The religion of Islam all started with the Prophet Muhammad who received revelations from God through the Angel Gabriel. He used these revelations to compile the Quran, the Islamic sacred book. During the time period of 600-1450, Islam had a tremendous impact on its center, Mecca, and also the surrounding areas. As a result of Mecca’s geographical location as well as the strong Islamic military, Islam spread far and wide. However, Islam’s impact on the world didn’t stop after 1450. Even during the 21st century, Islam continues to have a huge impact on geographical regions all over the world. Islam has had an impact on North America with an increase of islamophobia and terrorist attacks, as well as in Central Africa with warring between different …show more content…
One of these regions is in North America, particularly in the United States. Since the devastating attack of 9/11, when the islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda hijacked four planes, there has been around fifty separate acts of deadly Islamic terror in the United States. These attacks have generated fear, or islamophobia, in many Americans. This fear has also translated to the politics of the United States. During the past year’s election, terrorist groups and nationally safety was a popular topic of debate. The current president, Donald Trump, has also attempted to instate a travel and immigration ban on countries with a large Muslim population. These countries include Iraq, Iran, Sudan, and Syria. The goal of this ban was to protect Americans from terrorist attacks. This shows just exactly how the religion of Islam has impacted North Africa. Sadly because of Islamic extremist groups, many people in North America have a fear of Muslims and Islam. However, most Muslims are peacefully, generous …show more content…
The Central African Republic is suffering from a great disaster, due to religious intolerance. The confrontation causing this unrest is between the Muslim group Seleka and the mainly Christian and animist group anti-Balaka. This conflict originally started due to political matters but has now progressively turned religious. In 2012, an armed organised rebel movement representing Muslims in the northeast of the country launched a major military offensive. Afterwards, the rebel group continued to have considerable control over the Central African Republic. The anti-Balaka group then started to fight Seleka forces in June 2013 by attacking Muslim civilians. This then caused the Seleka to retaliate by killing non-Muslims and Christians. The warring between these two religious groups have created immense amounts of unrest in the Central African Republic. However, this isn’t the only case. Islam has impacted many parts of Central Africa by creating religious intolerance between Islam and other religious groups like Christians. This religious intolerance has created a chapter of religious hatred. Thousands of civilians have lost their lives; villages have been burned to the ground and half-a-million civilians have been forced to leave their homes escaping from the fierce eye of blind faith. Of course, the religion of Islam isn’t the soul reason why these events
The modern world is linked through networks of communication and exchange between peoples. These exchanges between regions has changed cultures, economics, and politics. Through time the cultural influence between regions has consisted of many factors and elements but comes down to the spread of religion and religious teachings , movement of peoples, technological and cultural advancements affecting trade and commerce. Beginning with the Middle Ages in the years 1100-1500 , Africa, Asia, and Europe developed and influenced each other in several different ways. Starting with religion. The birth of Islam in the Middle East rapidly spread throughout Afro- Eurasia. Islam was attractive to people who were uninterested in the requirements of Christianity and the Church.
Clearly protection, trading and Islamic religion are the three reasons why I think Islam is spreading so quickly. These are not the only reasons but major ones. Islam is continuing to grow around the world. Someday it may the the world's largest religion but only time will
In 2007, rebel groups including the Union of Democratic Forces for Unity, the Union of Republican Forces, and the Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace formed an group called Seleka, meaning alliance (Warner). On March 15, 2013, Seleka captured Bangui, the capital city of the Central African Republic, and killed members of peacekeeping units (Tognini). Believing that President Francois Bozize had gone back on a peace deal, Seleka ousted him and he fled to Cameroon (Karimi). Wanting greater representation, the Muslim rebel group’s aim was to take over power in the Central African Republic ("Muslim-Christian Conflict Threatens Central African Republic"). After Bozize left, episodes of violence and looting increased (Karimi). In August of 2013, Seleka leader Michel Djotodia was made president (Smith “Unspeakable horrors...”). In September, Djotodia dissolved Seleka and denied that a religious conflict was occurring (Karimi). The anti-balaka had been formed by President Bozize to combat gangs and once the violent episodes began, the group was used as opposition for Seleka and the ...
Islam in America has historically been misunderstood, and this is due to the misconception of culture and religion as well as lack of education and incorrect portrayal in the media, which gives a skewed idea of Islam. Especially in the United States, Islam has been seen as the “terrorist religion” or a religion for the extremists and a religion in which freedom is not an option. Among the countless misconceptions, the basis of stereotypes by Americans is due to the mix up between religion and culture. Furthermore, the media only fuels fire to these misunderstandings and lack of factual information about Islam causing Americans to lash out on American Muslims without reason.
There is little need to reiterate the long history of U.S. governments going wherever they have wanted and doing whatever they have wanted. The question is how Muslims navigate through the political and economic architectures that ensue. Certainly, Islam has long valued extending itself throughout the world. Travel is primarily a modality for accumulating knowledge, acting on the desire to know, and then, only secondarily, is that knowledge used as a means of imbricating the "presentation" of Islam within heterogeneous settings. The historical challenge for Islamic missions, armies, scholars, traders, and sojourners was how to maintain the coherence of the faith in foreign spaces simultaneously considered within and outside of the Islamic world.
The conflict between the anti-balaka (Christian militia members) and the Seleka (Muslim rebel militia members) is said to have begun in September of 2102, which was when the Seleka group started to gain momentum and power. In March of 2013, the Seleka rebel militia overthrew President François Bozizé (who was a Christian). The Seleka leader, Michel Djotodia took over and became the first Muslim president of the Central African Republic. Although Djotodia attempted to dissolve the radical Seleka group after their victory, the group refused to disband. Although this group was not a particularly religious group, they were made up of mostly Muslims. These Muslims spent most of their time going from town to town and destroying villages, killing Christians and anyone who supported former President François Bozizé. The anti-balaka group has been around since the 1990s and was initially created as a village self-defense force to protect villages from danger. It was not until recently that they had any issues with the Seleka. The two sides continued and still are fighting back and forth between one another and the violence has escalated to include attacking citizens and in...
Islam was a religion that was founded in the 7th century by Muhammad. Back in the seventh century CE. They were two empires that dominate the area that we call today the Middle East; those two were the Byzantine-Greek-Christian Empire and the Sassand-Prsian-Zoraastrian Empire. The Arabian Peninsula lay between the two. The merchant called Muhammad began to have religious visions around 610, and by the time, he died in 632, “all Arabia had accepted his creed of Islam” (p.22).
The Islamic religion emerged during the fifth and sixth centuries when the Arabian Peninsula took on new importance. At first, there was no priesthood, and all members of the tribe were involved in the practice of the faith. Allah was symbolized by a sacred stone, and each tribe had its own stone. When the Arabian Peninsula began to change tension grew and into this intense world came Muhammad. Muhammad was born in Mecca to a merchant family and was orphaned at the age of five.
Ameer declared that Muslims required from others a “guarantee of peace, and tribute in return for protection, of perfect equality.” By analyzing this
Nowadays the globalization has brought a lot of different cultures together. While people may have used to live in more or less culturally isolated societies, this is no longer a case in the twenty first century. Muslim immigrants became more numerous in the Western world. Especially since the September 11 attacks, lives of Muslim communities living in Western countries have been examined more closely. Many Muslim political leaders have pointed to the existence of Islamophobia, or an irrational fear or prejudice towards Islam and Muslims, as the cause for discrimination against Muslims.
Sierra Leone, located on the west coast of the African continent is a young nation, having acquired independence in 1961 recently emerged from a decade long civil war in 2002 (BBC, 2015). The nation is bordered by Guinea, Liberia, and the Atlantic Ocean, a tropical climate harboring diverse rainforests. Sierra Leone’s largest city, Freetown, also the nation’s capital and political and economic center is populated by approximately 700,000 inhabitants, over the estimated national population of just over 6 million people. Sierra Leone is divided into sixteen ethnic groups, however, the nation is predominately Muslim. Religious violence is quite rare, however animosity sparked the civil war through government corruption and economic strife established
After 9/11 has induced negative attitudes towards Muslim peoples who tend to be strongly associated with any act of terrorism. The media has played a colossal role in developing such negative association wherein it constantly portrays Muslim people in combination with violent terrorist acts. It does so in a way that they both go hand-and-hand. In other words, it has made it as though the Islamic religion is synonymous with terrorism. The media has perpetuated Muslim stereotypes over the years that followed the 9/11 incident. Because of this, society has developed, and still has developed, this prejudiced mindset about the Islamic religion and the Muslim communities around the world. People immediately assume that any violent act being depicted through the media is the direct result of Muslims. They automatically generate this idea that the act was performed by a Muslim terrorist even when they were not involved whatsoever. Regardless of whether it was true or not, Islamic religion and its Muslim adherents are at the top of societies’ agenda just waiting for the evidence to be generated so that they can then safely blame them for such world affairs. Again, this has led to the attack on the Islamic religion itself wherein people have come to postulate Islam as an act of oppression, violence and hatred towards non-Muslims. Anti-Muslim sentiments and campaigns have resulted from such misinformation the media has been generating and feeding its viewers.
Historic events have altered the way that people perceive followers of Islam. As stated by Lila Abu-Lughod in an interview with the Asia Society, reducing Middle Eastern countries to Islam is as useless as reducing the United States to Christianity. The difference between the two geographical locations is their history. The history surrounding the United States and the Middle East favors
Boko Haram has recently been in international news including South Africa. The most recent of attacks was on a church where Attackers armed with heavy ammunition and explosives killed twenty-two people in a northeast Nigerian city. They set off many bombs and fired shots into the masses during the attack on the church in Waga Chakawa in Adamawa, before burning residents houses and taking hostages during a four-hour bloody siege. Boko Haram wants to impose sharia law, and wants to split Nigeria equally between Christians and Muslims, Boko Haram has killed thousands of people over the past four-and-a-half years, and is considered one of the biggest security risk in the largest oil producer in Africa and second largest economy in Africa after South Africa.
... Uganda, continues to cause conflict in DR Congo, Southern Sudan, and CAR. Recently Uganda removed troops from South Sudan and placed them in CAR in order to quell the sectarian and rebel violence. Museveni’s administration is only awaiting thumbs up from two Western nations, and then it will deploy around 2000 soldiers to join efforts to stop the war in the CAR.