Agriculture

Demographic Review along with Status of Muslims and Pakistan in the World

Introduction:

Demography is the study of human populations. Various aspects of human behavior in populations are studied in sociology, economics and geography. The study of world human population is very important and quite knowledgeable. At present the human population of the world as estimated by the United States Census Bureau to be 6,820,200,000.1 The world population is growing continuously since the end of the Black Death around 1400.2 The Black Death was one the deadliest pandemics in human history, thought to have been an outbreak of bubonic plague caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, is estimated to have killed 30% to 60% of Europe’s population, reducing the world’s population from 450 million to 350 million in 1400.3 The fastest rates of world population growth i.e., 1.8% per year were seen briefly during the 1950’s then for a longer period during the 1960’s and 1870’s. In 2008 rate of growth has almost halved since its peak of 2.2% per year, which was reached in 1963.4 The rapid increase in human population over the course of the 20th century has raised concerns about whether Earth is experiencing overpopulation. The scientific consensus is that the current population expansion and accompanying increase in usage of resources are linked to threats to ecosystem, such as rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, global warming and pollution.5

First 15 populous nations of the world:

Approximately 4.54 billion people live in these fifteen countries, listed below representing roughly two thirds (66.7%) of world’s population. The adult literacy rates mentioned are made available through targeted efforts by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics (UIS) April 2007 assessment, that combines direct national estimates with recent estimates based on its Global age-specific literacy projections model developed in 2007.

Rank

Country

Literacy Rate

Population

% of world population

1

China

93.3%

1.3374 Billion

19.61

2

India

66%

1.1804 Billion

17.31

3

United States

99%

309.24 Million

4.53

4

Indonesia

92%

231.36 Million

3.39

5

Brazil

90%

192.88 Million

2.83

6

Pakistan

49.9%

169.46 Million

2.48

7

Bangladesh

47.5%

162.22 Million

2.38

8

Nigeria

69.1%

154.72 Million

2.27

9

Russia

99.5%

141.92 Million

2.08

10

Japan

99%

127.53 Million

1.87

11

Mexico

92.8%

107.55 Million

1.58

12

Philippines

93.4%

92.22   Million

1.35

13

Vietnam

90.3%

85.78   Million

1.26

14

Germany

99%

81.88   Million

1.2

15

Ethiopia

35.9%

79.22   Million

1.16

 

Distribution by region:

Asia accounts for over 60% of the world population. China and India together have about 40% of the world’s population. Remaining figures are clearly seen in table below.

Rank

Continent

Population

% of world’s population

1

Asia

3.8 Billion

60

2

Africa

840 Million

12

3

Europe

710 Million

11

4

North America

514 Million

8

5

South America

371 Million

5.3

6

Australia

21   Million

o.3

Distribution and history of religious populations:

In world cultures, there have traditionally been many different groupings of religious belief. In India and China, different religious philosophies were traditionally respected as academic differences in pursuit of the same truth. In Islam, the Quran mentions three different categories: Muslims, the people of the book, and idol worshipers. To some extent these theories of religiousness are still prevalent today.

Religions or beliefs with over 5 million adherents are mentioned in the table below along with their religious text, when founded, holy city with their afterlife belief.6 The number of adherents to organized religions in the world is difficult to accurately ascertain. Around 15% of the world’s population does not claim any allegiance to a religion, consisting of atheists, humanists and agnostics.

Christianity includes Orthodox Christianity, Catholic Church and Protestantism.

Islam includes Shia Islam, Sufism and Sunni Islam.

Buddhism includes Theravada and Mahayana.

Hinduism includes Vaishnavites and Shaivites.

The Irreligious section includes Humanism, Agnosticism, freethinkers, bright and others who hold a naturalistic worldview.

Traditional religion includes Polytheism, Shamanism, Pantheism and Animism.

Chinese Folk Religion consists of Taoism and Confucianism.

Abrahamic religions are by far the largest group, and these consist mainly of Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Bahai faiths. They are named for the patriarch Abraham, and are unified by the practice of monotheism.(believers of one God)  Today around 3.7 billion people are followers of Abrahamic religions and are spread widely around the world.7

 

Rank

Religion

population

Religious text

Type

Holy city

Founded

Afterlife

1

Christianity

2.1 billion

Bible*3

Abrahamic

Vatican City

Israel,1st century

Eternal hell, heaven and temporal purgatory

2

Islam

1.57 billion

Quran*4

Abrahamic

Mecca

Saudi Arabia, around 610

Eternal hell and heaven

3

Buddhism

1.5 billion

Tripiaka

Dharmic

Bodh Gaya

5th century B.C. Nepal

Reincar nation without a soul

4

Hinduism

1 billion

Vedas

Dharmic

Varanasi

Around 1700-1100 B.C. North India

Reincar- nation until enlightenment

5

Irreligious/atheism/deism

1 billion

none

N/A

none

N/A

none

6

Traditional religion/Animism/Shamanism

457 million

 

 

 

 

 

7

Chinese folk religion

400 million

 

Taoic

 

 

 

8

Sikhism

25 million

Guru Granth Sahib

Dharmic

Amritsar

Around 1490, Punjab

Reincar- nation until Karma

9

Spiritism

18 million

 

 

 

 

 

10

Judaism

17 million

Torah*2

Abrahamic

Jerusalem

Around 1500 B.C.

Symbolic heaven and hell

11

Baha’i

9 million

Aqdas*1

Abrahamic

Acre

Iran, in 1844

Symbolic heaven and hell

12

Shinto

8 million

Taoic

 

 

 

 

*Four Holy books in the order of sequence.

Muslim World:

Total countries in the world are around 242 out of which 57 are Muslim countries and their population in the world is 1.57 billion, which is 23% of world’s population. On an average, only 55% of this population is educated. The Muslim experience comprises of a golden era, from the tenth to thirteenth century A.D, and an ensuing collapse. It was at the turn of the nineteenth century that Muslims took a dynamic, though stumbling course towards wielding science. The period 900 to 1200 A.D. represents the approximate apogee of Muslim science, which flourished in Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo and Cordoba among other cities. Major progress was made in areas such as medicine, agronomy, botany, mathematics, chemistry and optics. When Muslims vied with Chinese for intellectual and scientific leadership, Europe was lagging far behind the two.

The economic progress of any developing nation relies mostly on its Science and Technology base and its application to the major segments of Agriculture, Transport, Industry, Education, Health and Environment. Only in petroleum industry, which after 1914 took on major proportions in Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, made the difference. The current level of efforts in science and technology in Muslim countries is much below then desired. The total stock of science and technology manpower, of the Muslim world is presently reported to be about 7.6 million, which represents only 3.7% of the worlds science & technology manpower. At present Muslim world is lagging far behind in education just for example USA has 5758 universities, India touches the number to 8407. None of Muslim Universities are among the top five Universities of the world. The Muslims should follow the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) complement the foregoing teachings of the Quran in the following way: “Scholars should endeavor to spread knowledge and provide education to people who have been deprived of it. For, where knowledge is hidden it disappears.”

Muslim Nobel Prize Winners:

Muslims unfortunately, have not been recipients of many Nobel prizes. Is it because our greatest academic achievements were made before Alfred Nobel who decided to donate his money for the international awards. Ibn Khaldom, Al-Khawarizmi, Al-Biruni, etc are all ancient names, sometimes only remembered fondly because the names sound mysterious, and sometimes only when their names are seen on history walls in museums. Despite the achievements by these great people, it is often surprising and embarrassing how few Muslim students have any idea what they accomplished. That ignorance speaks volumes for how our societies have come to value advances in academia and sciences in particular.

But that trend of Muslims not winning Nobel prizes may be changing. Among Muslims Abdus Salam, Pakistani, who won the            Nobel prize in Physics in 1979.  Najib Mahfooz an Egyptian won Nobel Prize in literature in 1988. Ahmed Zewail another Egyptian a Nobel laureate in chemistry 1997.

Five Muslims who have received the Nobel peace prize as well are: Yasser Arafat Palestinian leader in 1994. Anwar El-Sadat an Egyptian president  in 1978 . Shirin Ebadi an Iranian human rights activist and first Muslim women in 2003. Dr. El-Baradei an Egyptian 4th Head of International Atomic Energy Commission  in 2005.  Muhammad Yunis of Bangladesh and his Grameen Bank received the Nobel peace prize in 2006, for creating microfinance institutions and for economic empowerment and development of the very poor in rural communities. One more person, waiting in line, is Abdus Sattar Edhi, named as Mother Teresa of Pakistan.

Muslims contribute 23% (1.57 billion) of world’s population and only 8 people have so far received Nobel prizes. On another hand Jews which are 0.2% (12 million) of Worlds population and 165 of them have so far received this prize. Do we have any explanation to this?

Pakistan as a Nation:

Pakistan is one of the World’s most resilient states; it has gone through pressures that would have broken other countries in days. Main strength of Pakistan lies in: It is the only Muslim country that has nuclear capability.   Sixth largest country population wise and has sixth largest Military with best intelligence agencies in the world. Manufacturing many of its ammunition and building JF-17 Thunder aircrafts in collaboration with China. Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, and later on US Russia war in this region which was mainly fought from this mother land, affected and destabilized Pakistan very badly. We fed and accommodated more than 3 million refugees from Afghanistan and are still not out from this dilemma.

Terrorism has gripped our country from head to toe due to Afghan issue and has put us among the most violent nations in the World, Iraq number one in this list followed by Somalia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Pakistan, Israel, Georgia, Chad and Congo. In comparison beacons of peace include New Zealand at the top followed by Iceland, Japan, Austria, Norway, Ireland, Denmark, Luxemburg, Finland and Sweden.

No other nation in recent history has been through as much as Pakistan has, and every time their resolve is tested, they stood up taller than before, latest example being 2.5 million refugees of Swat who were back in their homes in less than a year after operation clean up against terrorism by Pakistan Army. Honestly we have to take things to task to make this land prosperous and peaceful.

Allama Iqbal said “Nahi Naumeed Iqbal Apni Kasht-e-Wairan Sae. Zara Namm ho tu Yae Mitti Bari Zarkhais hai Saqi. Our beloved Quaid and founder of this nation wrote: Pakistan is our deliverance, defense and honor. If we fail than there will be no trace of Muslims and Islam in this Subcontinent.

 

References:

1.U.S.Census Bureau – World POP Clock projection (http://www.un.org/esa/population/publication/popnews/Newsltr_87.pdf)

2. World population estimates. http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/worldpopinfo.php)

3. Epidemics and pandemics: their impacts on human history. J.N.Hays (2005). P.23. ISBN 1851096582

4.World Population Clock—Worldometers. http;/www.worldometers.info/population

5. International Data Base– World Population. http:/wwwinteracademies.net/?=3547

6.www.worldchristiandatabase.org

7. Brodd, Jefferey (2003), World Religions, Winona,MN: Saint Mary’s Press. ISBN 978-0-88489-725-5.

 

About the Author

Dr. Rizwan Iqbal, Head of PMRC TB Research Centre, King Edward Medical University/ Mayo Hospital, Lahore. My field of interest is medicine with special emphasis on tuberculosis research as this is one of leading infections in Pakistan. I have more than 40 publications relating to this field.Now I intend to write on different topics and present article is my first effort. Hope readers will like it.

Ethiopia CountrySTAT interview in Arusha