Thinking Citizen Blog — The Middle East Gets All The Attention — But Only 20% Of The Global Muslim Population Lives In North Africa and The Middle East
Thinking Citizen Blog — Monday is Foreign Policy Day
Today’s Topic: the Middle East Gets All the Attention — But Only 20% of the Global Muslim Population Lives in North Africa and the Middle East
Today a little global demographic (and historic) perspective. Three countries have more than 200 million Muslims — all in South Asia — Indonesia, India, Pakistan. In total about 62% of the global Muslim population lives in Asia 20% in North Africa and the Middle East and 15% in sub-Saharan Africa. The remainder lives in North and South America.
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
THE BIG THREE: Indonesia (245 million), Pakistan (240 million), India (213 million) — Subtotal: 688 million
1. Indonesia: “In the fourteenth century, traders from Arabia, Gujarat and China arrived in what is now Indonesia, seeking cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg. They brought with them Islam, and as some settled in Java and Sumatra, the new religion gradually blended with local culture.” (second link below)
2. Pakistan: the 1947 partition from India is estimated to have cost 200,000 to 2 million lives. The 1971 war for Bangladesh Independence is estimated by the Bangladesh government to have cost 3 million lives. Pakistan estimates the civilian death toll at 26,000. It is my understanding that Pakistan still considers its main enemy to be India. My sense is that India on the other hand considers China to be its worst enemy. Experts — please enlighten the rest of us.
3. India: “Muslims represent a majority of the local population in Lakshadweep (96%) and Jammu and Kashmir (68%). The largest concentration — about 47% of all Muslims in India live in the three states of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Bihar.”
Below: Islam in Indonesia
THE NEXT THREE: Bangladesh (170 million), Egypt (100 million), Nigeria (96 million)
1. Bangladesh — Islam is the state religion. The majority are Sunni of the Hannafi School of Islamic jurisprudence. “The Bengal region was a supreme power of the medieval Islamic East.”
2. Egypt: Islam has been the state religion since 1980. Egypt was conquered by invading Arabs in the 7th century who defeated the armies of the Byzantine Empire.
3. Nigeria: Islam was brought by traders from two directions — south from North Africa and east from the western Senegalese basin.
THE NEXT FOUR Iran (92 million), Turkey (85 million), China (18–50 million), Algeria (43 million)
1. Iran — Arab invaders (the Rashidun caliphate) annexed the Sassanian Empire between 633 and 651 AD. Islam replaced Zoroastrianism. Iran was Sunni from the 7th to the 16th century when the Safavids converted to Shia. Iran became an Islamic Republic in 1979, “Secular opposition to the Islamist government of the Islamic Republic of Iran had been active in the country up until 1984, afterwards they were branded heretics and apostates by the clerical hierarchy, and eventually jailed, executed or exiled.”
2. Turkey — non-Muslims (Armenians, Greeks, Jews) have declined from roughly 20% in 1914 to less than 5% today. The George Washington of Turkey, Ataturk, was a secularist. The current leader, Erdogan, is not.
3. China — huge variations in estimates of the Muslim population of China. The official estimates are in the 20 million range. The unofficial more than double that. Either way, the two ethnic groups are the Hui and the Uyghur. The Chinese government has been condemned for detaining Chinese Muslims in internment camps which it calls “vocational training and education centers.” Internees are estimated at 1.8 million.
NB: Algeria: the Arab conquest of North Africa began in 647 and was largely complete by 709 AD. Islam is the state religion and 99% of the population is Muslim of the Maliki school of jurisprudence. However, it is said that about a fifth of Algerians are Berbers who are often not strict adherents to Islamic law. Again, experts, please enlighten the rest of us.
Below: Map of Islam in China
Muslim Population by Country 2024
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_internment_camps
Muslim conquest of the Maghreb — Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_conquest_of_Persia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_conquests_in_the_Indian_subcontinent
QUOTE OF THE MONTH — Have you made your own Bible yet?
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
Here is a link to the last four years of posts organized by theme: (including the book on foreign policy)
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest or most important thing you learned in the last week, month, or year related to foreign policy.
Or, even better, the coolest or most important thing you learned in our life related to foreign policy.
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. And to consolidate in your memory something important you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something dear to your heart. Continuity is the key to depth of thought.
The prospect of imminent publication, like hanging and final exams, concentrates the mind. A useful life long habit.
