1.2 million Arabs in U.S., census states

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.

In 2001, the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), released by the City University of New York, estimated the total number of Muslims in America to be no higher than 2.8 million — or 1 percent of the population and roughly half as large as the Jewish population.

According to the ARIS report, recent Arab immigrants from Egypt, Jordan and Iraq are disproportionately Christians — and some are Jews.

Mr. Camarota cited another poll by the University of Michigan, called the General Social Survey, that he says “finds that less than 1 percent of Americans consider themselves Muslims.”

“By law, the Census Bureau doesn’t ask questions about religion,” said Ruth Osborne, a bureau spokeswoman.

Both Mr. Camarota and Dan Stein, head of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), predict Arabs will have a significant effect on future U.S. foreign policy, especially as it relates to Israel, as a result of their growing numbers.

Mr. Camarota says he foresees continued strong population growth of people of Arab lineage in the United States unless there is a change in U.S. immigration policy.

He says this growth has the potential to contribute to national security problems, “since it could make it more difficult to track terrorists, since it gives them a much larger population to blend into.”

The 12-page federal brief, titled “The Arab Population in 2000,” released yesterday is the first report the Census Bureau has ever issued on the population of those with Arab ancestry living on American soil.

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