也许人们通常把伊斯兰教同中东地区联系在一起，虽然伊斯兰教在公元7世纪的阿拉伯半岛出现，但依据一项该宗教全球分布的研究，今天该地区仅仅拥有全球五分之一的穆斯林。
　　Islam may be most closely associated with the Middle East, where it emerged in Arabia in the seventh century, but today the region is home to only one in five of the world's Muslims, according to a study of the religion's global distribution.
　　根据皮尤宗教和公共生活论坛（Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life）发表的调查，世界穆斯林人口达到了15.7亿，这意味着全球有近四分之一的人信仰伊斯兰教。相比之下，基督教信徒有22.5亿。
　　The world's Muslim population stands at 1.57 billion, meaning that nearly one in four people practise Islam, according to the US Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, which published the survey. This compares to 2.25 billion Christians.
　　世界穆斯林人口全球前五的国家只有一个在中东——它就是排在印尼、巴基斯坦、印度和孟加拉国之后的埃及。这项研究还显示，俄罗斯的穆斯林人口要超过利比亚和约旦之和。德国的穆斯林人口超过黎巴嫩，中国则超过了叙利亚。
　　The top five Muslim countries in the world include only one in the Middle East ‑ Egypt ‑ behind Indonesia, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, in that order. Russia, the survey shows, has more Muslims than the populations of Libya and Jordan combined. Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon. China has a bigger Muslim population than Syria.
　　这次的调查是此类调查中规模最大的一次，历时三年的研究回顾了来自232个国家和地区的数据。
　　The work, the largest of its kind, was the result of three years of research examining data from 232 countries and territories.
　　这项揭示了伊斯兰人口分布的调查会对西方公共政策和美英及其他国家与穆斯林世界接触的尝试产生深远影响。
　　The portrait it provides of Islam's distribution could have a profound influence on public policy in the west, and on attempts by the US, British and other governments to reach out to Muslims.
　　从调查中的这些数字来看，伊斯兰教在世界范围内被广为信仰特别是在亚洲的广大地区，其表现出来的更温和更融入当地的形象，与通常为人们所“熟知”的伊斯兰教军事化和不容忍的形象明显不同。
　　Extrapolating the figures from the survey, the Islam that is largely practised around the world, particularly in large swaths of Asia, is more moderate and integrated than its stereotypical characterisation as an often militant and intolerant faith.
　　事实上，像全球穆斯林人口分布图描述的那样，超过三分之二的穆斯林是亚洲人，如果将欧洲的3800万穆斯林作为一个单独的群体，将成为在7100万人口的土耳其和3400万人口的阿尔及利亚之间的世界第九大穆斯林族群。
　　The reality, as described by Mapping the Global Muslim Population, is that two out of three Muslims are Asians, while the 38 million Muslims in Europe, if treated as a separate group, would be the ninth largest in the world, behind Turkey, with a population of 71 million, and ahead of Algeria, with 34 million.
　　皮尤论坛咨询了近50位世界各地大学和研究中心的人口统计学家和社会科学家，分析了包括人口普查报告、人口统计学研究和一般人口调查在内的约1500种资料，得出了他们的最终结果。
　　Pew Forum, in consultation with nearly 50 demographers and social scientists at universities and research centres around the world, analysed about 1,500 sources, including census reports, demographic studies and general population surveys, to arrive at their figures.
　　这项研究是预测世界穆斯林人口增长趋势的第一步，皮尤论坛还在筹划一项相似的基督教信徒分布调查。
　　The research is the first step in projecting growth trends in the world's Muslim population, and a similar survey is planned by the Pew Forum on the distribution of Christians.
　　“穆斯林都是阿拉伯人和阿拉伯人都是穆斯林的观念确实被这份报告彻底毁灭了，”普林斯顿大学政治学助理教授阿马内·贾马尔（Amaney Jamal）说到。
　　"This whole idea that Muslims are Arabs and Arabs are Muslims is really just obliterated by this report," said Amaney Jamal, an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University.
　　“有些我们一直认为和穆斯林沾不上边的国家却拥有相当规模的穆斯林人口，”皮尤论坛该项研究的副主任阿兰·库珀曼（Alan Cooperman）这样说印度、俄罗斯和中国。
　　"There are these countries that we don't think of as Muslim at all, and yet they have very sizeable numbers of Muslims," said Alan Cooperman, associate director of research for the Pew Forum, naming India, Russia and China.
　　伊斯兰教在先知穆罕穆德死后一个世纪内完成了从大西洋沿岸到中亚广大范围的传播，但迄今为止有关全球伊斯兰教的资料只是建立在粗劣的估计之上。
　　Islam had a huge geographic reach ‑ from the Atlantic coast to central Asia ‑ within a century of the prophet Muhammad's death, but until now its modern global profile was based on rough estimates.
　　皮尤论坛的研究为我们呈现了一个复杂而微妙的世界第二大宗教，挑战了通常把穆斯林作为少数派的观念。
　　The Pew Forum study depicts the world's second largest religion as complex and nuanced, challenging the notion that its trajectory is defined by a minority of Islamists.
　　值得注意的是，五分之一的穆斯林现在生活在伊斯兰教作为少数派宗教的国家，而这五分之一的人又有四分之三集中在五个国家：印度（1.61亿）、埃塞俄比亚（2800万）、中国（2200万）、俄罗斯（1600万）以及坦桑尼亚（1300万）。
　　Significantly, one in five of Muslims now lives in a country where they are represented as a religious minority, with three-quarters of that number concentrated in five countries: India (161 million), Ethiopia (28 million), China (22 million), Russia (16 million) and Tanzania (13 million).
　　这项调查还试图将伊斯兰教两个主要分支——逊尼派和什叶派的人数加以统计，但却在过程中遇到了困难，因为许多国家的人口统计学家并未将其分开。最终提出什叶派大规模集中在包括伊朗、巴基斯坦在内的四个国家中，大约占了穆斯林人口的10%-13%。
　　The survey also attempted to quantify the relative sizes of the two main branches of Islam - Sunni and Shia - but came up against the difficulty that many national demographers did not distinguish between the two. It ended up suggesting that Shias, concentrated largely in four countries including Iran and Pakistan, probably made up between 10 and 13% of Muslims.
　　作为研究人员之一的布里安·格利姆（Brian Grim） 说：“我们之所以开展这项工作是因为之前从10亿到18亿这个对于全球穆斯林的数量估算太过宽泛了。那些作这方面工作的人们对这个数字也许并不感到多么吃惊，但许多受教育程度很高的人们却并不知道世界上每四个人中就有一个穆斯林。”
　　Brian Grim, one of the researchers, said: "We started on this work because the estimates for the number of the world's Muslims ranged so widely, from 1 billion to 1.8 billion. For people who do this kind of work, perhaps the figures are not surprising but there are a lot of highly educated people who do not know that one in four are Muslim."
　　格利姆相信这种有理有据的人口统计学调查，确定每个国家的穆斯林人口，也许能够挑战人们对伊斯兰教先入为主的看法和偏见。对他自己来说，最吃惊的数字莫过于世界上有那么多穆斯林是作为本国的少数派群体存在的。
　　Grim believes that the methodical demographic nature of the survey, identifying each Muslim population, may help to challenge preconceptions and prejudices about Islam. For Grim, one of the most surprising figures to emerge was just how many of the world's Islamic population is living as a minority.
　　马哈·阿扎姆（Maha Azzam）是查塔姆大厦（Chatham House ）皇家国际事务研究所的助理研究员，也是一位伊斯兰教方面的专家，她说：“我认为此项调查成果卓著，能加深人们对伊斯兰教的理解。太多人把它与政治和军事冲突联系在一起了——从巴勒斯坦和伊拉克再到最近的阿富汗和巴基斯坦发生的事情。这研究表明伊斯兰教存在于许多国家，但更重要的是它跨越了诸多不同文明 ——一些对它抱宽容态度，而另外一些则不尽然。”
　　Maha Azzam, an associate fellow of Chatham House and an expert on Islam, said : "I think the survey is excellent and does help with the understanding of Islam. It is still associated for too many people with politics and conflict ‑ issues such as Palestine and Iraq and more recently Afghanistan and Pakistan. What it shows is that Islam exists in many countries but crucially across many different cultures ‑ some where it is tolerated and some where it is not.
　　“穆斯林人口的规模和传播应当促使人们更多的探寻为什么如此多的人成为了穆斯林、他们究竟信仰着什么。这研究表明了，有些穆斯林身处一些通常不会被人们第一时间认为是穆斯林世界的社会和地区；但是，仍然有很多人会认定大多数穆斯林都是阿拉伯人。”
　　"The sheer scale of the world's Muslim population and its spread should encourage people to ask more questions about why so many people are Muslims and what they really believe. It shows there are Muslims in societies and areas that people don't immediately think of. But there are still many people who assume the majority of Muslims are Arabs."
　　她提醒说：“我感觉任何报告在一些人脑子里都是危言耸听。仅仅是看到这些数字还是认真对待这些数字，这取决于读者。”
　　She cautioned, however, saying: "I feel that any report can be alarmist in the minds of some people. They see the numbers and see how many there are of 'them'. It depends on the reader."