Dr Paul Allen

English: Kaaba at the heart of Mecca. As the night goes on pilgrims visiting the Holy House. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Islam is the second largest religion in the world. In 1995 about 1,122,661,000 Muslims inhabited this planet. Count the commas, folks—that’s a billion plus a hundred million. That means of every living person, one in five is a Muslim. As citizens of what is yet a superpower, we tend not to notice the worldwide Islamic population, of which merely sixteen percent are Arabs. But this blindness to our situation needs to change, not only so we can be more aware of the need for foreign missions, but so we can be aware of the needs of our neighbors. Islam is moving to where you live. And it looks like it is here to stay. Islam and Early America After the United States was founded, Islam had more influence than many would expect on certain segments of the population. For example, after being converted to Christianity, the Virginia statesman John Randolph of Roanoke