Bengali Muslims are an ethnic, linguistic, and religious population who make up the majority of Bangladesh's citizens and the largest minority in the Indian states of West Bengal and Assam. Ethnic Bengalis who adhere to Islam, they speak the secular Bengali language, which is written with the indigenous Bengali alphabet. They form the second largest Muslim ethnolinguistic group in the world (after Arab Muslims). Most Bengali Muslims are members of the Sunni branch of Islam. A minority are members of the Shia and Ahmadiya branches.