How important is Arabic? Today Arabic is spoken everywhere you go. In Arab and Muslim countries as well as non Arab and non Muslim countries. But do you recognise it if you hear it?
Here are just a few places where it is spoken: the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, Tunisia, Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Sudan, Mauritania, and Chad. It is the mother tongue of over 225 million people in Africa and Asia. And since the Qur'an is written in Arabic, people in other Muslim countries have from basic to advanced knowledge of Arabic like in Indonesia (largest Muslim population), Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Israel, India also has one of the world's largest Muslim populations, although Islam is not the principal religion there. Djibouti, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Somalia, and Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Tanzania (Zanzibar is predominantly Muslim), Nigeria ...and in many places where Islam is the dominant religion, or even among small Muslim communities, like London. HoArabic is also spoken by Christian Arab’s in these countries as well as non religious people from other countries.
If we include people who have converted or reverted to the religion of Islam, as well as non- Muslims who study Arabic in the west out of fascination, then the actual figure of Arabic speakers worldwide will be over a billion and a half people. The population of Muslims in the world is estimated to be over a billion people.
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