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April 2009
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The
Islamic world
or
Muslim world
consists of all people who believe in
Islam
. It is not an exact location, but rather a
community
. When they do things together as Muslims, they are the "
umma
", which means "community" referring to all of the believers. The faith emphasizes unity and defense of fellow Muslims, so it is common for these nations to cooperate. Recent conflicts in the Muslim world have sometimes spread because of this desire to cooperate (see below). It is also likely that some have been made shorter and less damaging because of it. Some might even have never started.
Muslims are in many countries. In 52 nations, Muslims are the majority. Almost all are
Sunni
. They speak about 60 languages and come from all ethnic backgrounds.
- 10.4 million Muslims in
Canada
and the
United States
- 2.2 million Muslims in
Latin
and
Central America
- 10.0 million Muslims in the
European Union
plus
Bosnia-Herzegovina
and
Albania
- few or none in
Eastern Europe
,
Norway
- 62.4 million Muslims in
Turkey
- 284.4 million Muslims in the
Arab League
including
Iraq
(with about 15 million
Shia
, 60% of the population)
- 254.0 Muslims in
Sub-Saharan Africa
- 65.4 million Muslims (90%
Shia
) in
Iran
- 48.5 million Muslims in
Central Asia
- in
Azerbaijan
,
Uzbekistan
,
Tajikistan
,
Kazakhstan
,
Kyrgyzstan
,
Turkmenistan
- formerly
republics of the Soviet Union
.
- 26.7 million Muslims in
Russia
- 22.7 million Muslims in
Afghanistan
- 230.0 million Muslims in
Pakistan
(Muslim INDIA)
- 150.8 million Muslims in
Bangladesh
(Formerly
East Bengal
provincial region).
- 200.1 million Muslims in
Republic of India
(Excluding
Muslim-majority
Jammu and Kashmir
) - the world's largest minority population and a close second, after China
- 625.5 million Muslims in
China
- a close first
- 34.6 million Muslims in Somalia
- 196.3 million Muslims in
Indonesia
- 30.0 million Muslims in the rest of
South-East Asia
, especially
Malaysia
- few or none in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Mongolia, or the South Pacific
The
Al-Jazeera
satellite TV network in the
Arabic language
is a news source many Muslims watch.
In most Muslim nations, the government is the main source of news. This sometimes makes it very difficult or dangerous to make anti-government statements.
There are, however, many other news programmes and websites in the Muslim world.
Islamic law
exists in many variations - in Arabic it is called
shariah
- five schools of which were created centuries ago. These are the
classical fiqh
: the
Hanafi
school from
India
,
Pakistan
and
Bangaladesh
,
West Africa
,
Egypt
, the
Maliki
in
North Africa
and
West Africa
, the
Shafi
in
Malaysia
and
Indonesia
, the
Hanbali
in
Arabia
, and
Jaferi
in
Iran
and
Iraq
- where the majority is
Shia
. All five are very old and many Muslims 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 very conservative, especially about
alcohol
,
adultery
,
abortion
and
women
working in jobs where they are used to lure customers.
Muslim women
often dress extremely modestly, and many do so by choice. But in some countries they have been forced to do so against their will. This is one of the things that causes tension between the
Western World
and that of Muslims.
Islamic economics
bans
debt
but in most Muslim countries Western
banking
is allowed. This is another issue that many Muslims have with the Western world.
One quarter of the
world
population share Islam as an
ethical tradition
.
Many people in these countries also see
Islam as a political movement
. In democratic countries there is usually at least one
Islamic party
.
Political Islam
is powerful in all Muslim-majority countries.
Islamic parties
in
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 their views of democracy are complex.
Some of these groups are called
terrorists
because they attack civilians of other non-Muslim nations, to make a political point.
Conflicts with Israel and the US
[
change
|
change source
]
Israel
is very unpopular in the Muslim world, because of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
and the way that the state of Israel came into being in
1948
which many
Arabs
thought was unfair.
Some Muslims see this as a fight against
Judaism
or
Jews
, but not all. In
Morocco
for instance, the Islamists recently invited
Jews
to join the party. Jewish groups also cooperate with Arabs in the
West Bank
, where
Neturei Karta
(anti-Zionist orthodox Jewish) leader Rabbi
Mosche Hirsch
served as the Minister for Jewish Affairs in the
Fatah
before there was a
Palestinian Authority
. Like the Arabs, this small group of Jews thought the way Israel was created was not right. However, very few Jews believe this, and most support Israel as a state.
In
1979
there was a big shift in the way the Muslim world dealt with the rest of the world. In that year,
Egypt
made peace with
Israel
,
Iran
became an
Islamic state
after a
revolution
, and there was an
invasion of Afghanistan
by the
Soviet Union
. A lot of things changed in that year. By
2001
the
Soviet Union
was gone,
Jordan
had also made peace with Israel, and on
September 11, 2001
there were major attacks on the U.S. - which most people believe were made to drive the United States out of the Muslim world, especially
Saudi Arabia
. In many ways the events of 1979 led to the events of 2001.
The
2001 invasion of Afghanistan
and
2003 invasion of Iraq
are called part of a
War on Terrorism
by the
United States
. Many or most Muslims see it as a
War on Islam
. After the invasion, the
Islamic parties
won more seats, and a majority of Muslims polled in many nations expressed support for
Osama bin Laden
and said he would "do the right thing".
Olivier Roy
is a French scholar who thinks that this does not express support for
al-Qaeda
or
militant Islam
but opposing
colonialism
and what many Muslims call
racism
- favourable treatment for Jews especially those living in
West Bank settlements
, many of whom have American or British passport, and which the
United Nations
says have no right to live there.
The situation is very complicated and there are many different views of it.
The
Organization of Islamic Conference
formed in
1969
lets the Muslim nations work as a group.
Russia
joined in
2003
.
The
Arab League
is a smaller group of only the Arab countries.
OPEC
is another forum where issues between the Muslim and non-Muslim world come up. In
1973
to protest U.S. support for Israel there was an
oil embargo
which caused the
1973 energy crisis
.