Running head: ISLAM : GLOBAL CONCEPT AND PRACTICES 1

Islam : Global Concept and Practices
DeVry University
Sociology – 350N – Cultural Diversity in Professions
Spring Semester 2013

Introduction
The history of Islam, its’ concepts and practices is one of the most intriguing yet controversial religions known today. Worldwide, Muslims make up about 23.4 percent of the population, while Christianity makes up about 30 percent (Goodstein, 2011). A study published in 2009 by the Pew Research Center to get global concept of the Muslim population found, “Of the 232 countries and territories included in this study, 50 are Muslim-majority” (p. 5). The Center also found “While 80% of the world’s Muslims live in countries where Muslims are in the majority, significant numbers – about one-fifth of the world’s Muslim population – live as religious minorities in their home countries” (p. 7). With so many countries adhering to Islam and the growth of the Muslim population here in America and worldwide; how will this affect how non-Islamic countries communicate and interact with Islamic countries and how we communicate right here in the United States? If Muslim fundamentalists were not at the forefront of controversy in the war on terrorism, would Islam be a religion that sparks so much debate?
Even before September 11th, there had been much controversy related to Islam. However most of it occurred on foreign soil. With significant bombings and terrorist attacks in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, many Americans were more fearful of travelling abroad, not realizing that such an attack could occur right here at home. Unfortunately it happened; and when it did, due to human nature, we have a propensity to over-generalize and draw conclusions based on the limitations of our ethnocentrism. Terrorists are Muslim. Muslims practice Islam. Therefore anyone who