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Islam is often thought of as a predominantly Arab religion. While it is true that the vast majority of people in the Arab world – the Middle East and North Africa – are Muslims, the same is true of Indonesia, and large numbers are found elsewhere in south-east and central Asia, in Africa south of the Sahara and in the south-east of Europe, in the former Yugoslavia. In fact, Muslims are found throughout the world.
Judaeo-Christian roots
Islam is the youngest of the world's great religions, and is centred on one core belief – that there is one, and only one, God, Allah. 'Islam' means 'submission' and a Muslim is, simply, one who submits to the will of God. Tracing its roots back to Adam and Abraham, whose stories appear in the Old Testament, Islam has a common heritage with both Judaism and Christianity.
The Prophet
Islam was first taught by the Prophet Muhammad, who was born about 570 AD in Mecca in present-day Saudi Arabia. At the time, that society was polytheistic – and, Muhammad judged, debauched and cruel.
As a relatively young man, he had a vision of the Angel Gabriel, who commanded him: 'Recite! In the name of thy Lord, who created, created man from a drop of blood…'
This was Muhammad's first revelation from God, and it formed the first part of the Koran, the holy book of Islam. Further revelations followed and are recorded in the Koran.
Muhammad was recognised by his followers as a great prophet but in 622 AD, because of persecution, he was forced to flee to the city of Yathrib, now called Medina. The date of this flight marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar, because this was the year in which Muhammad established the first Muslim community, in Medina. Muhammad died in 632 AD.
Muhammad is not worshipped by Muslims but is revered as the greatest, and last, in a line of prophets that includes Christianity's founder, Jesus. The Koran mentions 28 prophets, starting with Adam and including Abraham, the father of the Prophet Ishmael, believed to be an ancestor of Muhammad himself.
Different strands
Early in its history, Islam split into two strands, with differing traditions of religious observance. The larger group are Sunni (from sunna, meaning 'tradition'), the smaller, the Shi'a or Shi-ites (meaning 'party' as in 'political party') originated when a group of early Muslims separated from the others over disagreements about the religion's leadership. Afghans are mostly Sunni, though about 15% are Shi'a.
Common practices
Muslims are united by their belief in the Koran, and their wish to follow the example of the Prophet. They share an acceptance of five duties as 'pillars of the faith':
Shahada — to confess their belief ('I believe that there is no God but Allah, and that Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah')
Salat — to pray five times a day
Zakat — to give alms to the needy
Saum — to fast in the month of Ramadan
Hajj — to make the pilgrimage to Mecca.
As with other religions, Muslims vary in how strictly they adhere to their faith. In much of the Muslim world, for example, there are secular legal systems rather than the religious Shari'ah system of law.
Women's position
The position of women varies considerably. The codes of dress demanded by the Taliban, in which women's bodies, including their faces, are covered by the all-enveloping burqa, are not demanded to the same extent in much of the Muslim world, where modest dressing in public is all that is required of both men and women.
Similarly, the Taliban's negative attitude to women's education is in sharp contrast to that of the grandfather of the present Aga Khan, leader of the Ismaili Muslims (a sect of Shi'a Islam). He encouraged women to study, believing, as others have since, that 'if you educate a man, you educate an individual but if you educate a woman, you educate an entire family'.
In many Muslim societies, women commonly work outside the home – estimates are that in Kabul, in the past, around half of all women did so. Muslim women in many other parts of the world work and support their families, and have risen to the top of their professions – even becoming leaders of their countries. A tradition of scholars in Islam from early times has included women.
However, the approach taken in Afghanistan has echoes in other countries, especially where, for various political reasons, fundamentalism has taken root.
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