The long-anticipated demographic change was highlighted last week with the release of a new study estimating the Muslim population of the United States at 7 million. Muslims in the United States. If true, it would mean that American Muslims already outnumber American Jews, whose population is estimated at 6 million. Christianity, of course, has by far the largest number of followers in the United States.
Jewish leaders say the change represents both challenges and opportunities.
Muslims may be adversaries to Jews in framing America's Mideast policy in the Middle East, but they also are potential allies in efforts to strengthen the separation of church and state and to defend the rights of religious and ethnic minorities. Critics also point out that some of the Muslim organizations that sponsored the study, such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations, have an incentive to pad the numbers because they are trying to increase their political clout in Washington. American Muslims are not all Arab or even, necessarily, sympathetic to their co-religionists in the Middle East. As members of minority religions and ethnicities, Jews and Muslims share certain interests, some Jewish leaders say. The potential for Jewish-Muslim cooperation has largely gone untapped so far, but there have been some alliances at the local level.