Islamic world

The Islamic world is the world-wide community of those who identify with Islam, known as Muslims, and who number approximately one-and-a-half billion people. Many Muslims not only live in, but also have an official status in the following regions:

Islam in law and ethics

In some nations, Muslim ethnic groups enjoy considerable autonomy.

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In some places, Muslims implement a form of Islamic law, called shariah in Arabic. The Islamic law exists in many variations, but the main forms are the five (four Sunni and one Shia) schools of jurisprudence (fiqh):

Related Topics:
Islamic law - Shariah - Schools of jurisprudence - Fiqh

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• the Hanafi school in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, West Africa, Egypt,
• the Maliki in North Africa and West Africa,
• the Shafi'i in Malaysia and Indonesia,
• the Hanbali in Arabia, and
• Jaferi in Iran and Iraq - where the majority is Shia.

All five are centuries old and many Muslims feel a new fiqh must be created for modern society. Islam has a method for doing this, al-urf and ijtihad are the words to describe this method, but they have not been used in a long time, and few people are trusted enough to use them to make new laws.

Related Topics:
Fiqh - Society - Al-urf - Ijtihad

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So, in most of the Muslim world, people are socially conservative.

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Muslim women often dress extremely modestly, and many do so by choice. Thus, in some countries an interpretation of the Islamic law requires women to cover either just legs, shoulders and head or the whole body apart from the face. In strictest forms, the face as well must be covered leaving just a mesh to see through. These rules for dressing are one of the things that cause tension between the Western World and that of Muslims, concerning particularly Muslims living in western countries.

Related Topics:
Muslim women - Western World

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Islamic economics bans interest but in most Muslim countries Western banking is allowed. This is another issue that many Muslims have with the Western world.

Related Topics:
Islamic economics - Interest - Banking

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