The Arabic word for submission to the will of God (Allah), the name of the religion originating in Arabia during the 7th-c through the Prophet Mohammed. Followers of Islam are known as Muslims, or Moslems, and their religion embraces every aspect of life. They believe that individuals, societies, and governments should all be obedient to the will of God as it is set forth in the Qur'an, which they regard as the Word of God revealed to his Messenger, Mohammed. The Qur'an teaches that God is one and has no partners. He is the Creator of all things, and holds absolute power over them. All persons should commit themselves to lives of grateful and praise-giving obedience to God, for on the Day of Resurrection they will be judged. Those who have obeyed God's commandments will dwell for ever in paradise, but those who have sinned against God and not repented will be condemned eternally to the fires of hell. Since the beginning of creation God has sent prophets, including Moses and Jesus, to provide the guidance necessary for the attainment of eternal reward, a succession culminating in the revelation to Mohammed of the perfect word of God.
There are five essential religious duties known as the Pillars of Islam. (1) The shahada (profession of faith) is the sincere recitation of the twofold creed: There is no god but God and Mohammed is the Messenger of God. (2) The salat (formal prayer) must be performed at five points in the day (varying with time of sunrise and sunset) while facing towards the holy city of Mecca. (3) Alms-giving through the payment of zakat (purification) is the duty of sharing one's wealth out of gratitude for God's favour, according to the uses laid down in the Qur'an. (4) There is a duty to fast (saum) during the month of Ramadan. (5) The Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca is to be performed if at all possible at least once during one's lifetime. Sharia is the sacred law of Islam, and applies to all aspects of life, not just religious practices. It describes the Islamic way of life, and prescribes the way for a Muslim to fulfil the commands of God and reach heaven. There is an annual cycle of festivals, including the Feast of the Sacrifice (Id al-Adha), commemorating Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac, which comes at the end of the Hajj pilgrimage, and the Id al-Fitr, marking the end of the month of fasting in Ramadan. There is no organized priesthood, but great respect is accorded to descendants of Mohammed, and other publicly acknowledged holy men, scholars, and teachers, such as mullahs and ayatollahs.
There are two basic groups within Islam. Sunni Muslims are in the majority, and they believe that correct religious guidance derives from the practice or sunna of the Prophet. They recognize the first four caliphs as Mohammed's legitimate successors. The Shiites comprise the largest minority group, and they believe that correct religious guidance obtains from members of the family of the Prophet, on which basis they recognize only the line of Ali, the fourth caliph and nephew and son-in-law of Mohammed as the Prophet's legitimate successors. While the Sunnis have through history believed that just government could be established on the basis of correct Islamic practice, the Shiites believe government to be inherently unjust, particularly since the last recognized member of the line of Ali, the Twelfth Imam, became hidden from view in AD 873. There are a number of sub-sects of Islam, and in 2004 there were over 1200 million Muslims throughout the world.
Islam (Arabic: الإسلام; Islam's followers, known as Muslims, believe God (Arabic: Allāh) revealed the Qur'an to Muhammad and that Muhammad is God's final prophet (see: Prophets of Islam). The majority of Muslims see the actions and teachings of Muhammad, as related in the Sunnah and Hadith, to be indispensable tools for interpreting the Qur'an.
Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam is an Abrahamic religion. There are estimated to be 1.4 billion adherents, making Islam the second-largest religion in the world.
Today, Muslims may be found throughout the world, particularly in the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia. The majority of Muslims are not Arabs; only 20 percent of Muslims originate from Arab countries. Islam is the second largest religion in the United Kingdom, and many other European countries, including France, which has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe.
Beliefs
Muslims believe that God revealed a message to humanity through Muhammad (c. The revelations made to Muhammad constitute the holy book of Islam, the Qur'an.
Muslims hold that the message of Islam ... From a Muslim point of view Islam is the oldest of the monotheistic religions because it represents both the original and the final revelation of God to Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. Members of all sects of the Muslim faith believe that the Qur'an codifies the direct words of God.
Islamic texts depict Judaism and Christianity as prophetic successor traditions to the teachings of Abraham. In order to reconcile discrepancies between the earlier prophets and the Qur'an, Muslims contend that Jews and Christians forgot or distorted the word of God after it was revealed to them. The majority of early, and some modern, Muslim scholars believe it was just distortion in the interpretation shown in the Bible.
Oneness of God
The fundamental concept in Islam is the Oneness of God or tawhīd: monotheism which is absolute, not relative or pluralistic. The Oneness of God is the first pillar of Islam's five pillars which is also called the "Shahādatān" (The two testimonies). By declaring the two testimonies, a Muslim attests to the belief that there are no gods but God (Allāh), and that Muhammad is God's messenger.
God is described in Sura al-Ikhlas as: "...God, the One and Only; Qur'an 112:1-4
In Arabic, God is called Allāh. A common misconception is that Muslims consider Allāh to be a different deity than that worshipped by Christians and Jews.
God is described numerous times in the Qur'an, for example: "(He is) the Creator of the heavens and the earth: He has made for you pairs from among yourselves, and pairs among cattle: by this means does He multiply you: there is nothing whatever like unto Him, and He is the One that hears and sees (all things)." Qur'an 42:11
The implicit usage of the definite article in Allah linguistically indicates the divine unity. Muslims believe that the God they worship is the same God of Abraham. Muslims reject the Christian doctrine concerning the trinity of God, seeing it as akin to polytheism.
No Muslim visual images or depictions of God are meant to exist because such artistic depictions may lead to idolatry. Moreover, most Muslims believe that God is incorporeal, making any two- or three- dimensional depictions impossible. Instead, Muslims describe God by the names and attributes that he revealed to his creation.
Muhammad
Muhammad, also Mohammed, Mohamet, and other variants was an Arab religious and political leader who established Islam and the Muslim community (Ummah) to whom he preached. He is considered the greatest prophet in Islam, and is venerated and honoured as such. Muslims do not regard him as the founder of a new religion, but rather believe him to be the last in a line of prophets of God and regard his mission as one of restoring the original monotheistic faith of Adam, Abraham and other prophets of Islam that had become corrupted by man over time.
For the last 23 years of his life, beginning at age 40, Muhammad reported receiving revelations from God delivered through the angel Gabriel.
All Muslims believe that Muhammad was sinless in the sense of transmitting the revelation: "And if the apostle were to invent any sayings in Our name, We should certainly seize him by his right hand, And We should certainly then cut off the artery of his heart: Nor could any of you withhold him (from Our wrath)."
Resurrection on Judgement day
Qiyamah is the Muslim equivalent of the Christian belief in the Last Judgement. Belief in Qiyâmah is part of Aqidah and is a fundamental tenet of faith in Islam. The trials and tribulations of Qiyâmah are explained in both the Qur'an and the Hadith, as well as in the commentaries of the Islamic scholars such as al-Ghazali, Ibn Kathir, Ibn Majah, Muhammad al-Bukhari, and Ibn Khuzaimah, who explain them in detail.
Muslims believe that Allah will hold every human, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, accountable for his or her deeds(74:38) at a preordained time unknown to man. The Qur'an states: "They say, 'What, when we are bones and broken bits, shall we really be raised up again in a new creation?' Say: 'Let you be stones, or iron, or some creation yet more monstrous in your minds!' Then they will say, 'who will bring us back?' say: 'He who originated you the first time.' They will shake their heads at thee, and they will say, 'When will it be?' Say: 'It is possible that it may be nigh, on the day when He will call you, and you will answer praising Him, and you will think that you have but tarried a little'."17:49-52}}
The Qur'an, at various junctures, indicates the sins that will earn a person consignment to hell.
Sources of Islam
Qur'an
The Qur'an is considered by Muslims to be the literal, undistorted word of God, and is the central religious text of Islam. Although the Qur'an is referred to as a "book", when Muslims refer in the abstract to "the Qur'an," they are usually referring to the scripture as recited in Arabic -- the words themselves -- rather than to the printed work or any translation of it.
Muslims believe that the verses of the Qur'an were revealed to Muhammad by God through the Angel Gabriel on numerous occasions between the years 610 and up till his death on July 6, 632. Modern historians generally decline to address the further question of whether the messages Muhammad reported being revealed to him were from "his unconscious, the collective unconscious functioning in him, or from some divine source", but they acknowledge that the material came from "beyond his conscious mind"
Western modern academics generally reject the notion that the Qur'an of today is markedly different from the words Muhammad claimed to have been revealed to him.
Most Muslims regard paper copies of the Qur'an with veneration, washing as for prayers before reading the Qur'an.
Many Muslims memorize at least some portion of the Qur'an in the original language (i.e. Muslims believe that the Qur'an is perfect only as revealed in the original Arabic.
Sunnah
Sunnah literally means “trodden path”, and therefore, the sunnah of the prophet means “the way of the prophet”. Terminologically, the word ‘Sunnah’ in Sunni Islam means those religious actions that were instituted by the Prophet Muhammad during the 23 years of his ministry and which Muslims initially received through consensus of companions of Muhammad (Sahaba), and further through generation-to-generation transmission.
The question of hadith (words and deeds of the Prophet) falling within the abode of the sunnah is an interesting one, and is highly dependent on the context. In Shi'a Islam, the word 'Sunnah' means the deeds, sayings and approvals of Muhammad and the twelve Imams who Shi'a Muslims believe were chosen by God to succeed the prophet and to lead mankind in every aspect of life.
Hadith
Hadith are traditions relating to the words and deeds of Muhammad. Hadith collections are regarded as important tools for determining the Sunnah, or Muslim way of life, by all traditional schools of jurisprudence. A hadith was originally an oral tradition relevant to the actions and customs of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Western academics view the hadith collections with caution as historical sources. Early Muslim scholars were also concerned that hadiths may have been fabricated and thus developed a whole science of criticism to distinguish between genuine sayings and those that were errors or frauds.
Hadith is considered an authoritative source of revelation, second only to the Qur'an. In Islamic jurisprudence, the Qur'an contains many rules for the behavior expected of Muslims. Muslims believe that they can look at the way of life, or sunnah, of Muhammad and his companions to discover what to imitate and what to avoid. Muslim scholars also find it useful to know how Muhammad or his companions explained the revelations, or upon what occasion Muhammad received them. For the vast majority of devout Muslims, authentic hadith are also a source of religious inspiration. However, some contemporary Muslims argue that the Qur'an alone is sufficient.
Five Pillars of Islam
The Five Pillars of Islam is the term given to what are understood among many Muslims to be the five core aspects of Sunni Islam. Shi'a Muslims accept the Five Pillars, but also add several other practices to form the Branches of Religion.
Shahadah
The basic creed or tenet of Islam is found in the shahādatān ("two testimonies"): 'ašhadu 'al-lā ilāha illā-llāhu wa 'ašhadu 'anna muħammadan rasūlu-llāh; As the most important pillar, this testament can be considered a foundation for all other beliefs and practices in Islam. Muslims must repeat the shahadah in prayer, and non-Muslims must use the creed to formally convert to Islam.
Salat
The second pillar of Islam is salat, the requirement to pray five times a day at fixed times. However, in the early days of Islam prior to the hijra and until the beginning of the seventh month after hijra Muslims offered salat facing towards Jerusalem.
The salat must be performed in the Arabic language to the best of each worshipper's ability (although the du'a afterwards need not be in Arabic), and the lines are to be recited by heart, although beginners may use written aids.
Zakat
Zakat, or alms-giving, is giving charity to the poor and needy by able Muslims, based on the wealth that one has accumulated. A Muslim may also donate an additional amount as an act of voluntary charity (sadaqah), in order to achieve additional divine reward.
There are two main types of zakât, zakât on traffic, which is a per head payment equivalent to cost of around 2.25 kilograms of the main food of the region paid during the month of Ramadan by the head of a family for himself and his dependents, and zakât on wealth, which covers money made in business, savings, income, crops, livestock, gold, minerals, hidden treasures unearthed, and so on.
The payment of zakât is obligatory on all Muslims.
Sawm
Sawm, or fasting, is an obligatory act during the month of Ramadan. Muslims must abstain from food, drink, and sexual intercourse from dawn to dusk during this month, and are to be especially mindful of other sins that are prohibited. This activity is intended to allow Muslims to seek nearness to God as well as remind them of the needy. During Ramadan, Muslims are also expected to put more effort into following the teachings of Islam by refraining from violence, anger, envy, greed, lust, angry/sarcastic retorts, gossip, and are meant to try to get along with each other better than normal. The fast is an exacting act of deeply personal worship in which Muslims seek a raised level of closeness to God.
Fasting during Ramadan is not obligatory for several groups for whom it would be excessively problematic.
Hajj
The Hajj is a pilgrimage that occurs during the month of Dhu al-Hijjah in the city of Mecca. Every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so is obliged to make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in his or her lifetime. Mecca is so important because it was the place where the Islamic prophet Muhammad was said to have lived and gained his prophet status. Entrance to Mecca itself is forbidden to non-Muslims, and the entire city is considered a holy site to Islam.
The pilgrim, the hajj, is honoured in his or her community. This should lead to constant striving for self-improvement.
Organization
Mosques
A mosque is a place of worship for Muslims. Muslims often refer to the mosque by its Arabic name, masjid. The word "mosque" in English refers to all types of buildings dedicated for Islamic worship, although there is a distinction in Arabic between the smaller, privately owned mosque and the larger, "collective" mosque (masjid jami) (Arabic: جامع), which has more community and social amenities.
The primary purpose of the mosque is to serve as a place where Muslims can come together for prayer. Nevertheless, mosques are known around the world nowadays for their general importance to the Muslim community as well as their demonstration of Islamic architecture. They are not only places for worship and prayer, but also places to learn about Islam and meet fellow believers.
According to Islamic beliefs, the first mosque in the world was the Kaaba, which was built by Abraham upon an order from God. The Meccan tribe of Quraish, which was responsible for guarding Kaaba, attempted to exclude Muhammad's followers from the sanctuary, which became a subject of Muslim complaints recorded in the Qur'an. The Masjid al-Haram was significantly expanded and improved in the early centuries of Islam in order to accommodate the increasing number of Muslims who either lived in the area or made the annual Hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca, before it acquired its present shape in 1577 in the reign of the Ottoman sultan Selim II.
The first thing Muhammad did upon arriving with his followers near Medina (then named Yathrib) after the emigration from Mecca in 622 was build the Quba Mosque in a village outside Medina. Today, the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, the Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina and Al Aqsa (for the majority of Muslims) in Jerusalem are considered the three holiest sites in Islam.
Islamic calendar
Islam dates from the Hijra, or migration from Mecca to Medina.
Customs and behavioral laws
Practitioners of Islam are generally taught to follow some specific customs in their daily lives. Due to Muhammad's sanction or tacit approval of such practices, these customs are considered to be Sunnah (practices of Muhammad as part of the religion) by the Ummah(Muslim nation).
Festivals
There are two festivals that are considered Sunnah.
Dietary laws
Islamic law does not present a comprehensive list of pure foods and drinks.
Islamic knowledge
There are some branches of knowledge which have been developed on the basis of the Qur'an and Sunnah to answer Muslims' questions in their religious life.
Theology
Muslim theology is a branch of knowledge about Islamic faith and beliefs which tries to rationalize the ideas expressed in Qur'an and hadith and answer Muslim questions about them, and to try to challenge non-Muslims' faith and beliefs. The contents of Muslim theology can be divided into theology proper, theodicy, eschatology, anthropology, apophatic theology, and comparative religion.
Law
The sharia (Arabic for "well-trodden path") is Islamic law, as shown by traditional Islamic scholarship. The second source is the sunnah of Muhammad and the early Muslim community. The sunnah is not itself a text like the Qur'an, but it is the practical adherence of Muslims to matters of worship. Ijma (consensus of the community of Muslims) and qiyas (analogical reasoning) are generally regarded as the third and fourth sources of Sharia, but have been contested by some scholars, who believe that according to the Qur'an other sources should take precedence.
Islamic law covers all aspects of life, from broad topics of governance and foreign relations all the way down to issues of daily living. Islamic scholars, the ulema], have elaborated systems of law on the basis of these broad rules, supplemented by the hadith reports of how Muhammad and his companions interpreted them.
In current times, as Islam has spread to non Arabic speaking countries such as Iran, Indonesia, Great Britain, and the United States, not all Muslims understand the Qur'an in its original Arabic. Thus, when Muslims are divided in how to handle situations, they seek the assistance of a mufti (Islamic judge) who can offer them advice based on the sharia and hadith.
Fiqh is the Islamic term for Islamic jurisprudence. It is regarded as an expansion of the divine law or sharia, complemented by the rulings (fatwa) of Islamic jurists (ulema) to direct the lives of Muslims. The modus operandi of the Muslim jurist is usul al-fiqh.
Tafsir
Tafsir is Qur'anic exegesis or commentary.
Tafsir was one of the earliest academic activities in Islam. The Prophet was the first person who described the Ayats for Muslims: " A similar (favour have ye already received) in that We have sent among you a Messenger of your own, rehearsing to you Our Signs, and sanctifying you, and instructing you in Scripture[Qurán] and Wisdom, and in new knowledge." 2:151
There are some sources that are used to understand the meaning of Qur'anic verses: the Qur'an itself, hadith, Aribiq (Fiqh alloghat), memories of the occasions of revelation (asbāb al-nuzūl), the circumstances under which Muhammad spoke, and reason.
Denominations
There are a number of Islamic religious denominations, each of which have significant theological and legal differences from each other but possess similar essential beliefs. According to most sources, present estimates indicate that approximately 85% of the world's Muslims are Sunni and approximately 15% are Shi'a.
Sunni
The Sunni are the largest group in Islam. Sunnis and Shi'a believe that Muhammad is a perfect example to follow, and that they must imitate the words and acts of Muhammad as accurately as possible.
Sunnis recognize four major legal traditions (madhhabs): Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanafi, and Hanbali. All four accept the validity of the others and a Muslim might choose any one that he/she finds agreeable to his/her ideas. The more recent Salafi movement among Sunnis, adherents of which often refuse to categorize themselves under any single legal tradition, sees itself as restorationist and claims to derive its teachings from the original sources of Islam.
Shi'a
Shi'a Muslims, the second-largest branch, differ from the Sunni in rejecting the authority of the first three caliphs. Shi'a Muslims hold that leadership should not be passed down through a system such as the caliphate, but rather, descendants of Muhammad should be given this right as Imams.
See also: Historic background of the Sunni-Shi'a splitSufism
Sufism is a mystical form of Islam followed by some Muslims within both the Sunni and Shi'a sects.
Others
Another sect which dates back to the early days of Islam is that of the Kharijites. The only surviving branch of the Kharijites are the Ibadi Muslims. Ibadi Islam is noted for its strictness, but, unlike the Kharijites proper, Ibadis do not regard major sins as automatically making a Muslim an unbeliever. Most Ibadi Muslims live in Oman.
Another trend in modern Islam is that which is sometimes called progressive.
There is also a very small sect isolated within India and Pakistan which identifies themselves as Ahmadi Muslims, who believe in the continuation of prophethood after Muhammad, in contradiction to mainstream Muslims who believe that Muhammad was the final prophet. Although this sect is not accepted as Muslim by mainstream Islamic scholars, they continue to identify themselves with the term Muslim. Likewise, Ahmadis believe that rest of the Muslims who do not share faith with them are non-Muslims.
Islam and other religions
The Qur'an contains both injunctions to respect other religions, and to fight and subdue unbelievers during war. )
On the issue of tolerance towards other faiths, one point should be made at the beginning. Until relatively modern times, tolerance in the treatment of non-believers, at least as it is understood in the West after John Locke, was neither valued, nor its absence condemned by both Muslims and Christians.
Traditionally Jews and Christians living in Muslim lands, known as dhimmis were allowed to "practice their religion, subject to certain conditions, and to enjoy a measure of communal autonomy" and guaranteed their personal safety and security of property, in return for paying tribute to Muslims and acknowledging Muslim supremacy.
Related faiths
The Yazidi, Druze, Bábísm, Bahá'í Faith, Berghouata and Ha-Mim religions either emerged out of an Islamic milieu or have beliefs in common with Islam in varying degrees; Its holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib, contains writings not only by Sikh saints but by Hindu and Muslim writers.
Islam began in Arabia in the 7th century under the leadership of Muhammad, who united the tribes of Arabia under Islamic law. After this, there would always be rival dynasties claiming the caliphate, or leadership of the Muslim world, and many Islamic states or empires offering only token obedience to an increasingly powerless caliph.
Despite this fragmentation of Islam as a political community, the empires of the Abbasid caliphs, the Mughals, and the Seljuk Turk, Safavid Persia and Ottomans were among the largest and most powerful in the world. Arabs made many Islamic centers of culture and science and produced notable scientists, astronomers, mathematicians, doctors and philosophers during the Golden Age of Islam.
Islam at its geographical height stretched for thousands of miles.
In the 15th century and 16th centuries three major Muslim empires were created: the Ottoman Empire in much of the Middle East, Balkans and Northern Africa;
By the end of the 19th century, however all three had declined due to internal conflict and were later destroyed by Western cultural influence and military ambitions. Islam and Islamic political power have become much more influential in the 21st century, particularly due to Islamic control of most of the world's oil.Islamicization, the process of the conversion of societies to Islam, originally closely followed the rapid growth of the Arab Empire in the first centuries after Muhammad's death. Muslim dynasties were soon established in North Africa, the Middle East and Persia and the conversion of the population was a protracted process. Although the expansion of Muslim empires eventually slowed, conversion to Islam continued in other ways. Muslim countries dominated trade in the Indian Ocean and the Sahara and it was through trade, Sufi preachers, and interaction with locals that Islam grew in areas such as the Sahel and the East Indies.
Caliphate
Muhammed died in 632 without appointing a successor or leaving in place a system for choosing one, according to the majority of Muslims. Caliph is the title for the Islamic leader of the Ummah, or community of Islam. Some of the early leaders of the Muslim community following Muhammad's death called themselves "Khalifat Allah", meaning representative of God, but the alternative title of "Khalifat rasul Allah", meaning the successor to the prophet of God, eventually became the standard title.
Caliphs were often also referred to as Amīr al-Mu'minīn (أمير المؤمنين) "Commander of the Faithful", or, more colloquially, leader of the Muslims.
None of the early caliphs claimed to receive divine revelations, as did Muhammad; However, the early caliphs believed themselves to be the spiritual and temporal leaders of Islam, and insisted that implicit obedience to the caliph in all things was the hallmark of the good Muslim.
After the first four caliphs (Abu Bakr, Umar ibn al-Khattab, Uthman ibn Affan, and Ali ibn Abi Talib), the title was claimed by the Umayyads, the Abbasids, and the Ottomans, as well as by other, competing lineages in Spain, Northern Africa, and Egypt. Most historical Muslim rulers simply titled themselves sultans or amirs, and gave token obedience to a caliph who often had very little real authority.
Once the subject of intense conflict and rivalry amongst Muslim rulers, the caliphate has lain dormant and largely unclaimed for much of the past 82 years. Though many Muslims might favor a caliphate in the abstract, tight restrictions on political activity in many Muslim countries coupled with the tremendous practical obstacles to uniting over fifty disparate nation-states under a single institution have prevented efforts to revive the caliphate from garnering much active support, even amongst devout Muslims. No attempts at rebuilding a power structure based on Islam were successful anywhere in the Muslim World until the Iranian Revolution in 1979, which was based on Shia principles and whose leaders did not outwardly call for the restoration of a global Caliphate (although Iran has subsequently made efforts to 'export' its revolution to other Muslim countries).
Contemporary Islam
Although the most prominent movement in Islam in recent times has been fundamentalist Islamism, there are a number of liberal movements within Islam, which seek alternative ways to align the Islamic faith with contemporary questions.
Early Sharia had a much more flexible character than is currently associated with Islamic jurisprudence, and many modern Muslim scholars believe that it should be renewed, and the classical jurists should lose their special status.
This movement does not aim to challenge the fundamentals of Islam;
Many Muslims counter the claim that only "liberalization" of the Islamic Sharia law can lead to distinguishing between tradition and true Islam by saying that meaningful "fundamentalism", by definition, will eject non-Islamic cultural inventions — for instance, acknowledging and implementing Muhammad's insistence that women have God-given rights that no human being may legally infringe upon. Proponents of modern Islamic philosophy sometimes respond to this by arguing that, as a practical matter, "fundamentalism" in popular discourse about Islam may actually refer, not to core precepts of the faith, but to various systems of cultural traditionalism.
See also: Modern Islamic philosophyDemographics of Islam today
Based on the figures published in the 2005 CIA World Factbook (), Islam is the second largest religion in the world. According to the Al Islam, and Samuel Huntington, Islam is the fastest growing major religion by percent (though not by raw numbers). Most of this growth is due to the high population growth in many Islamic countries (six out of the top-ten countries in the world with the highest birth rates are majority Muslim ). The birth rates in some Muslim countries are now declining.
Commonly cited estimates of the Muslim population today range between 900 million and 1.5 billion people (cf. estimates of Islam by country based on U.S. State Department figures yield a total of 1.48 billion, while the Muslim delegation at the United Nations quoted 1.2 billion as the global Muslim population in September 2005.
Only 18% of Muslims live in the Arab world; 20% are found in Sub-Saharan Africa, about 30% in the South Asian region of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, and the world's largest single Muslim community (within the bounds of one nation) is in Indonesia. There are also significant Muslim populations in China, Europe, Central Asia, and Russia.
France has the highest Muslim population of any nation in Western Europe, with up to 6 million Muslims (10% of the population). Albania has the highest proportion of Muslims as part of its population in Europe (70%), although this figure is only an estimate (see Islam in Albania). Countries in Europe with many Muslims include Bosnia and Herzegovina (estimated around 50% are Bosniaks, Muslims) and Macedonia where over 30% of the population is Muslim, mostly ethnic Albanians in Macedonia. The country in Europe with the most Muslims is Russia. The number of Muslims in North America is variously estimated as anywhere from 1.8 to 7 million.
Political and religious extremism
The term Islamism describes a set of political ideologies derived from Islamic fundamentalism. Most Islamist ideologies hold that Islam is not only a religion, but also a political system that governs the legal, economic and social imperatives of the state according to interpretations of Islamic Law.
Islamic extremist terrorism refers to acts of terrorism claimed by its supporters and practitioners to be in furtherance of the goals of Islam.
The validity of an Islamic justification for these acts is contested by some Muslims. Islamic extremist violence is not synonymous with all terrorist activities committed by Muslims: nationalists, separatists, and others in the Muslim world often derive inspiration from secular ideologies.
Criticism of Islam
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In recent years, Islam has been the subject of criticism and controversy, and is often viewed with considerable negativity in the West. Islam, the Qur'an, and Muhammad, have all been subject to both criticism and vilification, some of which has been dismissed as a product of Islamophobia.
The earliest surviving written criticisms of Islam are to be found in the writings of Christians who came under the early dominion of the Islamic empire. The second chapter of his book, The Fount of Wisdom, titled 'Concerning Heresies' presents a series of discussions between Christians and Muslims.
Some medieval ecclesiastical writers portrayed Muhammad as possessed by Satan, a "precursor of the Antichrist" or the Antichrist himself.
Maimonides, one of the foremost rabbinical arbiters and philosophers in Jewish history, saw the relation of Islam to Judaism as primarily theoretical. Maimonides has no quarrel with the strict monotheism of Islam, but finds fault with the practical politics of Muslim regimes. Maimonides criticised what he perceived as the lack of virtue in the way Muslims rule their societies and relate to one another.
Notable modern critics include personalities such as Evangelical leader Pat Robertson, who stated that Islam wants to take over the world, that it is not a religion of peace, that radical Muslims are "satanic", and that Osama Bin Laden was a "true follower of Muhammad". Some critics argue that in Islam women have fewer rights than men and that non-Muslims under the dhimmi system have fewer rights than Muslims.
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