Islam - Its Meaning for Modern Man — Page 363
363 the Pacific. Beginning with north-western Africa, the indigenous populations of Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria are wholly Muslim. Libya, Egypt, Northern Sudan, coastal Eritrea, and Somaliland, are almost wholly Muslim, the Coptic minority in Egypt being the only notable exception. No census has been taken in Ethiopia, where the Amharic section of the population is in a position of dominance, but it is estimated that the Muslims constitute nearly half the total population. Along the west coast of Africa, Mauretania, Senegal, Mali, and Guinea are largely Muslim; Gambia, Sierra Leone, and Ghana have sizable Muslim populations; northern Nigeria is largely Muslim. There is a scattering of Muslims in most of the other neighbouring countries. Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Muscat, and the Arab sheikdoms along the southern and eastern seaboard of Arabia and along the Persian Gulf are wholly Muslim. Israel has a small Muslim minority. Lebanon has, officially, a Christian majority, but no census has been taken in recent years, and the Muslims claim that owing to their higher birth rate and their lower emigration from the country as compared with the Christian population, they are now in a majority. Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan are almost wholly Muslim. There are fifty million Muslims in India. Bangladesh is seventy-five per cent