islamic-country/572107/11 "2011-02-21T17:52:52Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > As with all things [wikipedia has a list](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_population) I’m very surprised to note that Italy has almost no muslim population (grand total of 36 000). Learn something every day. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-islamic-country/572107/12 "2011-02-21T18:07:18Z")
So the answer to this question would be Kosovo, by Wikipedia/Pew Report’s list, by total population (not percent.) Albania, Oman, and Lebanon would be close. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2011, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-islamic-country/572107/13 "2011-02-22T04:48:26Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > I read the OP as saying that _Ayatollah Khamenei_ doesn’t consider the US an Islamic country, at the same time as considering countries with a smaller number of Islamic citizens to be Islamic countries. Yes, I apologize for not being clear on this. As a percentage of the population (just under 1% according to that Wiki chart), American Muslims don’t exactly steer our national policy, but in terms of absolute numbers, there are more Muslims in the US than in many Muslim-majority nations. I was just looking for some useful context, and I believe I’ve found it. Frankly, I’d thought there were more Muslims than that in the US. Northern Virginia, where I lived for a long time, has a large and vibrant Muslim population, but not, it seems, one statistically representative of the US as a whole.