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Islam overtakes Catholicism as the world's biggest faith

Islam has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the biggest single religious denomination in the world, according to new figures.

In its newly-released 2008 yearbook of statistics, the Vatican claims Muslims now make up 19.2 per cent of the world's population with Catholics at 17.4 per cent.

Bashir Maan, convenor of the Muslim Council of Scotland, said that people were attracted to the religion looking for "spiritualism". He conceded that recent terror attacks had turned many people against Islam – but added the religion had benefited from other people studying the religion to find out its true message.

"These people are discovering a tolerant and accommodating religion," he said.

A spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland said it was important to look beyond the figures.

"While it is a little unseemly to swap figures, a more realistic comparison would be between the Christian population of the world and the Muslim population, a comparison which would show the Christian world to be significantly bigger," he said.

He added: "Christianity and Islam are both 'religions of the Book' – they share their origins in the Old Testament – and although there are some hot spots of tension in the world, there is also a wide area of common concern for Christians and Muslims, especially on such issues as the family and the sacredness of life."

Full story at The Scotsman.