Report: Muslims total 3.5 million in U.S.

Washington There are perhaps 3.5 million Muslims in the United States, according to the latest estimate from a Muslim researcher. That’s fewer than other efforts to count the population have found.

Mohamed Nimer, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, presents his figure in “The North American Muslim Resource Guide,” the first comprehensive listing and analysis of all types of Muslim organizations in the United States and Canada.

Nimer says the “minimum” number of Muslims in the United States is between 2,560,000 and 4,390,000, making 3.5 million a rough average.

Council denounces Falwell’s comment

New York The executive board of the National Council of Churches said the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s remark in an interview that “Muhammad was a terrorist” was uninformed and dangerous.

The council called on President Bush to repudiate Falwell’s words.

Thousands of Muslims marched in India’s Jammu-Kashmir state Monday to protest Falwell’s statement, while Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad advised Muslims not to take comments from such people seriously because “they don’t understand Islam.”

Falwell made the statement in an interview with the CBS program “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday.

World Evangelical Alliance reaffirms commitment

Wheaton, Ill. The World Evangelical Alliance is taking issue with an August report from U.S. Roman Catholic bishops that opposes efforts to target Jews for conversion.

The evangelical organization, an alliance of 120 national and regional church fellowships and 75 non-denominational ministries, has reaffirmed and reissued a declaration defending Jewish evangelism that was written in 1989 by 16 theologians from nine nations.

One of those theologians, the Rev. J.I. Packer, an Anglican teaching at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, endorsed the reaffirmation. “Sharing Jesus Christ with our Jewish friends is as important a task as ever it was,” he said.