A July 28th mass shooting in New York City took the life of NYPD Officer Didarul Islam. An immigrant from Bangladesh, Islam was also a dad and husband. His widow gave birth to their third son two days ago. This is poignant in so many ways. I don’t know your experience with New Yorkers or policemen, but I’ve enjoyed interacting with almost all of the Bengalis I’ve met. They’ve been kind, hospitable, funny and beautiful. May God pour out grace and favor on this suffering family and the Bengali community in New York, the largest in the nation.
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Pew Research says it’s official: Islam was the fastest growing world religion from 2010 to 2020. In that time span, “Christians [grew] by 122 million, reaching 2.3 billion. Yet, as a share of the world’s population, Christians fell 1.8 percentage points, to 28.8%.” Muslims “increased by 347 million. The share of the world’s population that is Muslim rose by 1.8 points, to 25.6%.” Christianity declined in percentage largely due to disaffiliation, while Muslims grew largely due to fertility rates. At present rates, there will be more Muslims than Christians by 2070. What are we to make of this?
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Finally, I have a budding friendship with a Muslim man who’s been part of the Muslim Connect tribe for a long time and spends some of his days helping Christians understand Muslims. We’re getting together for coffee for the first time tomorrow. I’m already building a list of questions I’d like to ask him, but would love to hear your thoughts. What would you like me to ask this new friend?