Talk:Demographics of Pakistan

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[edit] Deobandi & Barelvi: most Pakistanis would say they are neither

Most Pakistani Sunnis do not identify themselves as either Deobandi or Barelvi. Simple reality check: ask a few Pakistanis if they are Deobandi or Barelvi. Quite likely, you'll get a blank stare in response. Most people don't even know what these terms mean. The people who do know tend to be either highly educated or highly religious, and even they don't necessarily identify with one or the other. Some are just confused as which sect they might belong to. Fro example, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said in April, "Sometimes I get confused about my own identity as a Muslim and I have to think really hard on which sect I belong to.". I just ran a Google search for a few religious terms on Pakistan top-level domain, (.pk) and here are the results:

• Muslim: 245000 matches.
• Deobandi 345 matches.
• Barelvi 378 matches.

Obviously Deobandi and Barelvi are not very widely-used terms, and it is easy to imagine that many Muslims, far from identifying as Deobandi or Barelvi, are neither. EastBayer 22:28, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

The statistics of people adhering to a particular school is evident by the number of Madrasahs and Masjids. It is also true that among Sunnis, that they pray in any Sunni Masjid. Both facts are true. So both should be mentioned.

Siddiqui 13:59, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Pakistani statistics don't include the areas controlled by India

I removed the statement that "Although Pakistani statistics claim a small number of Buddhists on its territory, these Buddhists actually live in Ladakh ^[1] in Indian Administered Kashmir, which Pakistan claims." Pakistani statistics don't include Indian-controlled areas, because Pakistan claims them as potentially parts of Pakistan, subject to a referendum by their people. The Pakistani government doesn't claim that they are currently part of Pakistan. EastBayer 22:57, 2 October 2006 (UTC)