How Many Jews Live In Muslim Countries?
I have allowed a Muslim reader to leave a number of comments broadcasting the lie that Muslims are very tolerant of the faithful of other religions including Jews by mentioning that there are x number of churches and y number of synagogues in this and that Muslim country.
I should have responded sooner, but here is my reply:
The presence of churches or synagogues only proves that before they became Muslim-majority these countries once had significant numbers of Christians and Jews. For example, in my article It is a Lie that Turkey Has a Lot of Churches, we noted that the Turkish Government lists hundreds and hundreds of churches; however most are in ruins and not active. Turkey also lists a hundred or so Greek Orthodox churches, a number which would make one assume that there are tens or hundreds of thousands of Greek Orthodox adherents - actually there are only a few thousand, barely enough left to fill up one or two churches.
So, Ahmed, let's not brag about deserted, abandoned, and decaying synagogues, instead let us consider how many Jews actually live in Muslim-majority countries.
According to the Pew Research Center study The Future of the Global Muslim Population, there are 49 countries in which Muslims comprise more than 50% of the population. Left out of the list is Cocos Islands (80% Muslim) because it is not a country but rather a territory of Australia.
Here is the list of countries, the percentage of Muslims (as of 2010), and the number of Jews living in those countries [Jewish Population numbers courtesy Wikipedia]:
| COUNTRY | % Muslim | Number of Jews |
|---|---|---|
| Afghanistan | 99.8 | 1 |
| Albania | 82.1 | 45 |
| Algeria | 98.2 | 0 |
| Azerbaijan | 98.4 | 16,000 |
| Bahrain | 81.2 | 30 |
| Bangladesh | 90.4 | 0 |
| Brunei | 51.9 | 0 |
| Burkina Faso | 58.9 | 0 |
| Chad | 55.7 | 0 |
| Comoros | 98.3 | 0 |
| Djibouti | 97.0 | 0 |
| Egypt | 94.7 | 50 |
| Eritrea | 80.0 | 0 |
| Gambia | 95.3 | 0 |
| Gaza Strip | 99.3 | 0 |
| Guinea | 84.2 | 0 |
| Indonesia | 88.1 | 20 |
| Iran | 99.6 | 8,756 |
| Iraq | 98.9 | 20 |
| Jordan | 98.8 | 0 |
| Kazakhstan | 56.4 | 18,000 |
| Kosovo | 91.7 | 0 |
| Kuwait | 86.4 | 0 |
| Kyrgyzstan | 88.8 | 0 |
| Lebanon | 59.7 | 40 |
| Libya | 96.6 | 0 |
| Malaysia | 61.4 | 0 |
| Maldives | 98.4 | 0 |
| Mali | 92.4 | 0 |
| Mauritania | 99.2 | 0 |
| Mayotte | 98.8 | 0 |
| Morocco | 99.9 | 8,000 |
| Niger | 98.3 | 0 |
| Oman | 87.7 | 0 |
| Pakistan | 96.4 | 0 |
| Qatar | 77.5 | 0 |
| Saudi Arabia | 97.1 | 0 |
| Senegal | 95.9 | 0 |
| Sierra Leone | 71.5 | 0 |
| Somalia | 98.6 | 0 |
| Sudan | 71.4 | 0 |
| Syria | 92.8 | 100 |
| Tajikistan | 99.0 | 900 |
| Tunisia | 99.8 | 700 |
| Turkey | 98.6 | 25,000 |
| Turkmenistan | 93.3 | 700 |
| United Arab Emirates | 76.0 | 0 |
| Uzbekistan | 96.5 | 5,000 |
| Western Sahara | 99.6 | 0 |
| Yemen | 99.0 | 150 |
Those of my readers with a calculator handy will quickly find that the total number of Jews in all 49 Muslim-majority nations comes out to 83,512. Out of a billion population in those 49 countries we have a little over 83 thousand Jews. They must not be very welcoming to Jews.
How does teeny, tiny Israel do in regard to welcoming Muslims? Out of 8 million inhabitants, there are more than 1.3 million Muslims. That is, there are 1,945 times more Muslims in Israel, than Jews in Muslim countries. Please, Ahmed, no more lies about how Muslims have warm & fuzzy feelings for Jews. Here is why there are so few Jews left in Muslim countries:
CBS News, 10 Oct 2011, Post-Qaddafi, Jews still not welcome in Libya
The history of Jews in Libya stretches back 2,300 years, but about 40 years ago, former dictator Muammar Qaddafi kicked them all out, and demonized Israel and Judaism to further his populist support.
...
David Gerbi, a 56-year-old psychoanalyst living in Italy, was referred to by many as the "revolutionary Jew." He returned to his homeland after a 44-year exile recently, and wanted to restore Tripoli's long-abandoned main synagogue. The day he knocked down a wall blocking its entrance, he said a prayer and cried, according to the Associated Press.
"What Qaddafi tried to do is to eliminate the memory of us. He tried to eliminate the amazing language. He tried to eliminate the religion of the Jewish people," Gerbi told the AP at the time. "I want bring our legacy back, I want to give a chance to the Jewish of Libya to come back."
Gerbi said all he wanted was dialogue, but apparently even that is too much to ask a population still seething with resentment for all things Jew.
First, Gerbi was blocked from continuing his restoration efforts by men who claimed violence would ensue if he kept trying, according to the AP. Gerbi said at the time that Libya needed to decide if it would be a racist or a democratic society.
Then, on the eve of Yom Kippur this year, an angry mob of a few hundred gathered at the hotel where Gerbi was staying, according to the Jerusalem Post. News of his synagogue-restoration efforts had spread, and they wanted him deported, carrying signs that read things like "There is no place for the Jews in Libya," and "We don't have a place for Zionism."
...
On Sunday, to help cool the anger, Gerbi said he was returning to Italy.
"What happened reveals the extent of Gaddafi's anti-Semitic conditioning of an entire generation, those in their forties and fifties. Forty-two years of lies, of hate propaganda falsely accusing Jews of having been paid off to abandon the country in 1967, of having robbed Palestinians of their homes and of planning to colonize Libya," Gerbi told the Post.
