Muslims in Alabama

Bashar Alkublani, 4, stands reverently while his father moves through the salats of Muslim prayer during Eid-al-Fitr, the end of the holy month of Ramadan, in October of 2008. This Eid celebration was held at the Bill Harris Arena at the Alabama State fairgrounds in Birmingham. An 2010 census by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies shows that Alabamians of faith who are not Christian, are most likely to be Muslim. (AL.com file / Jerry Ayres)

(JERRY AYRES)

Believers in Alabama, as in the U.S. in general, remain Christian by a margin of about 3 to 1. But in the background, Americans are reporting a colorful diversity of other faiths, according to data collected in the 2010 Religion Census by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. (The Huntsville Times file/Carucha Meuse)

The chances are, if you are a person of faith, not a Christian and you live in Alabama, you're a Muslim -- same as in Mississippi, Georgia or Florida. Those are the findings of the 2010 census conducted by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies.

The report, which tallies the second-most prevalent faiths across the U.S. is available at ASARB and was also reported by the Washington Post. The study also breaks down the results by counties.

So, as the mapped results show, if you are not a Christian and you live in Madison County, Ala., like most of Alabama, you are Muslim. In Baldwin County? You're Baha'i. Tallapoosa? You're Buddhist. Jefferson? Jewish. Limestone? Hindu.

And if you're not a Christian and you live in Cherokee County? Trick question! According to the 2010 findings of the ASARB, there are no people living in Cherokee County who report being adherents of any faith other than Christian. There may be some atheists in those hills, but the census does not include the rising numbers of non-believers.

The chances still remain 3 to 1 that if you live in the U.S., you would identify yourself as a Christian, the census shows. But the results do underscore the continuing rise of diversity in a nation founded by refugees and colonists from what was then Christian Europe.