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A N O VERVIEW : W HO ARE THE M USLIMS ?

ple are Muslims. However, some of the largest countries in the area historically known as the Middle East have large non-Arab Muslim populations, such as Turkey (75 million Muslims) and Iran (75 million Muslims). Asia is actually home to the countries with the largest Muslim populations. Indonesia, for example, is the world’s largest Muslim nation; it claims more than 205 million followers of Islam. There are also large Muslim populations in Pakistan (178 million) and India (172 million). In Central Asia, Afghanistan is home to more than 29 million Muslims, who make up 99 percent of the coun- try’s population. Numerous other countries in that region have significant Muslim populations; many of these had been part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) until it frag- mented in 1991. (The practice of Islam had been prohibited under the strict Communist rule of the Soviet Union.) Today, with over 90 percent of its citizens adherents of Islam, the former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan has a Muslim population of about 4.8 million; neighboring Uzbekistan, with a similar proportion of Muslims but a much larger population, has about 27 million Muslims. Islam is also the majority religion in Azerbaijan and in Kazakhstan (which is 70 percent Muslim and 28 percent Orthodox Christian), while Russia itself has a Muslim population estimated at around 15 million. Muslim Arabs conquered northern Africa during the seventh and eighth centuries, bringing their religion and culture with them. Islam remains the dominant religion in North African

Words to Understand in This Chapter

Islam— submission to the will of God. monotheism— belief in and worship of only one God.

Muslim— a follower of the religion of Islam and one who believes that God is the Supreme Being. secular— not controlled by a religious organization, or concerned with spiritual matters.