DITCHING THE JEWS TOO SOON:

1.2 million Arabs in U.S., census states (Joyce Howard Price, 12/03/03, THE WASHINGTON TIMES)

Census Bureau data for 2000 found 1.2 million people who claimed Arab ancestry, nearly double the number counted in 1980.

Leaders of the Arab-American community say the new total is too low, reflecting underreporting.

Although only 23 percent of Arab-Americans are Muslim, according to a 2000 Zogby survey, the census report released yesterday adds fuel to an ongoing debate about the size of the U.S. Muslim population.

In 1992, the American Muslim Council estimated there were more than 5 million followers of Islam in the country, of whom 12 percent were Arabs. Other Arab and Muslim groups say the number is closer to 6 million Muslims, a population that would make them more numerous than Jews.

"That's way too high. I say it's more like 3 or 4 million [Muslims]," said Steve Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, a nonpartisan group that studies the impact of immigration.

He and others stressed that Arabs do not account for most Muslims in this country. Forty-two percent of Arabs are Catholic, 23 percent Orthodox Christian and 12 percent Protestant, according to the Zogby survey.

Which makes Howard Dean's anti-Israel/pro-Ba'ath rhetoric seem even more ill-advised.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 5, 2003 7:50 PM