Muslim world

Nations with a Muslim majority appear in green, while nations that are at least 50% Muslim appear yellow.

The the term Muslim world has two basic meanings.

In cultural sense it is a term given to the world-wide community of those who adhere to the religion of Islam. This community, whose members are known as Muslims, number approximately 1.4 - 1.6 billion people. This community does not constitute a distinct race, but are spread across every race; the world's Muslims are connected only by the heritage of adhering to a common religion.

In geographical and political sense (especially in the historical context) the terms Muslim World and Islamic world refer to geographical and political entities with dominaiton of Ilam. In this sense the expression basically corresponds to the Ilsamic term Dar al-Islam.

The diaspora of Muslims worldwide are also known collectively as the ummah. The faith emphasizes unity and defense of fellow Muslims, so it should be common for Muslim nations to co-operate; however, nationalist currents have tended to divide rather than unite the Islamic world, particularly in the second half of the 20th century.

History

Main article: Muslim history

Modern Muslim world

Geographic spread

Many Muslims not only live in, but also have an official status in the following regions:

• Southwest Asia: Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq and several non-Arab nations, e.g. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Iran
• Africa: North African countries such as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt; Sub-Saharan countries like Mali, Nigeria or Somalia, and East African countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique.
• the Balkans: countries like Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria and Cyprus..
• Eastern Europe: parts of Russia and Ukraine (especially in the Crimea), and Gagauzia in Moldova

• Central Asia: Afghanistan, formerly Soviet states like Uzbekistan
• South Asia: Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the Maldives
• Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Brunei and Malaysia

The countries of Southwest Asia, and many in Northern Africa are considered part of the Middle East.

Also worthy of mention are provinces of Kosovo in the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

In Chechnya, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, Ingushetia, Adygea, Abkhazia, Adjaria, Tatarstan, Bashkiria, Yakutia, Mari El, Udmurtiya in Russia, the Muslims are in the majority.

Muslims are majority in Xinjiang, Ningxia and Qinghai provinces of People's Republic of China.

Some definitions would also include the sizable Muslim minorities in:

• several countries of the European Union (especially France and Germany)
• several regions of Russia, other than ethnic respublics above.
• India
• Singapore, Mayanmar, Thailand, and the Philippines
• The United States, Guyana, Surinam, Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, Brazil, Argentina and Canada
• Congo-Kinshasa, Burundi, Malawi, Republic of South Africa, Zambia, Cameron, CAR, Uganda and Eriteria
• Crimea in Ukraine

Demographics

Main article: Islam by country

Main article: Demographics of Islam

One fifth of the world population share Islam as an ethical tradition. Muslims are the majority in 52 nations. They speak about 60 languages and come from diverse ethnic backgrounds. There are over 1.5 billion Muslims in total. See Islam by country and Demographics of Islam for more information.

Important organizations

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is an inter-governmental organization grouping fifty-seven States. These States decided to pool their resources together, combine their efforts and speak with one voice to safeguard the interest and ensure the progress and well-being of their peoples and those of other Muslims in the world over.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries includes many nations that are also in the Arab League.

A politically motivated oil embargo in 1974 (to support Egypt and Syria in their 1973 war against Israel after US secretly re-equipped Israel with armaments) had drastic economic and political consequences in the United States and Europe. Although such a move would have less impact today, it demonstrates the power of the Muslim World acting in concert, and the key role of religion and ethnicity in the politics of oil regions, with which the Muslim world intersects.

Main denominations of Islam

Main article: Divisions_of_Islam

The two main denominations of Islam are the Sunni and Shia sects. The difference between them is primarily in terms of how the life of the ummah ("faithful") should be governed, and the role of the imam.

The overwhelming majority of Muslims in the world are Sunni approximately 85%.

Shias make up the rest, about 15% of overall Muslim population. Among the countries with Shi'a majority of Muslim population are Iraq (66%), Bahrain (70%), Lebanon (50%), Iran (90%), and Azerbaijan (80%).

A more strictly traditional Shia regime maintains power in Iran.

The Kharijite Muslims, who are less known, have their own stronghold in the country of Oman holding about 75% of the population. The rest of the population being 10% Sunni and the rest Shi'a.

Islam in law and ethics

In some nations, Muslim ethnic groups enjoy considerable autonomy.

In some places, Muslim implement a form of Islamic law, called shariah in Arabic. The Islamic law exists in many variations, but the main forms are the five (four Sunni and one Shia) schools of jurisprudence (fiqh):

• the Hanafi school in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, West Africa, Egypt,
• the Maliki in North Africa and West Africa,
• the Shafi'i in Malaysia, Indonesia, and East Africa
• the Hanbali in Arabia, and
• Jaferi in Iran, Iraq and some regions of Lebanon, Yemen and India - where the majority is Shia.

All five are centuries old and many Muslim feel a new fiqh must be created for modern society. Islam has a method for doing this, al-urf and ijtihad are the words to describe this method, but they have not been used in a long time, and few people are trusted enough to use them to make new laws.

So, in most of the Muslim world, people are socially conservative.

Muslim women often dress extremely modestly, sometimes by choice. Thus, in some countries an interpretation of the Islamic law requires women to cover either just legs, shoulders and head or the whole body apart from the face. In strictest forms, the face as well must be covered leaving just a mesh to see through. These rules for dressing are one of the things the cause tension between the Western World and the of Muslim, concerning particularly Muslim living in western countries, since many in the Western World consider these restrictions both sexist and oppressive. Many Muslims deny this charge.

Islamic economics bans interest or Usury but in most Muslim countries Western banking is allowed.

Civil and political freedoms remain to be a source of controversy

Islam in modern politics

Many people in Islamic countries also see Islam manifested politically as Islamism. Political Islam is powerful in all Muslim-majority countries. Islamic parties in Turkey, Pakistan and Algeria have taken power. Many in these movements call themselves Islamists, which also sometimes describes more militant Islamic groups. The relationships between these groups and theirIn democratic countries there is usually at least one Islamic party views of democracy are complex.

Some of these groups are accused of practicing terrorism. Countries considered hub of terrorism are Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Somalia. According to US President George W. Bush, they all have a single common agenda:

"The militants believe that controlling one country will rally the Muslim masses, enabling them to overthrow all moderate governments in the region, and establish a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia," Bush asserted in an October 2005 speech.

There are a few democracies with a majority Muslim population. Turkey and Albania are two examples. Although nothing in Islam prohibits democracy, most Islamic nations are non-democratic.

Conflicts with Israel

Israel is very unpopular in the Muslim world, due to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the way that the Jewish state came into being in 1948 which Muslims consider unfair. This has been the cause of many Arab-Israeli Wars, all between Arab nations and Israel.

Some Muslims see this as a struggle against Zionism, making a clear distinction between Judaism and Zionism. In Morocco for instance, the Islamic party recently invited Jews to join the party. Prior to the Iranian Revolution, Iran and Israel maintained a strong political frienship (see Iran-Israel relations), but now Iran is calling for the destruction of Israel. Today, Turkey is Israel's closest Muslim friend; and some other Muslim countries, such as Egypt and Jordan, have developed diplomatic relations and signed peace treaties with Israel, an act opposed by the Palestinian Authority. Many Muslims around the world consider the Palestine / Israeli conflict as a war between Arab ethnic groups with occupying Israelis, hence maintaining the view that it is not necessarily a war of Islam and Judaism but war between two ethnic groups.

Nuclear capabilities

The other conflict Muslims have with the West is regarding nuclear capabilities and weapons. Pakistan's testing of nuclear weapons in 1998 attracted American sanctions. Following the Gulf War, the United Nations put in place decade-long sanctions against Iraq, to supposedly keep it from developing weapons of mass destruction. The 2003 Invasion of Iraq was justified in part as an attempt to rid Iraq of Weapons of Mass Destruction. These weapons were never found. The current United Nations/Iranian tension is related to Iran's nuclear programme.

Recent history

1979 was a critical year in the Muslim world's relationship with the rest of the world. In that year, Egypt made peace with Israel, Iran became an Islamic state after the Iranian Revolution, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan began.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War Muslim/Non-Muslim relations have been characterized by a struggle against Islamist extremism. Some of the events pivotal in this relationship are:

• The 1991 Gulf War
• The September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States
• The 2001 invasion of Afghanistan
• The 2003 invasion of Iraq
• The 2005 Prophet Muhammad cartoons controversy
• The 2006 controversy over remarks quoted by Pope Benedict XVI

The United States' pre-emptive approach to dealing with the threat of terrorism (the "War on Terrorism") has been seen as a War on Islam by many Muslims.

Political currents

In Pakistan, a prominent US ally, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal - an Islamic political party - won local elections in two out of four of the country's provinces and became in mid-2003 the third largest party in the national parliament, their best showing ever. For the first time, their support comes not just from the areas bordering Afghanistan, but even from urban areas. (See Politics of Pakistan)

In Kuwait, elections in July 2003 returned Islamic traditionalists and supporters of the royal family, while liberals suffered a severe defeat. (See Elections in Kuwait)

In Indonesia, the growth of various groups allied to those considered responsible for the Bali Bombing most of which have previously been invisible, has been marked.

Future

Currently, Turkey and Bangladesh are prominent examples of countries in the Islamic World with a strong of secularism and democracy as state policy.

Diversification of Gulf economies away from hydrocarbons to financial and construction services is a major trend in recent times. Common currency proposals have received widespread support in the high-income economies. It is believed that sweeping economic and legal reforms in South West Asia have the potential to create new clusters of tiger economies of 1st century.

See also

• Islam by country
• List of Islamic terms in Arabic
• Muslim history
• Islamic Golden Age
• Hajj
• Majority Muslim countries
• Organization of the Islamic Conference
• Arab world
• Western world

External links

• Dinar Standard - Covers Muslim World Economics
• The Islamic World to 1600 an online tutorial at the University of Calgary, Canada.
• MSNBC report citing Wesley Clark that the US planned to invade Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia, and Sudan - also his own views on Egypt, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia
• Al-Jazeera report saying the same thing