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Islam
Islam
• Religion of 1.3 billion people
• Predominant in Middle East from North Africa
to Central Asia
• Practiced from deserts of Africa to tropics of
SE Asia
• ½ live in four countries:
– Indonesia
– Pakistan
– Bangladesh
– India
• Islam in Arabic means “submission to the will of
God” and root in Arabic word for peace
• Practitioners called Muslims “one who
surrenders to God”
• God had four functions
– Creation, sustenance, guidance, judgment
– Purpose of people is to serve God by worshipping
him and adhering to ethical social order
– Actions of individual should benefit humanity
• Earthly matters are profane, only Allah is pure
• Allah’s will is absolute, he is omnipotent and
omniscient
• World created for Muslims use until judgment
day
Five Pillars of Faith
• No god worthy of worship except the one God,
Allah
• Pray 5 times daily facing Mecca
• Give to charity (purification and growth)
• Fast during the month of Ramadan (Selfpurification)
• Hajji (pilgrimage, if possible, to Mecca)
• Islam forbids: alcohol, smoking, and gambling
• Mosques are built for Friday prayer and social
gathering places
Branches of Islam
• Sunni
– Arabic word for Orthodox
– 83% of Muslims
– Largest branch in Middle East
• Shia (Shiite)
– 16% of Muslims
– 30% live in Iran\
Other sects include Wahhabis, Sufis, Salafists,
Alawites, Alevis, and Yazeedis
Islam in North America and Europe
• Population has increased rapidly
• France has largest Muslim population
• US Muslim population at 5 million
– Encouraged by Nation of Islam in Detroit
• Known as Black Muslims
• Sect divided in 1960 between leader and Malcolm X
Origins
• Jews and Christians trace their history
through Abraham and his first wife, Sarah
• Muslims trace their history through
Abraham and his second wife, Hagar
• Hagar and son Ishmael wandered through
desert and reached Mecca (Saudi Arabia)
• Ishmael’s descendant Muhammad would
become Islam’s prophet
Muhammad
• Born in Mecca in 570 A.D.
• Age 40: received first revelation from God
through Angel Gabriel 610 A.D.
• The Qu’ran is a literal record of God’s words to
Muhammad
• Devoted like to fulfilling God’s commands
• Muhammad suffered persecution, God
instructed him to emigrate. Fled to Medina
• Migration marks beginning of Muslim calendar
• Muhammad died in 632 A.D.
• Islam had diffused throughout Saudi Arabia
Holy Book
• Qur’an
– Serves as basis of Islamic law
– Revelations spoken to Muhammad directly from Allah
– Christians and Jews referred to as “People of the
Book”
– Moses, Abraham, Virgin Mary, Jesus all prophets
– Muhammad admired Judaism and Christianity
• j
Islam Divided
• Sunni Muslims
– Believe in effectiveness of family and community in
solving life’s problems
• Shiite Muslims
– Believe the Imam is the sole source of true
knowledge
– Imams are Shiite Muslim leaders whose
appointments are sanctioned by Allah
– Imams are without sin and infallible
– Imams social and political force
Islam Divided
• Muhammad had no surviving sons
• Conflict over succession
• Some believed rightful heir was Muhammad’s
son-in-law Ali
• Sunni’s gained power through different heir
• Shiite’s supported Ali’s family’s claim to power
• Later, in 16th century a Persian ruling dynasty
made the Shiites the only legitimate faith of the
empire giving them unprecedented power which
created the foundations for modern day Iran.
Diffusion of Islam
• At the time of Muhammad’s death, Muhammad
had been converting Kings of Arabia to Islam
• Kings used armies to spread the faith through
invasion and conquest
• Invasion moved west into North Africa
• By 9th century covered from Morocco to Egypt
and parts of Spain and Portugal
• Through Trade, Islam expanded into India and
across Southeast Asia
• They established new secondary hearths and
Islam was diffused contagiously
• As with other universalizing religions,
diffused well beyond its hearth in SW Asia
through relocation diffusion of missionaries
– Example: Isolated group in Indonesia due to
Arab traders in 13th century
• Recent diffusion into Europe, South Africa,
and the Americas has been due to
relocation diffusion
• Fast growing religion in the world
Landscape of Islam
• Elaborate mosques in major cities
– Dominate Islamic towns and cities
– Most carefully maintained building
– Most imposing building
– Prayers are called from towering Minarets
• Mosques built at height of diffusion had
Roman elements to design.
• Muslim architecture represents unifying
concept of Islamic monotheism: the
perfection and vastness of the spirit of
Allah
Alhambra Place in Granada
Great Mosque of Cordoba in Spain
Art
• Prohibited from depicting human form
– Led to use of geometric designs and
calligraphy
Holy Places
• Holiest places associated with Muhammad
– Mecca (holiest city)
• 1.3 million Muslims
• Contains al-Ka’ba (black stone given to Abraham by
Gabriel as symbol of Covenant with Muslims)
• Great al-Haram Mosque
• Where Hajj takes place each year
• Over 2.3 million attend
– Medina
• 1 million Muslims
• Houses Muhammad’s tomb
Autonomy in Islam
• Most local autonomy
• No religious hierarchy
• Only formal organization of territory in
Islam is with coincidence of religious
territory with secular states
• Some governments in Islamic countries
include Islamic institutions
• Unity in Islamic world maintained through
communication and migration
Medina
Religious Conflict: Former Yugoslavia
• A number of religious and linguistic fault
lines run through the Balkan peninsula
• Dividing line between two Christian sects
• Also dividing line for Language of Europe
• Complicated by arrival of Ottoman Turks in
1300’s
• Turks (Muslim) took control by force
beginning with bloody battle of Kosovo in
1389 A.D.
• Since then, pockets of Islamic faith had
created interfaith boundaries
Yugoslavia
•
•
•
•
Means land of south Slavs
Formed after WWI in 1920
By WWII Serbs resented Muslim presence
During WWII Croats supported Nazis,
Serbs supported Allies
• Croats committed genocide against Serbs
• After 1945, controlled under Communist
Dictator
• Dictator (Joseph Tito) divided it into 6 republics
• Was able to stop nationalist movements in
Croatia and Kosovo
• With crumble of Soviet Union in late 1980’s the
republics declared their independence
• Serbia tried to force the republics to stay in
Yugoslavia
• War broke out between Serbs and Croats
• Muslims caught in middle (Bosnia) were
attacked
• Term ethnic cleansing used to describe the
slaughter of Bosnians and forced move
• Muslims joined Croats side
• International community got involved and
created a partition plan
• Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro,
Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina
joined United Nations
• Bosnia and Herzegovina divided into two
parts: one for Croats/Muslims, one for
Serbs
Islam Fundamentalism
• Shari’a Laws: harsh laws, including
criminal code
– Example: amputation of limbs for theft
– Nigeria, Sudan use it
– Malaysian government considered it
– Indonesia, movement for it strong
Iran
• Former Shah of Iran tried to limit power of
Imams
• Provoked movement – led to his overthrow
• During revolution, Imams imposed basic Shiite
religious rules and practices
• Shah replaced by Ayatollah (supreme religious
leader)
• Women had new restrictions
– Not allowed western dress
– Required to wear hijabs
• Revolution important to recognize early
movement towards fundamentalism
• Movement has since accelerated
Religion vs Social Change
• Taliban vs Western Values
– Gained power in Afghanistan in 1996
• Imposed very strict laws with Islamic values as the
Taliban interpreted them (strictest in world)
• Men beaten for shaving their beards, homosexuals
were buried alive, prostitutes hung, women
wearing nail polish had fingers cut off
• Believed they had been called by Allah to pure
Afghanistan of sine and violence
• Banned “western” leisure activities like playing
music, flying kites, TC, internet, Soccer
• Destroyed Buddhism statues for being worshiped
as idols
Anti-Globalization
• Rise of Islamism
– Anticolonial, anti-imperial, anticore political movement
– Resists Western forces of Globalization
• Modernization
• secularization
– Most militant movement within Islam
– Wants to create a model society of Islam
– State that would be religiously and politically unified
with Islam
– Modernization = corrupting influences
– Concept of jihad: sacred struggle
• Directed at enemies of Islam
• Understood to be a holy war
Osama bin Laden
• Key figure in Afghanistan
movement
• Helped finance terrorist
activities such as 9-11
• Product of revolutionary
Islamic movement that
sees the US at the great
enemy one that Muslims
must oppose
• Not representative of
Islam as a whole
• Traced to Wahhabi Islam
Religious Wars
• Crusades
– 7th century, Arabs captured the Middle East,
including Palestine and Jerusalem
– Diffused Arabic language and Islam
– Arab army moved into Europe and conquered
Spain but held in the Pyrenees
– Turks conquered Constantinople, Orthodox
Christianity's most important city in 1453
– Christians began campaign to recapture Holy
Land over 150 year period
Crusades
• 1st crusade: Christians took Jerusalem in
1099
• 3rd crusade: Islam regains Jerusalem in
1187
• 6th crusade: Christians retake Jerusalem
in 1229
• Last crusade: Islam wins Jerusalem in
1244