Islam in Qatar
By : Drs. Agus Subandi, MBA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Qatar is a Muslim-majority country with Islam as the state religion. The local population, made up of Qataris, are all Muslims although there are high numbers of foreign workers in Qatar which varies the Muslim population. In the CIA World Factbook it says 77.5% are Muslims, with 8.5% Christians and others remain.[1] Foreign workers are well noted in the country, mainly from South Asia and Americans which constitute most of the population of Qatar.
Islam conquered the entire Arabian region in the 7th century in a string of widespread conflicts resulting in the Islamization of the native Arabian pagans. With the spread of Islam in Qatar, the prophet Muhammad sent his first military envoy, Al Ala Al-Hadrami, to Al-Mundhir Ibn Sawa Al-Tamimi, the ruler of Bahrain, which extended from the coast of Kuwait to the south of Qatar, including Al-Hasa and Bahrain Islands, in the year 628, inviting him to accept Islam as he had invited other kingdoms and empires of his time such as Byzantium and Persia. Mundhir, responding to Muhammad, announced his acceptance of Islam, and all the inhabitants of Qatar became Muslim, heralding the beginning of the Islamic era in Qatar.
Islam in Bahrain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Islam is the state religion in Bahrain where nearly all citizens are Muslims, However, due to an influx of immigrants and guest workers from non-Muslim countries, such as India, the Philippines and Sri Lanka, the overall percentage of Muslims in the country has declined since the late 20th century. According to theCIA's World Factbook, the country's 2001 census indicate that 81.2% of Bahrain's population was Muslim (Shi'a and Sunni). Although no precise figures are available, Shia Muslims make up approximately two-thirds[1] of the total population.
Prior to Islam, the inhabitants of Qatar and Bahrain practiced Arabian paganism, worshipping gods like Awal. Islam swept the entire Arabian region in the 7th century. The Prophet Muhammad sent his first envoy Al-Ala'a Al-Hadrami toMunzir ibn Sawa Al Tamimi, the ruler of the historical region of Bahrain, which extended the coast from Kuwait to the south of Qatar including Al-Hasa, Qatif, and the Bahrain Islands, in the year 628 AD, inviting him to Islam. Munzir announced his conversion to Islam and all the Arab inhabitants of Bahrain and Qatar including some Persians living in Qatar also became Muslim, heralding the beginning of the Islamic era in Bahrain. They turned Bahrain into the strongest state in the Persian Gulf and possibly, wider Middle East. They raided Baghdad and in 930 sacked Mecca and Medina, desecrating the Zamzam Well with the bodies of Hajj pilgrim and taking the Black Stone with them back to Bahrain where it remained for twenty years. The Qarmatians were eventually defeated by their Ismaili counterparts, the Abbasids in 976 and afterwards their power waned.
The defeat of the Qarmatian state saw the gradual wane of their revolutionary brand of Ismaili Islam. Instead, under a process encouraged by Sunni rulers over the next four hundred years, Twelver Shia Islam became entrenched. According to historian Juan Cole, Sunnis favoured the quietist Twelver branch of Shi'ism over the Qarmatians and promoted its development in Bahrain.[2] In the 13th Century, there arose what was termed the 'Bahrain School', which integrated themes of philosophy and mysticism into orthodox Twelver practise. The school produced theologians such as Sheikh Kamal al-Din Ibn Sa’adah al Bahrani (d. 1242), Sheikh Jamal al-Din ‘Ali ibn Sulayman al-Bahrani (d. 1271), and perhaps most famously Sheikh Maitham Al Bahrani (d. 1280).[3]
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The Al Khalifa ruling family and its supporting tribes adhere to the Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence, while the Huwala Sunnis follow theShafi'i school. There is also a large population of the South Asian Sunni Muslim residents who follow the Hanafi school and also some following the Shia Jafari school.
The country observes the Muslim feasts of Eid al-Adha, Eid al-Fitr, the Prophet Muhammad's birthday (Mawlid), and the Islamic New Yearas national holidays.
Political liberalisation under King Hamad has seen Islamist parties contest Bahrain's elections and become a dominant force in parliament. Sunni Islamist parties, the salafist Asalah and the Muslim Brotherhood affiliated Al-Menbar Islamic Society are two of the largest parties in parliament, while the Shia Islamist Al Wefaq was expected to become the dominating party after 2006's general election having boycotted the 2002 poll. In the 2006 election Wefaq received the backing of the Islamic Scholars Council which helped it seventeen of the eighteen seats it contested. In the 2010 election, they increased their representation by one seat, winning all the constituencies they contested, to take 18 of the 40 available parliamentary seats.[4]
§ At least Bahrain is trying to address Sunni-Shiite divisions, Daily Star editorial, 12 May 2006 (from Bahraini.tv website)
1. ^ http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/country-profile/middle-east-north-africa/bahrain
3. ^ Ali Al Oraibi, Rationalism in the school of Bahrain: a historical perspective, in Shīʻite Heritage: Essays on Classical and Modern Traditions by Lynda Clarke, Global Academic Publishing 2001, p. 331
Islam in Uzbekistan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Part of a series on Islam by country  |
Islam is by far the dominant religion in Uzbekistan, as Muslims constitute 90% of the population while 5% of the population follow Russian Orthodox Christianity according to a 2009 US State Departmentrelease.[1] However, a 2009 Pew Research Center report stated that Uzbekistan's population is 96.3% Muslim.[2] An estimated 93,000 Jews were once present. Despite its predominance, the practice ofIslam is far from monolithic. Many versions of the faith have been practiced in Uzbekistan. The conflict of Islamic tradition with various agendas of reform or secularization throughout the 20th century has left the outside world with a confused notion of Islamic practices in Central Asia. In Uzbekistan the end ofSoviet power did not bring an upsurge of Islamic fundamentalism, as many had predicted, but rather a gradual reacquaintance with the precepts of the faith. However after 2000, there seems to be a rise of support in favour of the Islamists, which is whipped up by the repressive measures of the authoritarian regime.
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History
Islam was brought to ancestors of modern Uzbeks during the 8th century when the Arabs entered Central Asia. Islam initially took hold in the southern portions of Turkestan and thereafter gradually spread northward.[3] Islam also took root due to the zealous missionary work of Samanid rulers as a significant number of Turkic peoples accepted Islam.[4] In the 14th-century, Tamerlane constructed many religious structures, including the Bibi-Khanym Mosque. He also constructed one of his finest buildings at the tomb of Ahmed Yesevi, an influential Turkic Sufi saint who spread Sufi Islam among the nomads. Omar Aqta, Timur's court calligrapher, is said to have transcribed the Qur'an using letters so small that the entire text of the book fit on a signet ring. Omar also is said to have created a Qur'an so large that a wheelbarrow was required to transport it. Folios of what is probably this larger Qur'an have been found, written in gold lettering on huge pages. Islam also spread amongst the Uzbeks with the conversion of Uzbeg Khan. Converted to Islam by Ibn Abdul Hamid, a Bukharan sayyid and sheikh of the Yasavi order, Uzbeg Khan promoted Islam amongst the Golden Horde and fostered Muslim missionary work to expand across Central Asia. In the long run, Islam enabled the khan to eliminate interfactional struggles in the Horde and to stabilize state institutions.
Notable scholars from the area today known as Uzbekistan include Imam Bukhari whose book, Sahih Bukhari is regarded by Sunni Muslims as the most authentic of all hadith compilations and the most authoritative book after the Qur'an. Other Muslim scholars from the region include Imam Tirmidhi and Abu Mansur Maturidi who was one of the pioneers[5] of Islamic Jurisprudence scholars and his two works are considered to be authoritative on the subject.[6] In Samarqand, the development of sciences in the Muslim world greatly prospered. The work of Ali Qushji (d. 1474), who worked at Samarqand and then Istanbul, is seen as a late example of innovation in Islamic theoretical astronomy and it is believed he may have possibly had some influence on Nicolaus Copernicus due to similar arguments concerning the Earth's rotation. The astronomical tradition established by the Maragha school continued at the Ulugh Beg Observatory at Samarqand. Founded by Ulugh Begin the early 15th century, the observatory made considerable progress in observational astronomy.
Islam in the Soviet Era
Moscow greatly distorted the understanding of Islam among Uzbekistan's population and created competing Islamic ideologies among the Central Asians themselves[citation needed]. After its introduction in the 7th century, Islam in many ways formed the basis of life in Uzbekistan. During the Soviet era, Uzbekistan had sixty-five registered mosques and as many as 3,000 active mullahsand other Muslim clerics. For almost forty years, the Muslim Board of Central Asia, the official, Soviet-approved governing agency of the Muslim faith in the region, was based inTashkent[citation needed]. The grand mufti who headed the board met with hundreds of foreign delegations each year in his official capacity, and the board published a journal on Islamic issues,Muslims of the Soviet East[citation needed]. However, the Muslims working or participating in any of these organizations were carefully screened for political reliability. Furthermore, as the government ostensibly was promoting Islam with the one hand, it was working hard to eradicate it with the other. The government sponsored official anti-religious campaigns and severe crackdowns on any hint of an Islamic movement or network outside of the control of the state. Moreover, many Muslims were subjected to intenseRussification[citation needed]. Many mosques were closed [7] and during Stalin's reign, many Muslims were victims of mass deportation.
Mainstream Islam
1990s
For the most part, however, in the first years of independence Uzbekistan is seeing a resurgence of a more secular Islam, and even that movement is in its very early stages. According to a public opinion survey conducted in 1994, interest in Islam is growing rapidly, but personal understanding of Islam by Uzbeks remains limited or distorted. For example, about half of ethnic Uzbekrespondents professed belief in Islam when asked to identify their religious faith. Among that number, however, knowledge or practice of the main precepts of Islam was weak. Despite a reported spread of Islam among Uzbekistan's younger population, the survey suggested that Islamic belief is still weakest among the younger generations. Few respondents showed interest in a form of Islam that would participate actively in political issues. Thus, the first years of post-Soviet religious freedom seem to have fostered a form of Islam related to the Uzbek population more in traditional and cultural terms than in religious ones, weakening Karimov's claims that a growing widespread fundamentalism poses a threat to Uzbekistan's survival.
2000s
Further information: Andijan massacre
Experts assume that Islam itself was probably not the root cause of growing unrest as much as a vehicle for expressing other grievances that are more immediate causes of dissension and despair. The people view political Islam as a solution to these problems. The Uzbek rulers strongly deny that. The government is against the (Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Islamic Liberation) and the followers of Said Nursî of Turkey.[8] TheIslamic Movement of Uzbekistan is an armed movement, which is responsible for terrorist attacks.[8]
The government blames the May 2005 unrest in Uzbekistan on an aim to overthrow the government of Uzbekistan in order to make it a Central Asian theocratic republic. Uzbek President Islam Karimov "placed blame for the unrest on Islamic extremist groups, a label that he has used to describe political opponents in recent years and that his critics say is used as a pretext for maintaining a repressive state."[9]Hizb ut-Tahrir have denied involvement in the unrest, but expressed sympathy and solidarity with the victims of the unrest, firmly laying blame on the repressive practices and corruption of the government.
See also
External links
References
5. ^ Katip Çelebi. (1943). Keşfü'z-Zünûn an Esâmi'l-Kütüb vel-Fünûn, (Vol. I), (pp. 110‑11). Istanbul:Maarif Matbaası.
6. ^ Ali, A. (1963). Maturidism. In Sharif, M. M. (Ed.), A history of muslim philosophy: With short accounts of other disciplines and the modern renaissance in the muslim lands (Vol. 1), (p. 261). Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
Islam in Turkmenistan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Central Mosque in Kone-Gummez village,Nohur area.
| Part of a series on Islam by country |
According to a 2009 Pew Research Center report, 93.1% of Turkmenistan's population is Muslim.[1] Traditionally, the Turkmen of Turkmenistan, like their kin in Uzbekistan andAfghanistan, are Sunni Muslims. Shia Muslims, the other main branch of Islam, are not numerous in Turkmenistan, and the Shia religious practices of the Azerbaijani and Kurdishminorities are not politicized. The great majority of Turkmen readily identify themselves asMuslims and acknowledge Islam as an integral part of their cultural heritage, but some support a revival of the religion's status primarily as an element of national revival.
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[edit]History and structure
Caliph Umar's empire at its peak in 644
Islam was introduced to Turkmenistan during the period of Islamic conquest by the second and thirdRashidun Caliphs, Umar and Uthman.
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