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Islam in the United States
Muslims in America appeared in the early 17th century. Number of Muslims range from 3 million to the most conservative estimates to 15 million according to the Islamic Supreme Council of America.
According to the largest American expert on religious statistics David Barrett in 1900 in the United States lived 10 thousand Muslims in 1970 - 800 thousand (200 thousand of them African-American), in 2000 - 4.1 million (including 1.7 million blacks). The largest and most comprehensive survey - A national survey of religious identification (113 thousand respondents) - was conducted in 1990 by researchers from the Academy of New York University, headed by Barry Kosmin and Seymour Lachmanom: the proportion of Muslims in the U.S. population was 0.30%. This is a very active community, which includes totally different people - workers, doctors, multimillionaires.
In the U.S., Islam is represented by three major groups. First, African Americans, who came here first and created a kind of foundation for the Muslim community in the U.S.. Then, during World War II, came to America with a wave of Muslims of the Middle East. The last wave of 60 - 70s came from South Asia - Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.
"By 2020, every major city in the U.S. will be more Muslims than Christians" - those statistics were published expert on Islam by Charles Ellis during a national conference on Islam held from 15 to 17 August 2003. In America, Islam is growing by 6%. Islam the fastest growing segment in the U.S. are white Americans, and 80-85 % of all U.S. Muslims identify themselves as former Christians. " If this trend continues, by 2020 every major U.S. city is predominantly Muslim," - says Ellis.
In 1913 was created the first "black" mosque - Murishsky Science Temple in the state of New Jersey.
In 1913, the United States was established Islamic organization. United States over the years emerged as the Federation of Islamic Associations of USA and Canada, the Association of Muslim Scientists and Engineers (AMSE), Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Muslim Student Association (MSA), professional associations - Islamic Medical Association (IMA), the Association of Muslim sociologists (AMSS), the Council on American - Islamic Relations (CAIR), Islamic training center, etc. Over the past five years the number of mosques in the United States increased by 25 %.
Council on American - Islamic Relations, located in Washington, announced the success of his campaign, aimed at creating the right image of Islam and Muslims in the United States. As part of the campaign, particularly in the library was transferred to different states 16,000 sets of books on Islam.
The campaign started in September 2008. Currently available literature on Islam in 7000 libraries, and distribution continues - on the order of libraries in Alabama, Delaware, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Rhode Island.
The Muslim community in America continues to grow steadily - increases the number of mosques (now in their country of about 1500) and Muslim schools (in the United States there are about 550), which have recently become very popular in the United States. According to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, only 10% of American Muslims has a low level of income. 52% belong to the middle class, 28 % can call themselves rich. Due to the relatively high social class, the Muslim community in America has a considerable influence on the political and social situation in states such as New York, California, New Jersey, Washington DC, Illinois, Massachusetts and Ohio. Only during the Gulf War, Islam took over three thousand American military.
Islam in Great Britain
Until the mid XX century, Islam had little distribution in the UK. The only representatives of the Muslim religion were migrant workers from the colonies of Britain, which formed the Diaspora in the XIX century. Their claims in 1889 was built the first British mosque. Since the mid XX century, i.e., with a period of intense decolonization, the percentage of the Muslim population of Britain is growing steadily. After separation of the large number of Indian Muslims arrived from South Asia (especially Pakistan), which was associated with the need to restore the economy after World War II. This wave of immigration refers to the years 1960-1970. As noted Ihlak Dean, the widespread belief that the majority of visitors from this region were forced migrants, is erroneous; in fact, for these people, Britain was "an island of dreams ", partly due to the fact that many newcomers Pakistanis were representatives of the lower castes, and they could not hope for a decent life in Pakistan. For years 1960-1970 relates migration from East African countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, etc.). And the 1980s are characterized by high levels of immigration from Bangladesh.
Result of labor migration is that Islam is now the second largest religion UK. The rate of growth of the Muslim population cannot fail to amaze. In 1961 there were 50 thousand Muslims, representing 0.11% of the total population; in 1971 - 226 thousand (0.46 %); in 1981 - 553 thousand (1.11 %); in 1991 - 950 thousand (1.86 %); in 2001 - 1.6 million (3.07 %). Finally, according to the last census in 2011, living in Britain 2,869 million Muslims, representing 4.8 % of the total population. Thus, only in the last 20 years, the number of Muslims has grown by more than 3 times ! It is worth noting that the Muslim population is young and growing rapidly: 60% - people younger than 30 years. The vast majority of Muslims live in England and Wales. They are concentrated in urban areas; about 40% are in London, which is 8.5% of the total urban population. Other cities with a large number of Muslims - Birmingham, Blackburn, Bradford.
All the experts agree that the general decline in the birth rate among whites, as well as the current level of migration, the percentage of Muslim population in the UK will only grow. According to specialists of the Research Center " Social ", by 2030 the number of Muslims in Britain exceed 5.5 million, or approximately 8.2% of the total population. This means that British society and the British government would have to respond to the challenges that come from the Muslim population and ethnic minorities. It seems that the policy of discrimination, segregation and isolation will not be effective (it is not such already). In connection with the growth of Muslim representation at the level of social and political movements will increase the influence of Islam; will grow attempts defending Muslims of their civil rights, and over time most of them will become successful. Growth of Islamic influence, apparently, will occur simultaneously with the revival of religion in general, predicted by E.Kauffman and some other researchers. Probably, it will cause more in-depth discussion regarding the future of the UK and the principles on which European society must be built. Model militant secularism, as well as attempts to assimilate the Muslim population, consequential from this model will be discarded. Britain - and Europe as a whole - need to develop a new identity in which religion will not be driven into the periphery of public life. Now it is difficult to predict what it will be a form of identity, but it is indicative that these questions have been put to the highest level: it is enough to recall Pareha report for the year 2000, according to which " national history and national identity need rethinking."
Islam in India and Middle East
Modern India is a multicultural country, inhabited by peoples differing in appearance, language and customs. India, under the constitution, a secular state. Hindus make up a clear majority in the country - 80%, followed by Muslims, 14% of them. However billionth country these account for almost 14 percent of 150 million people, more than the population of most Muslim countries in the world.
Today Muslims - a significant factor in the political life in India. Once, speaking at a campaign rally, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said: "We have always recognized Islam as one of our religions, and Islam will continue to spread and flourish in India."
Speaking about the deep roots that Islam has started in India, Saeed Naqvi publicist said that the mosque Cheruman - Perumal in the state of Kerala was built during the life of the Prophet Muhammad. Muslims have played a decisive role in the defeat in the parliamentary election coalition led by the Party " - Bharata Janata Party " - first Hindu party in secular India.
One of the judges of the Supreme Court of India is not without reason called Muslims " second majority India." This notion of "Muslim community in India " - is an abstract statistical category.
Citizens professing Islam, are not evenly distributed across the country and not concentrated in any one part of the territory. Different in size and share groups of Muslims are located in different patches ethnolinguistic and religious environments, which inevitably imposes on each of these groups unique imprint. Most Indian Muslims are Sunni, concentrated in West Bengal, Kashmir, Assam and Kerala.
Shiites are accommodated locally: Lucknow, Mumbai (Bombay), Delhi and parts of Gujarat. In South India, Muslims tend to cities, where are engaged in trade and artisanal production. However, in areas where Muslims make up the majority of the population, is home to only 5 % of Indian Muslims.
60 years ago, the theory of "two nations " - Hindus and Muslims served as the ideological justification for the partition of India in 1947. At the site of the former British colony now there are three new states. This modern India and the two countries with a Muslim population - Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Before his departure, the British formulated the principles section, according to which a number of areas were given the opportunity to decide - to join the Union of India or Pakistan and declared the right of each of these dominions of self-government with the right to secede from the Commonwealth.
There was also a section of the two provinces - Punjab and Bengal. The population of East Bengal and West Punjab opted for Pakistan, and the people of West Bengal and East Punjab in favor of entering into the Indian Union. The rulers of 555 small principalities had to decide to join them in the India or Pakistan.
Rail and road systems and irrigation canals have been cut by national borders, industrial enterprises detached from sources of raw materials, fragmented civil service, the police and the army needed to ensure proper governance and security of citizens.
Immediately after independence, the country has experienced unprecedented clashes between Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. There was mass migration of Muslims to Pakistan and Hindus in India. In the first months of the order of 12 million have fled their homes, and less than a year killed about half a million people.
According to experts, clashes between Hindus and Muslims that died down, then re- emerged over the past few decades. In addition, the leaders of the Muslim community of India rejected the government's plan for birth control, according to which every family should be no more than two children. Two Islamic leader of India issued a special decree - a fatwa, which forbade the believers to resort to tests to know the sex of the unborn child. These tests are very popular in India, where women prefer to maintain pregnancy if the unborn child - a boy and abortion if pregnant girl.
And representatives of family planning and Hindu religious activists increased pressure on the Muslim clergy after the publication of the results of each regular census, which showed a rapid increase in the number of Indian Muslims.
Finally, in 2005, India began to work more than 22 Sharia courts. According to Indian media, they have been created through the efforts of non-governmental organizations - the All India Muslim Bureau for Private Law. Courts consider private legal affairs of the Muslims, including those related to family relationships, divorce and inheritance. The Bureau also established a special institute for the training of Sharia judges.
Sources
Rahman, Fazlur (1979). Islam (2nd ed.). University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-70281-2.
Tausch, Arno (2009). Muslim Calvinism (1st ed.). Rozenberg Publishers, Amsterdam. ISBN 978-90-5170-995-7.
Tausch, Arno (2009). What 1.3 Billion Muslims Really Think: An Answer to a Recent Gallup Study, Based on the "World Values Survey". Foreword Mansoor Moaddel, Eastern Michigan University (1st ed.). Nova Science Publishers, New York. ISBN 978-1-60692-731-1.
Walker, Benjamin (1998). Foundations of Islam: The Making of a World Faith. Peter Owen Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7206-1038-3.
