This month is the holiest month of the Muslim Calendar, Ramadan. In honor of this month, here are some statistics on the Muslim population of Israel. These statistics largely come from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics.

1. In the year 2015, there were 1.48 million Muslims living in Israel, 18% of the population of Israel. The fertility rate of Muslims in Israel (3.3) is higher than that of Saudi Arabia (3), Turkey (2.1) or Lebanon (1.5).

2. In the academic year 2014/15, 5,300 Muslim students received university degrees from Israeli universities.

3. In Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, there are 120 Members of Parliament. Currently, 15 of them are Muslim.

4. There are certain industries where Muslims are disproportionately represented, such as the medical field. Statistics are available for Israeli Arabs in general rather than Muslims specifically (so include Christians, Bahai etc.), but 38% of those working in pharmaceuticals in Israel are Arab. Incredibly, in the Superpharm chain, one of the major chain of chemists in Israel, 62% of pharmacists are Arab.

5. Muslims in Israel have freedom of worship and practice. Last Friday, 250,000 Muslims visited the Al Aqsa Mosque for Ramadan prayers. 150,000 of them were from Gaza or the West Bank.

We sincerely apologize to anyone who finds that these statistics don’t fit their narrative of Israel.

Contributed by Aron White, CAMERA intern