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Distinctive features of african traditional religion
Distinctive features of african traditional religion
The spread of islam in west africa
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In today’s age, there are several controversies surrounding the religion of Islam, however, looking back on history, that was not always the case. Like every other religion, not everyone accepted it with open arms, but for some, it was a refuge. One such example was in West Africa. To better understand, it is important to understand what Islam stands for. Islam basically translates to mean submission and is a religion that stands for absolute monotheism. Unlike the other religious traditions such as Judaism and Christianity, Islam stands for complete submission to Allah’s will with no other supreme existing or believing that Jesus is his son. Started with the vision of Muhammad while on one of his retreats around early 600 CE, the Islamic faith quickly spread into the surrounding regions, initially by military conquests. However, no one was forced to convert as willingness is seen as the only legitimated way of converting someone. With the spread of Islam in West Africa, it was rare for people of the region to not be affected by the religion. One state most affected by it was Mali. Mali was one of the wealthiest states or countries in the world due to its location among a very prosperous trade route and also because of all of the resources it offered that could be traded. With so much trade came more Also, the factors that lead to the spread of Islam in Mali did not yield the same results in other states because the circumstances were different. Without the geographical placement that Mali had that allowed the country to flourish with trade and without a king that was willing to rule by example above all else, no other regions ever had as great an Islamic influence as the state of Mali. The closest was to mix Islam with local religious
The town of Mecca was the birthplace of Islam, at first the leaders of the city refused the changing of this new religion and forced Muhammad to leave. Muhammad returned and preached to the people about what he had heard, that there is only one god. Islam spread quickly for two main reasons they are the message and military conquest.
For example, the spread of Islam to the Byzantines and the Persians. The other caliphs (Umar, Uthman and Ali) expanded the Islamic empire rapidly and grew faster than any other religion. The Muslims conquered a massive amount of land from the Indus River, across North Africa and into Spain. There were many factors that helped Islam succeed; for example, people would rather fight for God and their salvation instead of fighting for a king, the use of military force by the Muslims and how easy it was to convert to Islam.
The fame over Islam strengthened Mali in a couple of different ways. With Islam as the official religion of Mali it influenced the idea of a community and brotherhood which was a unifying force for Mali. Also it helped create stronger relationships with trading partners and allies as well. The Islam people of Mali followed the lead of Mansa Musa and held academics and scholarly learning in the highest of regards. Many great works can be attributed to the people who learned and taught at Muslim centers of education. While Islam was the official religion of the nation there was religious tolerance. Mansa Musa was adamant that those who held different beliefs were acceptable. While Mansa Musa most certainly wanted to spread what he believed to be the true word of God to the people of his country he gave people the choice. Many have suggested that Mansa Musa allowing other religions actually helped spread the Islamic faith by letting people choose for themselves and truly believing the faith they were more inclined to spread the faith. The Islamic faith exploded in Mali and brought the nation closer together not only with itself but with many other Islamic
This caused the trade to swing east and lead to the gaining wealth of the Mali people. As the emperor of Mali, Mansa Musa had easy access to gold and salt. In fact, according to an article from The Huffington Post, “The West African nation was responsible for more than half of the world’s salt and gold supply”(The Huffington Post). Mansa Musa’s kingdom had much of the world’s gold. This gave him a lot of money.
The cities in Mali were known for practicing Islamic culture. One of the ways the cities in Mali expanded on Islamic culture was the laws that they had. The government in the kingdom was based on Islamic law. A piece of evidence that supports this statement is that everyone must have memorized the Koran, an Islamic book, and have to follow the laws that lay within it. If you had chosen to neglect the Koran than you would have to be put up in chains until you had fully memorized it.
Islam is the world's fastest growing faith. It all began in 610 C.E. when the Prophet Muhammad received revelations of the Quran in Mecca. Islam's reputation of promoting a strict and controlling government, female oppression, civil war, and terrorism is not completely correct. Islam is a rich and complex religion that is often misunderstood in the modern world. There have been many obstacles that have been faced. Islam wouldn't exist today with its leaders, the Crusades, and their empires.
The victims will continue to live in fear and hatred for those that want to destroy them and their land.
There was also a great city in Mali called Timbuktu. It was very important because it was a center for trade and it aided the Muslim art and culture which helped to spread Islam.
The culture of Islam has its positive aspects, as well as its negative aspects. Islam bestowed many unfortunate people the opportunity to gain more knowledge about their surroundings, and the adversities that they may face on a daily basis. Islam also created alliances, and trade contracts with other surrounding countries, allowing them to receive resources that other religions and groups could not envisage. However, to gain these privileges, Islam had to first fester the lives of many civilians that dared step in its path. Islam not only ruined the lives of people, but it ruined whole kingdoms. Many people felt an...
In order for Islam to spread you have to have converts and people reception to the religion. Thus, Islam spread through different people converting over to the religion. People that converted had different reasons for being open to religion. It was not just about accepting Islam and wanting to be apart of it. people at motivates for converting. In North Africa for example Islam spread as a rebellion against the Byzantines and the Romans. It states that "The Christians of Egypt then saw the Muslims as liberators" (Gilbert & Reynolds 100). Also the similarities of Christianity and Muslims also made the conversion to Islam easy because the religion had similarities. Now in West Africa people had different reasons for converting. They did not convert to rebel but rather they converted because the did not want the traditional religion anymore. They converted because they thought Islam can help advance them as a society and individuals. Thus, the jihad movement started and Islam started to spread. Conversions also came to receive special privileges. In North Africa people converted so they didn 't have to pay taxes and they could have spiritual freedom (Gilbert & Reynolds 95). In West Africa they converted to Islam rather than face enslavement (Gilbert & Reynolds 205). Thus, the conversion of Islam happened because of different factors in different areas but the only way Islam could spread is if people were receptive of it. Even though people had different reason for converting they were still open and recipient of it, which lead to the
Africa is made up of more than fifty countries and is home to just over a billion people. Africa is not only diverse in its landscape and animals but the people are also extremely diverse. There are hundreds of different ethnic communities that, together, speak over 1000 languages. With this much diversity among the different communities, it is not surprising that there is much diversity in the religions in Africa. In Africa, there are many groups of people who follow different religions. These religions are different from each other in the sense of the Gods they follow, the rituals they practice and the importance of each community’s history in Africa. There are many different religions celebrated in Africa because each
Discrimination leads to a range of different mistreatments from feeling humiliated by another to depression, depending on the ways in which the individual responds. Having any sort of negative type behaviour towards the targeted individual, or even a group of people on either their race, or religion is seen as discrimination towards that specific group. The experience of such discrimination can be stressful, and also reduce a person’s sense of control. Having constant experience on discrimination can have major and negative impacts to the quality of an individual’s life. Racial and ethnic minorities are most likely to receive more discrimination against their groups than other groups, e.g. the Middle East (Todd 2012).
Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in the world but it is still one of the most misunderstood religion by many. The Non-Muslims who are unfamiliar with the faith tend to have misunderstandings about its concepts and teachings. These misconceptions misguide Non-Muslims from learning what Islam really is about. Islam simply means submission to God and peace, but many believe that it promotes terrorism, oppression of Muslim women, and that the religion has too many restrictions.
Is Islam compatible with democracy? A question that many scholars, politicians, and other people try to find an answer for. Each person would answer this questions based on his/her thoughts, knowledge, and sometimes beliefs. Islam and democracy has been a controversial matter over many years. It never fails to be a point of interest for people whom are involved with politics and/or seek to be on familiar terms with politics. A large literature has built up arguing that Islam has all the elements of modern condition and society. Many Muslim scholars seek to provide evidence that Islam preserves democratic values. Democracy is determined by many several components such as wealth, culture, knowledge. Some people believe that religion is part of democracy’s components as well. In many arguments, religion is mostly seen as an element that hinders democracy, which is something others disagree with. Moreover, many people try to give verifications and evidences to prove that in Muslim countries, democracy is either weak or does not exist. Also, those people use religion, such as Quranic verses, to put in plain words this observable fact. On the other hand, other people believe that Islam, or religion in general, cannot be utilized to clarify democracy or its improvements and expansions. In this essay the topic or the idea of Islam and democracy will be discussed and viewed from the eyes and point of view of the two thinkers, Bernard Lewis, and Irfan Ahmed. Both thinkers disagree on whether Islam and democracy are compatible with each other. In addition, they tend to offer many different arguments on Islam, democracy, and the political nature of Islam among others. As many people oppose different definitions to the words Islam and democrac...