Source: RELIGION NEWS SERVICE
USA, January 23, 2002: A new report sponsored by the American Jewish Committee downplays the growth of minority faiths in the United States, saying they have generated more interest and pop culture buzz than actual adherents. The report follows a controversial study by the same author, Tom Smith, last October that downplayed the number of Muslims in America. Smith estimated a total of 1.9 million Muslims, far less than the 6 million figure frequently cited by Muslim groups. In the new report, Smith pulls together various surveys to estimate that there are 1.4 million Buddhists and between 800,000 and 1.1 million Hindus in the United States. He said some figures have created “an impression of prominence beyond the actual size of these groups.” These numbers have important political ramifications, which is why the Muslims in America complained about Smith’s figure of 1.9 million. Because the US census cannot ask about religion, there is no way to reliably count the number of adherents to any particular religion in the US. Telephone polls tend to undercount minorities, some of whom refuse to answer what they believe to be a government interrogation.