Muslim World

Nek Muhammad · #1 Sunday, February 28, 2010

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.

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 monarchy 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 Iran–Iraq War
The 1991 Persian Gulf War
The Bosnian War
The Kosovo War
The 1982-2000 South Lebanon conflict
The Kargil War
The 2001 invasion of Afghanistan
The 2003 invasion of Iraq
The Syrian occupation of Lebanon
The 2005 Prophet Muhammad cartoons controversy
The Second Sudanese Civil War
The 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
The 2006 controversy over remarks quoted by Pope Benedict XVI
The 2007 Lebanon conflict
The ongoing Darfur conflict
The ongoing standoff with Iran over its Nuclear program
The ongoing Second Chechen War
The ongoing Waziristan War
The ongoing Islamic Insurgency in the Philippines
The ongoing war in Somalia
The 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence

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.

Current reports from various sources have estimated that 1.2 to 1.57 billion Muslims populate the world, or about 25% of an estimated 2010 world population of 6.8 billion, with 80% in Asia (20% in the Middle East ) and 20% of Muslims living in North Africa. Muslims in non-Asian countries account for a minority of total Muslim populations and they are mostly of Asian origin; from South Asia, Central Asia and Middle-east.

Source: wikipedia

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