week 5

Islam in America is not a bad thing, but it scares a lot of people.  Most Americans associate Islamic faith with that of terrorists.  Malcolm X converted to Islam and went from militant black separatism to realizing that race is a barrier that can be broken through the context of Islam.  Well that thought really makes me wonder how a religion that is supposed to be good has such bad people believing in it.  The Islamic religion brought the Afro-Eurasians world into a worldview.  The faith of Islam had spread to the United States where some 1,200 mosques were created and an estimated 8 million Muslims were living. “The broad reach of Islam generated many of the great cultural encounters of this age of accelerating connections, as the civilization challenged and provoked Christendom, penetrated and was transformed by African cultures, and also took root in India, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia.  The spread of Islam continued in the modern era so that by the beginning of the twenty-first century, perhaps 1.2 billion people, or 22 percent of the world’s population, identified as Muslims.” (Strayer, 302) slaves and prisoners of war were amongst the people who converted.  People who converted were able to avoid the jizya, a tax imposed on non-Muslims. Conversion was not an automatic or simple process.  Vigorous resistance delayed the conversions for centuries among the people of North Africa.  In Persia between 750 and 900 about 80 percent of the population had made the transition to a Muslim religion, while still keeping their own ancient language.

Interesting to find out that Arab and Berber forces conquered Spain in the early 8^th century during the first wave of Islamic expansion. Muslim Spain in several centuries following the conquest has been portrayed as a vibrant civilization characterized by harmony and tolerance between Muslim rulers and its Christian and Jewish subjects.  Very interesting and I guess nice to know that at the time it was nice to live.