
World Muslim population by
percentage

A miniature style painting depicting
the Mosques around the world.
The term
Muslim world (or
Islamic
world) has several meanings. In a
cultural sense it refers to the worldwide community
of
Muslims, adherents of
Islam. This community
numbers about 1.3-1.5 billion people,
roughly one-fifth of the
world
population. This community is spread across many different
nations and
ethnic
groups connected by
religion and a
shared sense of humanity. In a
historical or
geopolitical sense the term usually
refers collectively to
Muslim
majority countries or countries in which Islam dominates
politically.
The worldwide Muslim community is also known collectively as the
ummah. Islam emphasizes unity and
defense of fellow Muslims, although many
divisions of Islam (see
Sunni-Shia relations, for example)
exist. In the past both
Pan-Islamism
and
nationalist currents have influenced
the status of the Muslim world.
History
[[Image:Age-of-caliphs.png|thumb|The Islamic World expansion,
622-750
]]
Muslim history involves the history
of the Islamic faith as a religion and as a social institution. The
history of
Islam began in
Arabia with Muslim Prophet
Muhammad's first recitations of the
Qur'an in the 7th century. Under the
Rashidun and
Umayyads, the
Caliphate grew rapidly geographically
expansion of Muslim power well beyond the Arabian peninsula in the
form of a vast Muslim Empire with an area of influence that
stretched from northwest India, across Central Asia, the Middle
East, North Africa, southern Italy, and the Iberian Peninsula, to
the Pyrenees.
During much of the twentieth century, the Islamic identity and the
dominance of Islam on political issues have arguably increased
during the early twenty-first century. The fast-growing Western
interests in Islamic regions, international conflicts and
globalization have changed the influence of
Islam on the world in
contemporary
history.
Classical Islamic culture
The
Islamic Golden Age, also
sometimes known as the
Islamic Renaissance, is
traditionally dated from the 7th to 13th centuries
C.E., but has been extended to the 15th and
16th
Ahmad Y Hassan,
Factors Behind the Decline of Islamic Science After
the Sixteenth Century centuries by more recent
scholarship.
Arts
The term "Islamic art and architecture" denotes the works of art
and architecture produced from the 7th century onwards by people
who lived within the territory that was inhabited by culturally
Islamic populations.
Aniconism and Arabesque
No Islamic visual images or depictions of God are meant to exist
because it is believed that such artistic depictions may lead to
idolatry. Moreover, Muslims believe that
God is
incorporeal, making any two-
or three- dimensional depictions impossible. Instead, Muslims
describe God by the
names and
attributes that, according to Islam, he revealed to his
creation. All but one sura of the Qur'an begins with the phrase
"
In the name of God, the Beneficent, the
Merciful". Images of Mohammed are likewise prohibited. Such
aniconism and
iconoclasm can also be found in Jewish and some
Christian theology.
Islamic art frequently adopts the use of geometrical floral or
vegetal designs in a repetition known as
arabesque. Such designs are highly
nonrepresentational, as Islam forbids representational depictions
as found in pre-Islamic pagan religions. Despite this, there is a
presence of depictional art in some Muslim societies, notably the
miniature style made famous in
Persia and under the Ottoman Empire which featured not only
paintings of people and animals but also depictions of Qur'anic
stories and Islamic traditional narratives. Another reason why
Islamic art is usually abstract is to symbolize the transcendence,
indivisible and infinite nature of God, an objective achieved by
arabesque.
Arabic calligraphy is
an omnipresent decoration in Islamic art, and is usually expressed
in the form of Qur'anic verses. Two of the main scripts involved
are the symbolic
kufic and
naskh scripts, which can be found
adorning the walls and domes of mosques, the sides of
minbars, and so on.
Distinguishing
motif of Islamic
architecture have always been ordered repetition, radiating
structures, and rhythmic, metric patterns. In this respect,
fractal geometry has been a key
utility, especially for mosques and palaces. Other significant
features employed as motifs include columns, piers and arches,
organized and interwoven with alternating sequences of niches and
colonnettes. The role of domes in Islamic architecture has been
considerable.
Its usage spans centuries, first appearing in
691 with the construction of the Dome of the Rock
mosque, and recurring even up until the 17th
century with the Taj
Mahal
. And as late as the 19th century, Islamic
domes had been incorporated into Western architecture.
Ceramics
From between the eighth and eighteenth centuries, the use of
glazed ceramics was prevalent in
Islamic art, usually assuming the form of elaborate
pottery.
Tin-opacified
glazing was one of the earliest new technologies developed by
the Islamic potters.
The first Islamic opaque glazes can be found
as blue-painted ware in Basra
, dating to
around the 8th century. Another significant contribution was
the development of
stonepaste ceramics,
originating from 9th century Iraq.
Other centers for innovative ceramic
pottery in the Odd world included Fustat
(from 975 to
1075), Damascus (from 1100 to around 1600) and Tabriz
(from 1470
to 1550).
Architecture
Perhaps the most important expression of Islamic art is
architecture, particularly that of the mosque. Through it the
effect of varying cultures within Islamic civilization can be
illustrated.
The North African and Iberian Islamic
architecture, for example, has Roman-Byzantine elements, as seen in
the Alhambra
palace at
Granada, or in the Great Mosque of Cordoba
. Persian-style mosques are characterized by
their tapered brick pillars, large
arcades, and arches supported each by
several pillars. In South Asia, elements of Hindu architecture were
employed, but were later superseded by Persian designs.
The most
numerous and largest of mosques exist in Turkey
, which
obtained influence from Byzantine, Persian and Syrian designs,
although Turkish architects managed to implement their own style of
cupola domes.
Literature
The best known work of
fiction from the
Islamic world is
The Book of One Thousand
and One Nights or (
Arabian Nights), which is a
compilation of
folk tales. The original
concept is derived from a pre-Islamic Persian prototype that
probably relied partly on Indian elements. It reached its final
form by the 14th century; the number and type of tales have varied
from one manuscript to another. All Arabian
fantasy tales tend to be called "Arabian Nights"
stories when translated into
English, regardless of whether they appear
in
The Book of One Thousand and One Nights or not. This
work has been very influential in the West since it was translated
in the 18th century, first by
Antoine
Galland. Many imitations were written, especially in France.
Various characters from this epic have themselves become cultural
icons in Western culture, such as
Aladdin,
Sinbad and
Ali
Baba.
A famous example of
Arabic poetry and
Persian poetry on
romance is
Layla and Majnun, dating back to the
Umayyad era in the 7th century. It is a
tragic story of undying
love much like the later
Romeo and Juliet, which was itself
said to have been inspired by a
Latin version
of
Layli and Majnun to an extent.
Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, the national epic of Iran
, is a
mythical and heroic retelling of Persian
history. Amir
Arsalan was also a popular mythical Persian story, which
has influenced some modern works of fantasy fiction, such as
The Heroic Legend of
Arslan.
Ibn Tufail (Abubacer) and
Ibn al-Nafis were pioneers of the
philosophical novel. Ibn Tufail wrote
the first Arabic
novel Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (
Philosophus
Autodidactus) as a response to
al-Ghazali's
The Incoherence of the
Philosophers, and then Ibn al-Nafis also wrote a novel
Theologus
Autodidactus as a response to Ibn Tufail's
Philosophus
Autodidactus. Both of these narratives had
protagonists (Hayy in
Philosophus
Autodidactus and Kamil in
Theologus Autodidactus) who
were
autodidactic feral children living in seclusion on a
desert island, both being the earliest
examples of a desert island story. However, while Hayy lives alone
with animals on the desert island for the rest of the story in
Philosophus Autodidactus, the story of Kamil extends
beyond the desert island setting in
Theologus
Autodidactus, developing into the earliest known
coming of age plot and eventually becoming the
first example of a
science fiction
novel.
Theologus Autodidactus, written by the
Arabian polymath
Ibn
al-Nafis (1213–1288), is the first example of a
science fiction novel. It deals with various
science fiction elements such as
spontaneous
generation,
futurology, the
end of the world and doomsday,
resurrection, and the
afterlife. Rather than giving supernatural or
mythological explanations for these events, Ibn al-Nafis attempted
to explain these plot elements using the
scientific knowledge of
biology,
astronomy,
cosmology and
geology known
in his time. His main purpose behind this science fiction work was
to explain
Islamic religious teachings in
terms of
science and
philosophy through the use of
fiction.
A
Latin translation of Ibn Tufail's work,
Philosophus Autodidactus, first appeared in 1671, prepared
by
Edward Pococke the Younger,
followed by an English translation by
Simon
Ockley in 1708, as well as
German and
Dutch translations. These translations later
inspired
Daniel Defoe to write
Robinson Crusoe, regarded
as the
first novel in
English.
Philosophus Autodidactus also inspired
Robert Boyle to write his own
philosophical novel set on an island,
The Aspiring
Naturalist. The story also anticipated
Rousseau's
Emile: or, On Education in some
ways, and is also similar to
Mowgli's story
in
Rudyard Kipling's
The Jungle Book as well as
Tarzan's story, in that a baby is abandoned but taken
care of and fed by a mother
wolf.
Dante Alighieri's
Divine Comedy, considered the greatest
epic of
Italian literature,
derived many features of and episodes about the hereafter directly
or indirectly from Arabic works on
Islamic eschatology: the
Hadith and the
Kitab al-Miraj (translated into Latin in
1264 or shortly before as
Liber Scale Machometi, "The Book
of Muhammad's Ladder") concerning
Muhammad's ascension to Heaven, and the spiritual
writings of
Ibn Arabi. The
Moors also had a noticeable influence on the works of
George Peele and
William Shakespeare. Some of their works
featured Moorish characters, such as Peele's
The Battle of Alcazar and
Shakespeare's
The Merchant of
Venice,
Titus
Andronicus and
Othello,
which featured a Moorish
Othello
as its title character.
These works are said to have been inspired by
several Moorish delegations from Morocco
to Elizabethan England at the beginning of
the 17th century.
Philosophy
One of the common definitions for "Islamic philosophy" is "the
style of philosophy produced within the framework of Islamic
culture." Islamic philosophy, in this definition is neither
necessarily concerned with religious issues, nor is exclusively
produced by Muslims. The
Persian
scholar
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (980-1037) had
more than 450 books attributed to him. His writings were concerned
with many subjects, most notably philosophy and medicine. His
medical textbook
The Canon of
Medicine was used as the standard text in European
universities for centuries. His works on
Aristotle was a key step in the transmission of
learning from ancient Greeks to the Islamic world and the West. He
often corrected the philosopher, encouraging a lively debate in the
spirit of
ijtihad. He also wrote
The Book of Healing, an
influential scientific and philosophical encyclopedia. His thinking
and that of his follower
Ibn Rushd
(Averroes) was incorporated into
Christian philosophy during the Middle
Ages, notably by
Thomas
Aquinas.
One of the most influential Muslim philosophers in the West was
Averroes (Ibn Rushd), founder of the
Averroism school of philosophy, whose
works and commentaries had an impact on the rise of
secular thought in
Western Europe. He also developed the concept
of "
existence precedes
essence".
Avicenna also founded his own
Avicennism school of philosophy, which
was influential in both Islamic and Christian lands. He was also a
critic of
Aristotelian logic and
founder of
Avicennian
logic, and he developed the concepts of
empiricism and
tabula
rasa, and distinguished between
essence
and
existence.
Another influential philosopher who had a significant influence on
modern philosophy was
Ibn Tufail. His
philosophical novel,
Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, translated into
Latin as
Philosophus Autodidactus in 1671, developed the
themes of empiricism, tabula rasa,
nature versus nurture,
condition of possibility,
materialism, and
Molyneux's Problem. European scholars and
writers influenced by this novel include
John
Locke,
Gottfried Leibniz,
Melchisédech
Thévenot,
John Wallis,
Christiaan Huygens,
George Keith,
Robert
Barclay, the
Quakers, and
Samuel Hartlib.G. J. Toomer (1996),
Eastern Wisedome and Learning: The Study of Arabic in
Seventeenth-Century England, p. 222,
Oxford University Press, ISBN
0198202911.
Islamic philosophers continued making advances in philosophy
through to the 17th century, when
Mulla
Sadra founded his school of
Transcendent Theosophy and developed
the concept of
existentialism.
Other influential Muslim philosophers include
al-Jahiz, a pioneer in
evolutionary thought;
Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen), a pioneer of
phenomenology and the
philosophy of science and a
critic of
Aristotelian natural
philosophy and
Aristotle's concept of
place (
topos);
Biruni, a critic of Aristotelian natural philosophy;
Ibn Tufail and
Ibn al-Nafis, pioneers of the
philosophical novel;
Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi, founder
of
Illuminationist
philosophy;
Fakhr al-Din
al-Razi, a critic of Aristotelian logic and a pioneer of
inductive logic; and
Ibn Khaldun, a pioneer in the
philosophy of history and
social philosophy.
Sciences
Muslim scientists made significant advances in the
sciences. They placed far greater emphasis on
experiment than had the
Greeks. This led to an early
scientific method being developed in the
Muslim world, where significant progress in methodology was made,
beginning with the experiments of
Ibn
al-Haytham (Alhazen) on
optics from
circa 1000, in his
Book of
Optics. The most important development of the scientific
method was the use of experiments to distinguish between competing
scientific theories set within a generally
empirical orientation, which began among Muslim
scientists. Ibn al-Haytham is also regarded as the father of
optics, especially for his empirical proof of the intromission
theory of light. Some have also described Ibn al-Haytham as the
"first scientist" for his development of the modern scientific
method.
The mathematician
Al-Khwarizmi, from
whose name the word
algorithm derives, is
considered to be the father of
algebra
(which is named after his book,
kitab
al-jabr). Recent studies show that it is very likely that
the Medieval Muslim artists were aware of advanced decagonal
quasicrystal geometry (discovered half a millennium later in 1970s
and 1980s in West) and used it in intricate decorative tilework in
the architecture. Muslim mathematicians also made several
refinements to the
Arabic numerals
(which originally came from India), such as the introduction of
decimal point notation.
Muslim
physicians contributed
significantly to the field of
medicine,
including the subjects of
anatomy and
physiology: such as in the 15th century
Persian work by
Mansur ibn Muhammad ibn
al-Faqih Ilyas entitled
Tashrih al-badan (
Anatomy
of the body) which contained comprehensive diagrams of the
body's structural,
nervous and
circulatory systems; or in the
work of the Egyptian physician
Ibn
al-Nafis, who proposed the theory of
pulmonary circulation.
Avicenna's
The
Canon of Medicine remained an authoritative medical
textbook in Europe until the 18th century.
Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (also known
as
Abulcasis) contributed to the discipline of medical
surgery with his
Kitab al-Tasrif ("Book of Concessions"), a
medical encyclopedia which was later translated to
Latin and used in European and Muslim medical schools
for centuries. Other medical advancements came in the fields of
pharmacology and
pharmacy.
In
astronomy,
al-Battani improved the precision of the
measurement of the
precession of the
Earth's axis. The corrections made to the
geocentric model by al-Battani,
Averroes,
Nasir
al-Din al-Tusi,
Mo'ayyeduddin
Urdi and
Ibn al-Shatir were later
incorporated into the
Copernican heliocentric model.
Heliocentric theories were also
discussed by several other Muslim astronomers such as
Abu-Rayhan Biruni,
Al-Sijzi,
Qutb
al-Din al-Shirazi, and 'Umar al-Katibi al-
Qazwini. The
astrolabe,
though originally developed by the Greeks, was perfected by Islamic
astronomers and engineers, and was subsequently brought to
Europe.
Muslim
chemists and
alchemists played an important role in the
foundation of modern
chemistry. Scholars
such as
Will Durant and
Alexander von Humboldt regard Muslim
chemists to be the founders of chemistry. In particular,
Geber is regarded as the "father of chemistry". The
works of Arab chemists influenced
Roger
Bacon (who introduced the empirical method to Europe, strongly
influenced by his reading of Arabic writers), and later
Isaac Newton. A number of
chemical processes (particularly in
alchemy) and
distillation techniques (such as the production
of
alcohol) were developed in the Muslim
world and then spread to Europe.
Some of the most famous scientists from the Islamic world include
Geber (
polymath,
father of
chemistry),
al-Farabi (polymath),
Abu
al-Qasim (father of modern
surgery),
Ibn al-Haytham (
universal genius, father of
optics, founder of
psychophysics and
experimental psychology, pioneer of
scientific method, "first
scientist"),
Abū Rayhān
al-Bīrūnī (universal genius, father of
Indology and
geodesy, "first
anthropologist"),
Avicenna (universal genius, father of
momentum and modern
medicine),
Nasīr al-Dīn
al-Tūsī (polymath), and
Ibn Khaldun
(father of
demography,
cultural history,
historiography, the
philosophy of history,
sociology, and the
social sciences), among many others.
Technology
In technology, the Muslim world adopted
papermaking from China and further advanced the
technology with their invention of
papermills many centuries before
paper was known in the West. The knowledge of
gunpowder was also transmitted from China via
Islamic countries, where the formulas for pure
potassium nitrate and an
explosive gunpowder effect were first
developed.
Advances were made in
irrigation and
farming, using new technology such as the
windmill.
Crops such as almonds
and citrus fruit were brought to Europe
through al-Andalus
, and sugar cultivation was
gradually adopted by the Europeans. Arab merchants
dominated trade in the Indian Ocean
until the arrival of the Portuguese
in the 16th century. Hormuz was an important center for this trade.
There was
also a dense network of trade routes in the Mediterranean
, along which Muslim countries traded with each
other and with European powers such as Venice
, Genoa
and Catalonia
. The
Silk Road
crossing
Central Asia passed through
Muslim states between China and Europe.
Muslim engineers in the Islamic world made a number of innovative
industrial uses of
hydropower, and early industrial uses of
tidal power,
wind
power,
steam power,
fossil fuels such as
petroleum, and early large
factory complexes (
tiraz in Arabic). The
industrial uses of
watermills in the
Islamic world date back to the 7th century, while
horizontal-
wheeled and vertical-wheeled
water mills were both in widespread use since at least the 9th
century. A variety of industrial mills were being employed in the
Islamic world, including early
fulling
mills,
gristmills,
hullers,
paper mills,
sawmills, shipmills,
stamp mills,
steel
mills,
sugar mills,
tide mills and
windmills.
By the
11th century, every province throughout the Islamic world had these
industrial mills in operation, from al-Andalus
and North Africa to the
Middle East and Central Asia. Muslim engineers also
invented
crankshafts and
water turbines, employed
gears in mills and water-raising
machines, and pioneered the use of
dams as a source of water power, used to provide
additional power to watermills and water-raising machines. Such
advances made it possible for many industrial tasks that were
previously driven by
manual labour in
ancient times to be
mechanized and driven by
machinery instead in the medieval Islamic world. The
transfer of these technologies to medieval Europe had an influence
on the
Industrial
Revolution.
A number of industries were generated due to the Muslim
Agricultural Revolution, including early industries for
agribusiness,
astronomical instruments,
ceramics,
chemicals,
distillation technologies,
clocks,
glass, mechanical
hydropowered and
wind powered machinery,
matting,
mosaics,
pulp and paper,
perfumery,
petroleum,
pharmaceuticals,
rope-making,
shipping,
shipbuilding,
silk,
sugar,
textiles,
water,
weapons, and the
mining of
minerals
such as
sulfur,
ammonia,
lead and
iron. Early large
factory
complexes (
tiraz) were built for many of these industries,
and knowledge of these industries were later transmitted to
medieval Europe, especially during
the
Latin
translations of the 12th century, as well as before and after.
For
example, the first glass factories in Europe were founded in the
11th century by Egyptian
craftsmen in Greece
. The
agricultural and
handicraft industries also experienced high
levels of growth during this period.
Modern Muslim world
Economy and trade
In circa 1800, the
gross domestic
product of the Muslim world was estimated at about 12 per cent
of the world total. By the end of the 19th century, this share had
plunged to about 5 per cent of the world total. This share then
stagnated throughout the 20th century.
As of 2008, the
Arab World accounts for
two-fifth of the gross domestic product and three-fifth of the
trade of the wider Muslim World. Oil industry and related services
account for almost two-fifth of the gross domestic product of the
Muslim world.
Geographic spread

Map of the world of Muslim majority
countries
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
, Oman
,United Arab
Emirates
, Kuwait
and non-Arab
nations such as Iran
, and
Afghanistan
.
- Africa: North African countries such as Morocco
, Algeria
, Tunisia
, Libya
, Egypt
; Northeast African countries like Somalia
, Eritrea
, Ethiopia
, Djibouti
and Sudan
; and
West African countries like Mali
, Senegal
, Gambia
, Guinea
, Guinea-Bissau
, Burkina
Faso
, Sierra
Leone
, Niger
and
Nigeria
.
- Southern
Europe: Albania
, Bosnia and Herzegovina
, Kosovo
, Northern
Cyprus
and Turkey
.
- Eastern
Europe: Azerbaijan
, parts of Russia
(North Caucasus and Idel-Ural) and Ukraine
(especially in the Crimea
)
- Central Asia:
Afghanistan
, formerly Soviet states like Uzbekistan
- South Asia:
Pakistan
, Bangladesh
, and the Maldives
- East Asia: parts of
China
(Xinjiang, Ningxia and Qinghai
)
- Southeast
Asia: Indonesia
, Brunei
and
Malaysia
The countries of Southwest Asia, and many in Northern and
Northeastern Africa are considered part of the
Greater Middle East.
In
Chechnya
, Dagestan
, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia
, Ingushetia
, Tatarstan, Bashkiria in Russia
, Muslims
are in the majority.
Some definitions would also include the sizable Muslim minorities
in:
- several countries of Europe (Of which the Muslim population in Cyprus, Russia
, Montenegro
, Bulgaria
, France
, The
Netherlands
and
Denmark
make up at least 5% of the total population of that
country, and with more than eighteen million Muslims, collectively,
living in Russia, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Italy)
- several regions of Russia, other than ethnic
republics above (Adyghea
, North
Ossetia
etc.)
- some
parts of India
(India has
the third-largest population of Muslims of any country; see:
Islam in India)
- Singapore
, Myanmar
, Pattani
(Thailand
), and Mindanao
(Philippines
)
- Guyana
, Suriname
, Trinidad and Tobago
.
- Democratic Republic of Congo
, Burundi
, Malawi
, South Africa, Cameroon
, Central African Republic
, Uganda, Ethiopia
- Crimea
in Ukraine
Demographics
One fifth of the
world population share Islam
as an
ethical tradition. Muslims
are the majority in 57
countries,they speak about 60 languages and
come from diverse
ethnic backgrounds.
Estimates conclude that the number of Muslims in the world ranges
between 1.0 - 1.8 billion, with the most accepted figure being
around 1.5 billion.
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 the 1973
Yom Kippur War against Israel after the
US re-equipped Israel with
armaments) had drastic economic and political consequences in
the United States and Europe. Recently Danish products faced a
boycott by Muslim world after the
2005 Prophet
Muhammad cartoons controversy, although that move was not
supported by the Muslim governments, 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.
Religion and state
[[File:Islam World.svg|thumb|600px|center|Religion and state in
Muslim majority countries.
]]Islamic law does not distinguish between "matters of church" and
"matters of state"; the
ulema function as both
jurists and theologians. In practice, Islamic rulers frequently
bypassed the
Sharia courts with a parallel
system of so-called "Grievance courts" over which they had sole
control.
As the Muslim world came into contact with Western
secular ideals, Muslim societies responded in
different ways.
Turkey
has been
governed as a secular state ever since
the reforms of Mustafa Kemal
Atatürk. In contrast, the
1979 Iranian Revolution replaced a
mostly secular regime with an
Islamic
republic led by the
Ayatollah
Ruholla Khomeini. The Republic of Turkey is the first
democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world.
Many Muslim countries still have a strong belief in the religion of
Islam, many have used
Sharia law in the state where the law runs from the
interpretations from the
Quran and the
Hadith in the society of politics, law,
schools and others. Most countries in the Muslim world according to
their constitution declare
Islam as the state
religion or
Sharia law, but a very few who
are Secular states compared with the western world.
By country
Countries in the Muslim world sorted by state religion:
Islamic states
Islamic State have adopted Islam as
the ideological foundation for their political institution.
Islam as state religion
State Religion are religious body or
creed officially endorsed by the state.
Secular states
Secular State are officially neutral
in matters of religion, neither supporting nor opposing any
particular religions.
Islam in law and ethics
In some nations, Muslim ethnic groups enjoy considerable
autonomy.
In some places, Muslims 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):
- Hanafi school in
Pakistan
, Afghanistan
, Bangladesh
, India
, Turkey
, Bosnia-Herzegovina
, Egypt
, Spain
, Morocco
, Canada
, Maldives
, Iraq
and West Africa
- Maliki in North
Africa and West Africa
- Shafi'i in Malaysia
, Qatar
, Indonesia
, Egypt
, Eritrea
, Somalia
and Yemen
- Hanbali in Arabia, Qatar

- Jaferi in Iran
&
AzerbaijanThese
two are the only "Muslim States" where the majority
is Shia and in Iraq
, France
&
Lebanon
where the Shia lives in Huge
Population.
Muslim women often dress extremely
modestly. 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 Muslim,
concerning particularly Muslim living in western countries, since
many in the Western World consider these restrictions both sexist
and oppressive. Most Muslims oppose this charge, and instead
declare that the media-fuelled world of the West is itself sexist
and oppressive in that women are forced to reveal irrational
amounts of flesh to be considered attractive.
Islamic economics bans
interest or Riba (
Usury) but
in most Muslim countries Western
banking is
allowed.
Islam in modern politics and conflicts
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 at the provincial level.
Many in these movements call themselves
Islamists, which also sometimes describes more
militant Islamic groups. The
relationships between these groups (in democratic countries there
is usually at least one
Islamic party)
and their views of democracy are complex.
Some of these groups are accused of practicing
Islamist terrorism.
Conflicts with Israel
Israel
is
subject to varying levels of hostility in the Muslim world due to
the creation of the state of Israel in Palestine, known to Jews as the Land of Israel, which is sacred for both Jews
and Muslims, and due to the prolonged Arab-Israeli conflict and the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
Turkey was the first Muslim-majority state to recognize Israel,
just one year after its founding, and they have the
longest shared close military and
economic ties.
Prior to the Iranian Revolution, Iran
and Israel
maintained a strong political
friendship, however the current Iranian government is strongly
anti-Israeli and has repeatedly called for Israel's
destruction. Once at war, both
Egypt and
Jordan have established
diplomatic relations and signed peace treaties with Israel, and
attempts to
resolve the conflict with Palestinians have produced a
number of interim agreements.
Nine non-Arab Muslim
states maintain diplomatic ties with Israel, and since 1994, the
Persian
Gulf
states have lessened their enforcement of
the Arab
boycott, with Saudi
Arabia
even declaring its end in 2005, though it has yet
to cancel its sanctions. States like Morocco that have
large Jewish
populations have generally had less hostile relations with
Israel.
Nuclear capabilities
Pakistan
is the only declared nuclear nation in the Muslim
World. The nuclear program of Pakistan was carried
out in response to India
's nuclear
test in 1974. Pakistan
conducted its nuclear tests in May 1998 to India
's nuclear
tests of May 1998.
See also:
Gulf War
See also:
Nuclear
program of Iran
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
, the
government of Iran
was
overthrown in the Iranian
Revolution, and the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan began.
Some of
the events pivotal in the Muslim world's relationship with the
outside world in the post-Soviet era
were:
The U.S.-led
War on Terrorism has
been criticized as a
War on Islam by
Hizb ut-Tahrir and other
Islamist organizations.
In 2009, in his first formal television interview as
U.S. President,
Barack Obama addressed the Muslim world
through an Arabic-language satellite TV network
Al-Arabiya. He called for a new partnership,
"based on mutual respect and mutual interest." The American envoy
to the region is former Sen.
George
J. Mitchell.
Political currents
- In
Pakistan
, a prominent U.S. 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 strongest showing up to that
point. They had support from urban areas for the first time.
See also: 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 also: 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.
- In
Iran
in 1979, a popular revolution saw the exile of the
Shah and the rule going to Ayatollah Khomeini, a cleric from the
Shia school of thought. The country has
what it claims is a theocratic democracy,
and has kept the "revolution" as part of the state's survival and
growth.
- In
2008, Kosovo
declared
independence from Serbia.
- In
Turkey
, political Islam has taken a more moderate tack,
driven by a strongly secular military; the Justice and Development
Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, or AK Party) has
been in government since the elections of
2002.
Major Muslim denominations
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. These two main differences stem from the
understanding of which
hadith are to
interpret the
Quran. The Shia minority
believes that the
Family of the Prophet's
traditions are exclusively to be followed, whereas the Sunni
majority believes in traditions from the
Companions of the Prophet and other common people to
be followed.
The overwhelming majority of Muslims in the world, approximately
75%, are
Sunni.
Shias and others (Ibadiyyas, Ahmadis, Druze) make up the rest,
about 25% of overall Muslim population.
Among the countries
with Shi'a majority of Muslim population are
Iran
(90%), Azerbaijan
(85%), Iraq
(65%),
Bahrain
(60%), and Lebanon
(35%).
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.
See also
- General: Shia–Sunni
relations, Ummah, caliphate, Hajj, Islam and other religions,
Islam and secularism,
- Islamic
- Pan-Islamism, Islamic republic, Divisions of the world in
Islam, Islam by country
- Muslim
- Muslim majority
countries, Muslim history
- Arab
- Arab world, Arab nationalism, Pan-Arabism
- Islamic philosophy: Islamic
philosophy, Early Islamic
philosophy, Contemporary Islamic
philosophy, Liberal
movements within Islam
- Christianity: Christendom, Caesaropapism, Church militant and church
triumphant, Ecumene, Res publica christiana
- Other:Western world, Organization of the
Islamic Conference
Notes
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- Joel L. Kraemer (1992), Humanism in the Renaissance of
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- Mason (1995) p.5
- Mason (1995) p.7
- "Islam", The New Encyclopedia Britannica (2005)
- John Grant and John Clute, The Encyclopedia of
Fantasy, "Arabian fantasy", p 51 ISBN 0-312-19869-8
- L.
Sprague de Camp, Literary Swordsmen and
Sorcerers: The Makers of Heroic Fantasy, p 10 ISBN
0-87054-076-9
- John Grant and John Clute, The Encyclopedia of
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- NIZAMI: LAYLA AND MAJNUN - English Version by Paul
Smith
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- Professor Nabil Matar (April 2004), Shakespeare and the
Elizabethan Stage Moor, Sam Wanamaker Fellowship Lecture,
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Brill
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Philosophers in Seventeenth-Century England, p. 227,
Brill
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- Ahmad Y
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II: Transmission Of Islamic Engineering
- Adam Robert Lucas (2005), "Industrial Milling in the Ancient
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Revolution in Medieval Europe", Technology and Culture
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- Ahmad Y
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- Centraal Bureau van de Statistiek (CBS) -
Netherlands/ Muslimpopulation
- See: * Esposito (2004), p.84 * Lapidus (2002), pp.502–507,845 *
Lewis (2003), p.100
- [3] Article 1 Islamic republic, Article 2
Religions
- [4] Article 1 Sovereignty, Constitutional
Monarchy
- [5] Article 2The Islamic republic
- [6] Article 1 State Integrity, Equal Protection
(1)
- [7] Article 2 Religion
- [8] Article 1 (1)Introductory
- [9] Article (1), (2), (3) The foundations of the
state
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabia
- [10] Article 2 Chapter I Algeria
- [11] Article 2A The state religion
- [12] Article 2The state
- [13] Article 2, 1st Basic
principles
- [14] Article 2 The state and the system
government
- [15] Article 2 State religion, language
- [16] Article 3 (1)
- [17] State religion (7.) State, sovereignty
and citizens
- [18] Article 6 Basic principles
- [19] Article 1
- [20] Article 1 [State] General
Provisions
- [21]http://www.worldstatesmen.org/uae_const.doc
Democratic regime in an Islamic and Arab society
- [22] Article 31
- [23] Article 1 (1)
- [24] Article 1
- [25] Article 25
- [26] Article 1
- CIAWorld Factbook- Djibouti
- [27] Article 1 (1)
- Characteristics of the Republic: Article 2, Provisions Relating
to Political Parties: Article 68, Oath taking: Article 81, Oath:
Article 103, Department of Religious Affairs: 136, Preservation of
Reform Laws: 174
- [28] Article 1 (1)
- [29]Article 1
- [30] Section 1: Foundations of the constitutional
order, Article 1
- [31]Article 7/Article 18
- [32]
References
- Graham, Mark, How Islam Created the Modern World
(2006)
External links
- Taliban’s jizya is extortion, nothing to do with
Islam: Indian Muslim leaders - TCN News
- 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
- Qantara.de-Dossier: Democracy and Civil Society in
Muslim countries
- Is There a Muslim World?, on NPR
- Euro-Islam
Website Coordinator Jocelyne Cesari, Harvard University and
CNRS-GSRL, Paris
- Asabiyya: Re-Interpreting Value Change in
Globalized Societies
- Why Europe has to offer a better deal towards its Muslim
communities. A
quantitative analysis of open international data