Is Islam synonymous to Arab or Arabism?

[sun]

As an atheist (non-Arab) brought up as a Muslim I would like to ask, do you have any idea about the ignorance of 99 percent of the Islamic population?
First: ninety nine percent of Muslims are non-Arabs. Secondly, they do not speak or understand Arabic language; these majorities believe that anything Arabic is automatically and unequivocally Islamic, have no idea that close to fifty percent of Arabs themselves are not Muslims. Do you see the parallelism between Martin Luther King’s rebellions from the Roman Church that used Latin as the only language of God for the Roman Church!

[Rayaan]

First: ninety nine percent of Muslims are non-Arabs. Secondly, they do not speak or understand Arabic language; these majorities believe that anything Arabic is automatically and unequivocally Islamic, have no idea that close to fifty percent of Arabs themselves are not Muslims. Do you see the parallelism between Martin Luther King’s rebellions from the Roman Church that used Latin as the only language of God for the Roman Church!

Yes, being a Muslim doesn't equal to being an Arab. I'm not an Arab either. Arab is a race and Islam is a religion. But, I think everyone here already knows that.

[Dotard]

I learn sumthin' new everyday.

I didn't know that. I would have guessed 80 or so % of Islamics are Arabs.

But 99% are non-arabs? Is that an accurate number or 99% was just for dramatic effect?

[reverendjeremiah]

As an atheist (non-Arab) brought up as a Muslim I would like to ask, do you have any idea about the ignorance of 99 percent of the Islamic population?
First: ninety nine percent of Muslims are non-Arabs. Secondly, they do not speak or understand Arabic language; these majorities believe that anything Arabic is automatically and unequivocally Islamic, have no idea that close to fifty percent of Arabs themselves are not Muslims. Do you see the parallelism between Martin Luther King’s rebellions from the Roman Church that used Latin as the only language of God for the Roman Church!

Things like that are very foreign to us in America

[Rev. Rye]

I learn sumthin' new everyday.

I didn't know that. I would have guessed 80 or so % of Islamics are Arabs.

But 99% are non-arabs? Is that an accurate number or 99% was just for dramatic effect?

Well, I heard the percentage of Muslims that are Arab is actually closer to 20% (Thank you Cracked, and the Pew report you linked to), much lower if you don't count the African countries as Middle East. That said, I'm pretty sure that the Middle East is the region with the highest number of Muslims per capita. I know that, however, a huge incidence (about 93%) of Islam within the Arab ethnicity.

For the record, the Pew Report is here, and the Cracked article (if you want something less dry) is here.

[Zen Badger]

You might find this interesting

http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-ten...s-map.html

1/Pakistan @ 150,365,000

2/India @ 122,570,000

3/Indonesia@ 116,105,000

4/Bangaladesh @ 110,849,000

and finally...

Turkey @ 64,714,000

[Anomalocaris]

IIRC, Arabism either refer to movement in western art and architecture that is inspired by motifs and styles seen in arabic mosques or koranic art, Or a 20th century secular political movement with the objective of uniting the Arabs under a single secular nation. Arabism may perhaps be equated to Pan-Germanism of 19th century, or many other movements that seeks to unit people speaking a common language under a single government. Both of which has nothing to do with Islam.

[Rokcet Scientist]

I learn sumthin' new everyday.

I didn't know that. I would have guessed 80 or so % of Islamics are Arabs.

But 99% are non-arabs? Is that an accurate number or 99% was just for dramatic effect?

Well, I heard the percentage of Muslims that are Arab is actually closer to 20% (Thank you Cracked, and the Pew report you linked to), much lower if you don't count the African countries as Middle East. That said, I'm pretty sure that the Middle East is the region with the highest number of Muslims per capita. I know that, however, a huge incidence (about 93%) of Islam within the Arab ethnicity.

For the record, the Pew Report is here, and the Cracked article (if you want something less dry) is here.

Indonesia is by far the largest muslim country in the world. 95% of its population is muslim. That's 226 million muslims.

From Wikipedia:

The majority of Muslims live in Asia and Africa. Approximately 62% of the world's Muslims live in Asia, with over 683 million adherents in Indonesia, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. In the Middle East, non-Arab countries such as Turkey and Iran are the largest Muslim-majority countries; in Africa, Egypt and Nigeria have the most populous Muslim communities.

Most estimates indicate that the People's Republic of China has approximately 20 to 30 million Muslims (1.5% to 2% of the population). However, data provided by the San Diego State University's International Population Center to U.S. News & World Report suggests that China has 65.3 million Muslims.

I.o.w. Arabs (a culture, not a race) are a minority in islam. Also: not all Arabs are muslim. E.g. 10% of Egyptians (8 million) are coptic christians. And have been for far longer than islam exists at all.

However, most of the rabidly aggressive fundamentalist/orthodox muslims (a.k.a. islamists) are currently Arab Salavists/Wahabis (the creed of the Saudi royal family..., so where the money comes from; and – get this – the Saudi royal family [5,600 'princes'] are thick with the US administration!!!). I.o.w. only a small single-digit percentage of all muslims are aggressive and dangerous to other believers and non-believers. SO DON'T CONDEMN ALL MUSLIMS! The great majority of them couldn't care less what you or I believe (or don't). They just want to be left alone and get on with their lives, which is difficult enough as it is.

[Edwardo Piet]

To answer the OP title:

No. Islam is not synonymous to being Arabic.

And, moreover, it wouldn't even be synonymous if 100% of Muslims were Arabic. Because if any non-Arab were to convert to Islam, they'd become a Muslim.

Religion and race are apart. And that point needs to be made more clear to people.

[everythingafter]

As an atheist (non-Arab) brought up as a Muslim I would like to ask, do you have any idea about the ignorance of 99 percent of the Islamic population?

Yes. And no to the original question.