President Obama’s statement that the U.S. could be considered one of the largest Muslim countries in the world has caused some commentators to note just how low we rank in terms of Muslim population. For example, Noah Pollak lists dozens of countries with more Muslims than the U.S has. So Obama was incorrect to say “one of the largest.”
More fundamentally, I think, Obama was wrong to say “Muslim countries.” The U.S. could have 23.5 million Muslims instead of the estimated 2.35 we actually are thought to have. That still would not make us a Muslim country, although it probably would place us under great pressure to become one.
JOHN adds: Michael Ramirez chimes in; click to enlarge:
JOHN adds more: In another universe, we can imagine President Obama noting that the U.S. is one of the largest Jewish countries in the world. We have 5 or 6 million Jews here, about the same as Israel. But what political purpose would that serve?
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