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Islam: Significant Muslim
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Islam has been waging civilizational war for centuries. Before the Muslims arrived, Egypt and North Africa and the southern coast of the Mediterranean were Christian. There was a Buddhist monastery in Egypt. Turkey was Buddhist and Christian. Persia—now Iran—was Zoroastrian. The Hindu culture covered an area of the world twice as large as it is now.
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The most central issue in Islam is the responsibility towards the community. The Koran and the Sunna contains many rules on how to act in life, what to do and what not to do. The core of Islam is the family, the extended family, and from this, society is understood as concentric circles. There are no obligations on the Muslims towards people who are not Muslims, Jews or Christians.
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Islam and Arab culture developed a model of toleration and coexistence long before these were practiced in the West. The model was different ... from the cultural pluralism or melting pot models of modern Western society. Pluralism and separateness was recognized and regulated. Middle Eastern societies tend to be segmented, so that for example, Armenians, Jews, Greeks and others live in separate quarters, go to separate schools, have different occupations from each other, and each have a separate and recognized place in society. Christians and Jews were classified as people of the book and allowed rights as dhimmi, a second class citizenship that was a handicap of varying degrees of discomfort in different ages and in different Muslim countries, and might involve restrictions on worship, special dress, exclusion from administrative posts and other strictures. Land conquered by Muslims was awarded on leasehold to Muslims.
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By 750 CE, Islam had invaded China, India, along the Southern shore of the Mediterranean and into Spain. By 1550 they had besieged Vienna. Wars resulted, expelling Muslims from Spain and Europe. Since their trading routes were mostly over land, they did not an develop extensive sea trade (as for example the English and Spaniards). As a result, the old world occupation of North America was left to Christians.
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The historical development of Islam, the Arab state and its successor states, was different from that of the West. Some claim that because of this development, there is no real national feeling in the Arab world, but this is not necessarily the case. An Arab is part of the Arabic Umma (roughly translated as "community" - it is sometimes translated as 'nation') and a Muslim Arab is ... a member of the Islamic Umma. An Arab may also have a particular "national" identity, as a member of a "Sha'ab" such as the Palestinian Sha'ab. In modern times, the rise of nationalism has also caused a reassertion of particularism, and of the separate identities of different ethnic and religious groups such as the Egyptians, the Bedouin and Peninsular Arabs, the Maronite Christians and the Amazigh people of North Africa.
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Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Islam has become more prominent in public life as Muslims have engaged in a recovery of their national and cultural heritage. Mosques have been reopened or rebuilt and contacts with Muslims abroad established, and a there has been a general increase in personal piety. Nevertheless, the Soviet-era connections between Islam and national heritage remain intact, and as post-Soviet regimes undertake nation-building, Islam retains its strong cultural definitions.
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Significant Muslim