5. Islam (1)

Islam is an Arabic word that means “submission”, said to be the surrender of oneself to the will of Allah (God), achieving peace and security by doing so. A person surrenders to the will of Allah by living and thinking in the way Allah has instructed. A Muslim is a follower of Islam. Muslim is an Arabic word that refers to one who submits to the will of Allah. Islam is more than a system of beliefs. The faith provides a social and legal system to govern all aspects of life, such as family, law and order, ethics, dress, and cleanliness as well as religious ritual and observance. The Qur’an is the holy book of Islam and considered to contain the unaltered word of Allah.

Background

Islam is the world's second most followed religion and, at present, the fastest growing. It began in its present form more than 1,400 years ago (founded in 622 AD) in what is now Saudi Arabia.  It swiftly became a world faith, and now has as many as 1.3 billion believers.[1] That is about 20-22% of the world population, or otherwise said, one in every five people today is a Muslim. In the USA, estimates reach two million with a increase of more than 100% in the last ten years.[2] Islam actively seeks converts while its aggressively avoids exposure of believers to other faiths.

Although Islam is a purely Arabic religion, less than 20% of Muslims live in the Arab world. An estimated 20% live in Sub-Saharan Africa; about 30% in the South Asian region of Pakistan (155 million Muslims), India (130 million) and Bangladesh (125 million[3]).  Somewhat surprisingly, the world's largest single country Muslim population is found in Indonesia (about 210 million Muslims).[4] There are also significant Muslim populations in China , Europe (fast growing, especially France and Great Britain ), Central Asia, and Russia .

Islam's three holiest places, the cities of Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem are all in the Middle East. That Mecca and Medina are so revered is obvious from the role these cities – especially Mecca – played in the life of Mohammed. The importance of Jerusalem is somewhat unexpected. There is no indication that Mohammed ever visited Jerusalem. So why is it so important? Jerusalem ’s special position is partly explained by the important role it plays in the “rewritten” accounts in the Qur’an of Old Testament stories about Abraham and David as well as the life of  Jesus. More important is the belief that the site of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem is the place where the prophet Mohammad was carried into heaven.

As we have seen, Christianity is currently the largest religion in the world. About 32% of the world population is Christian, a percentage that has remained relatively stable with only a slight decline for decades. However Islam adherence grows at a rate of an estimated 2.9% per year, that is 0.6% more per year than the growth of the world population. If this current trend continues, Islam will become the largest world religion sometime in the mid twenty-first century.

Why is Islam growing so fast on a worldwide basis? It is likely a combination of geopolitics and demographics. Countries with a large majority of Muslims declare themselves an Islamic state and adapt Islamic laws, making Islam the only allowed state religion. Usually this is combined with a non or limited democratic regime. Examples are Saudi Arabia , Iran , Syria , Pakistan , and so on. In these countries freedom of religion is not allowed, or at best severely restricted, thus forcing Islam on all its citizens. On the other hand, some traditionally Christian European countries have ex-colonial ties to many of the countries now predominantly Islamic. These historical ties allow easy entry for citizens from these former colonies into Europe and the European Union facilitates easy travel within its borders.  Many Muslims make these moves for economic reasons. Through this migration, increasing numbers of Muslims migrate to these mostly Christian countries and take their faith with them. The effects of this population shift are multiplied significantly as birthrates decline and family size decreases among the “native” Europeans as opposed to the large Muslim families.