Abstract
The world, with 6.90 billion people (in early 2011), has about 1.57 billion Muslims. Around 500 million of this live as religious minority with more than ten million each in India (160 million), Ethiopia (38 million), Russia (26 million), Tanzania (16 million), and China (26–130 million). In addition, there are at least nine countries with 4–10 million Muslims in each, for example, USA (at least 7 million), Ivory Coast (7.7 million), Thailand (6 million), Ghana (5 million), Mozambique (5.2 million), Zaire (5 million), Philippines (4.7 million), Uganda (4 million), and France (4 million). There are also 15 countries such as Ghana (3.8 million), Germany (2.8 million), Benin (2.1 million), Kenya (2.7 million), Malawi (2 million), Kosovo (2 million), Sri Lanka (1.7 million), UK (1.6 million), Bosnia (1.5 million), Nepal (1.2 million), Israel (1.1 million), Netherlands (1 million), Argentina (1 million), Bulgaria (1 million), and Spain (1 million) where 1–4 million Muslims in each form a significant minority religious group (Pew Research Center 2009).
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Notes
- 1.
No authentic figure is available on the number of Muslim population in China. Different sources place it between 2 and 10% of the population. With a total population of 1.4 billion (est.) in 2011, Muslim population would be at least 28 million.
- 2.
Palestine Territories (Gaza and the West Bank) have at least four million Muslims.
- 3.
The US census data do not include religious affiliation. Further, the Pew Research Centre claims that since 9/11 Muslims tend to avoid religious affiliation while responding to surveys. So Pew Research Centre has done an excellent job in estimating Muslim population worldwide, except for the USA. But different estimates claim it to be around 10 million (about 0.3% of the US population) with an average annual growth rate of 6%. The most conservative estimate is cited here.
- 4.
For example, Benin (24%), Cameron (21%), Cote d’Ivory (40%), Gabon (1%), Guyana (15%), Mozambique (24%), Suriname (29%), and Togo (20%). Percentage of Muslim population is within the parentheses; source: CIA Factbook.
- 5.
Worth noting, that the percentage of expatriate working population (including their families) in the six GCC countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE) vary from 20% (in Oman and Saudi Arabia) to at least 80–90% in Qatar and the UAE. Thus the number of citizens in these countries is very small.
- 6.
See Chap. 7 (for a discussion on the role of the colonial power in this) and Chap. 8 (for a general discussion of political characters) helpful in understanding the related social dynamics in these countries.
- 7.
Least developed countries, measured in three criteria: low-income ( < $750/capita); human resource weakness judged by low access to nutrition, health, education, and adult literacy; and economic vulnerability showing instability of agriculture and exports of goods and services, low share of manufacturing and modern services in GDP, merchandise export concentration, and the handicap of economic smallness. LDCs are to reach the threshold level in all three criteria in three consecutive years to “graduate” out.
- 8.
Since the population of these MMCs is made of between 20 and 90% expatriate workers, the per capita income for the citizens in each country is likely to be significantly higher.
- 9.
A composite index prepared by considering four factors: the percentage of female members in the parliament, percentage of senior government and business leaders, percentage of female professionals, and the ratio of male/female earned income in each country.
- 10.
Ireland (HDI-5; GEM-22), Japan (HDI-10; GEM-57), Korea (26; GEM-61), or USA (HDI-13; GEM-18), for details see UNDP 2009 (Table K: Gender empowerment measure).
- 11.
Denmark (HDI-15; GEM-4), Finland HDI-12; GEM-3), Germany (HDI-22; GEM-9), New Zealand HDI-20; GEM-10), or South Africa (HDI-129; GEM-26), for details see UNDP 2009 (Table K: Gender empowerment measure).
- 12.
Cited by Deneulin and Rakodi (2010) from Thomas, S. (2005). The Global Resurgence of Religion and The Transformation of International Relations. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
- 13.
The interest in political Islam in the recent past also has been a reflection of the perceived injustices inflicted on the Palestinians.
- 14.
Please note these figures are from 2002. For the quotation and facts in this paragraph see Chap. 14 in this book. Chapters 14 and 8 have good discussions on the related matter.
- 15.
Ibn Khaldun (Abu Zayed Abdu ar-Rahman bin Muhammad bin Khaldun al-Hadrami; 1332–1406 CE), regarded by many as the father of sociology, is best known for his work Al Muqaddimah (or the Prolegomena).
- 16.
Geographic (location) “zones” in this book refers to the latitudes divided following Ibn Khaldun’s thesis. Latitudes 0–63 have been divided in seven equal zones. So Zone 1 is Latitude 0–9, Zone 2 is Latitude 10–18, and so forth.
- 17.
A “crescent” shaped fertile area—an extension of Mesopotamia—between the Anatolian hills in the North and Syrian Desert in the South.
- 18.
This phenomenon add another dimension to the debate—natural resource dependency diminishes overall economic performance (see Chap. 3).
- 19.
Its foreign relation was controlled by the British for some time during the late nineteenth century CE.
- 20.
Apart from remaining a part of the Ottoman Empire, for a short period, Egypt (between 1882 and 1922) was under British protection, and Libya was under Italian rule (1911–1943). None was “colony.” Thus Egypt and Libya are grouped as British protectorates.
- 21.
Except for once, may be, in 1947 on Nehru’s invitation, to attend the Asian Relations Conference in Delhi (Emmott 2009, 32)
- 22.
The term “Middle East” is loaded being attached to European colonialism and later American imperialism (Marston et al. 2005, p. 193) and is not being used here.
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Hasan, S. (2012). The Muslim World and Human Development: An Introduction. In: Hasan, S. (eds) The Muslim World in the 21st Century. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2633-8_1
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