One may like to read the following:
Quote:
"At the dawn of the twenty-first century, Islam was clearly a global demographic presence, the fastest growing and expanding religion. It was and remains not only the predominant religion in some fifty-six countries but also the second- or third-largest religion in Europe and America. Muslim minority communities could be found across the world, from Africa to Southeast Asia. Mosques, minarets, and Islamic centers dotted landscapes, mixing with the church spires that had dominated in the past. Muslims were increasingly encountered not only as the "other" but also as neighbors and fellow citizens. Interest in the religion of Islam and Islamic civilization increased and became the subjects of university and school curricula, media programs, and publications. Although problems existed and Muslim and non-Muslim communities continued to struggle with issues of identity, assimilation, and pluralism, Islam and Muslims seemed well on the way to being better understood. Increasingly, the title of a book, Islam: The Misunderstood Religion, written by a former United Nations official in the mid-twentieth century, seemed to reflect the past. The first and subsequent editions of Islam: The Straight Path reflected the realities of those times. It was both a presentation of Islam's faith, history, and heritage and a window on the dynamic role that religion continued to play in the late twentieth century due both to the resurgence of Islam in Muslim piety and politics and to the continued spread and expansion of Islam demographically."Unquote
http://pages.uoregon.edu/aweiss/IslamGlobalForces/Esposito Week 1.pdf
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