I should have noted in my post below that the 5-to-7-million American Muslims estimate was one of the higher-end estimates. Estimating the Muslim Population in the United States by Tom W. Smith of the National Opinion Research Center (2001) reports that
The best, adjusted, survey-based estimates put the adult Muslim population in 2000 at 0.67 percent or 1,401,000, and the total Muslim population at 1,886,000. Even if high-side estimates based on local surveys, figures from mosques, and ancestry and immigration statistics are given more weight than the survey-based numbers, it is hard to accept estimates that Muslims are greater than 1 percent of the population (2,090,000 adults or 2,814,000 total).
I haven't examined the matter closely myself, so I don't have a truly informed opinion. But to my knowledge, Smith is quite well-regarded in the field, and is the director of the very well-regarded General Social Survey. So at the very least the 5 to 7 million American Muslims figure should be viewed with some skepticism, recognizing that the number might be 2 to 3 million instead.
UPDATE: Thanks to commenter wm13, here's a 2007 Pew Research Report estimating the number at about 2.35 million. Pew, like the GSS, is a well-regarded survey organization, which to my knowledge has no axe to grind on this issue.
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/483/muslim-americans
The bottom line is, the earth is more than 6000 years old, and there are not 5 million (or even 3 million) Muslims in the United States.
Maybe they used the same methodology as they used to get their attendance totals for the “Million Man March.”
I want that job, man. Nothin' better than a plate full of fatoush, with garlic chicken, washed down with some carrot juice, and maybe some balaclava to finish up... mmmmmmm.
What I have always found entertaining about the Nation is that it was Muslim Arab traders who initially captured and sold Africans into slavery in large numbers.
Islam in America
Islam in Chicago The estimated population of Muslims in Cook and the collar counties is 350,000, almost 5% of the total population of the region.
(Neither source is unbiased, and the comment was still pretty silly, but Chicago is also the place that claims more Poles than Poland, which also isn't true.)
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