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Muslims in America stand at the threshold of becoming the second-largest religious community. In 1996 the Greater Chicago area has over eighty Islamic organizations and most of them attached to an Islamic center or a mosque. The estimated population of Muslims in Cook County and the collar counties is 350,000, almost 5% of the total population of the region. The Muslims have surpassed the population of Jews and many other ethnic groups. The nationalities of Muslims, wherever they have come from, includes Indo-Pak-Bangladesh subcontinent, Arabic speaking countries including the Middle East and North Africa, the East European countries of Albania, Bosnia and surrounding states, Turkey, Iran, Malaysia, Indonesia, Afghanistan and sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to white and Hispanic American Muslims, Chicago has the largest concentration of African-American Muslims in the U.S. It is a diverse community speaking a variety of languages, representing a variety of complexions and races, yet they are one community. The sense that all Muslims are one community is embedded in the Qur'anic teachings which makes all Muslims one ethnic group, irrespective of their geographical origin, race and color. The Muslim population of Greater Chicago