4.3 Global Muslim Civilization

GLOBAL MUSLIM CIVILIZATION

The second most population civilization in the world is the Muslim Civilization. Its adherents in 2020 are approximately 1182 million, as compared with 2371 million of those who adhere to Christian civilizations. In percentage share they constitute 24% (Muslims) and 31% (Christian) of the world population respectively, many of the conceptual issues applicable to the genre of civilization as a space for power-play are equally applicable to all those who lasted as civilizations in this chapter. We shall not repeat them. Having said that, one of those conceptual the census is the unique character of each civilization within the broader genre of civilizations. Thus, the categories used to describe Christianity may or may not be applicable to the other five civilizations listed in the Barometer as the world’s top most civilizations in numerical terms. We will proceed further bearing this basic guideline in perspective.

MUSLIMS CIVILIZATION SHARE THE TRAIT OF WITH CHRISTIANITY AS WELL AS WITH THE MODERN CIVILIZATION OF ‘NO RELIGION’ OR ATHEISM.

It may be important to note that three of the six civilizations studied in the G & G Global Barometer are universal in their orientation as well as membership Christianity, Muslim, and Atheism. The membership of two of them is regionally concentrated, Hinduism in the Indian sub-continent and Contemporary Buddhism in East Asia. There are however differences in tier historic social orientation toward ‘universalism’. To that, we shall turn when we describe them ahead in this chapter. It may however be mentioned that Hindu Civilization is much more numerous than Buddhism, claiming 1174 million adherents worldwide compared with 462 million who identify themselves with Buddhism.

HOW TO SEGMENT GLOBAL MUSLIM CIVILIZATION

We might be with basic empirical information and from there proceed to make a certain conceptual statement about the segmentation of global Muslim Civilization.

Table # 2.1

REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION

of Global Muslim Civilization

Table # 2.2

Sectarian Distribution of the Global Muslim population

GLOBAL MUSLIM CIVILIZATION HAS A LONG-STANDING POLITICAL SCHISM BETWEEN SUNNI (AHL-AL_SUNNIA) AND SHIA (AHL-AL-BAIT) SEGMENTS. THE SCHISM IS REGIONALLY CONCENTRATED.

We have explained above that the documentation of sects is not a formal process in the Muslim Civilization. As result, the extent of the sectarian divide varies sharply between 5% to 15% for the global Shia Muslim share, the remaining being Sunni Muslims. For the purposes of the Barometer, we can choose the middle point of = 10% provided in the world religious project. Incidentally, that is one of the only sources that provide a systematic set of data at the country level on the Shia- Sunni sectarian divide. According to that source, the population distribution is as below.

GLOBAL MUSLIM CIVILIZATION IS SEGMENTED BY AT LEAST SEVEN REGIONAL SUB-CIVILIZATIONS. REGIONAL DIFFERENTIATION SEEMS MORE RELEVANT THAN DOGMA AND DOCTRINAL (SECTARIAN) DIFFERENTIATION.

It is conceivable that all civilizations, as a genre of social organization, have a certain dogma and doctrine. The content of these two may be so different as to qualify for being a class on their own. Nevertheless, there must be certain beliefs (dogma) and actions (doctrine) that hold its adherents together. With this in perspective, the Barometer is an attempt to understand each civilization in its own right. The numbers which are the hallmark only of the Barometer are meant to facilitate a discourse, which we believe is unique to each civilization.

There could be several reasons for the significance of regional variation in the global Muslim civilization with no claims to produce an exhaustive list, we mention a few. Firstly, the age of Islam in a region from its inception to growth and proliferation. This age spectrum varies sharply, from the age of Islam in this sense is region to region. Over millennium in the MENA and Central Asia region (MENA. CA), at least here hundred years younger in South Asia and five hundred years younger in East Asia. Different parts of sub-Sahara Africa have their own timelines. There are several scholarly studies on how Muslim Civilization in each region evolved over time through a process of gradual acculturation and the development of a local amalgam. There is a view that the local amalgam slowly gravitates to a mainstream centre. The process has been referred to as a process of ongoing centrifugal tendencies, in search of amalgam with an environment unknown to the previous mainstream, on the one hand, and a centripetal tendency to gravitate to the centre over a period, on the other hand. Indeed, the process is not without its disruption and divisiveness. The bottom line is that each of the seven regional verities of Muslim civilization needs to be understood through its local less.

Table # --- Muslim region wise sectarian groups, their population and share within Region

OBSERVATION: The sectarian divide between Sunni-Shia is heavily concentrated in a specific zone of the Muslim World.

With this we more to the introduction to the third-largest civilization of the world on our list, the civilization of ‘No Religion’ or ‘Atheism’.

GLOBAL MUSLIM CIVILIZATION DASHBOARD