Answer
Salam Malik,
Thank you for your question.
In fact, it is a wonder how Islam has spread today if we look at it in the context of the twenty-first century so far.
With all the past regimes, both Eastern and Western, wanting to dominate the Middle Eastern home of all the major religions, one can only give credit to the Creator and then those practicing Muslims who have taught us much.
In human terms, much has existed between the poles of domination and the liberty to practice one’s faith, for it was only in the nineteenth century at the height of European colonial expansion that most of the Islamic world was colonized by the West.
Some independence was gained by Arab states after World War I, but it was not until after World War II that further independence was gained with the breakup of colonial rule of European countries like Britain and France, with the exception of Muslim states within the USSR and Palestine, which over a period of time was partitioned into Jordan, Palestine, and Israel.
During the same period, Indian Muslims had their own land in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Indonesia became independent from the Dutch, Malaysia from Britain, and later Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, and Brunei became independent.
However, among the relatively newly formed states, there has been a degree of secular rule as opposed to religious rule. Muslims from these regions were not only concerned with political independence, but also with their religious and cultural independence.
Many reformers arose from the eighteenth century onwards, with Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia, the Sanusiyyah in North Africa, the Mahdi movement in Sudan, the Aligarh in India, and Iranian Jamal-ul-Din Al-Afghani in Cairo, who championed a pan-Islamism to unite the Islamic world politically as well as religiously.
This was also in the context of a growing sense of nationalism after gaining independence from colonial rule. There was a growing sense of faith in the future. (Barkati)
Yet other realities had to be faced, as they are still today, and that is the conflict between secular rule and being free to practice one’s religion. As a consequence, many Muslims over the past three centuries have migrated to Western shores seeking a better life, as many non-Muslims have done.
Through the mechanism of migration and consequent interaction with non-Muslims, there has been the greatest exchange and thus expansion.
In Britain for example, the first bout of Islamophobia was during the Crusades. Yet despite that, friendships and allegiances were made. Queen Elizabeth I, for example, asked Sultan Murad of the Ottoman Empire for help against the Spanish.
The first documented Englishman to convert to Islam was John Nelson in the sixteenth century, and among the aristocracy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there were converts like Sir Edward Montague, who was the son of the ambassador to Turkey.
The first English translation of the Qur’an was published in 1649, and the first mosque in the United Kingdom was built in Wales in 1860.
Today, according to the BBC:
Over 600,000 of Britain’s 1.5 to 2 million Muslims are active in their faith, which is a high proportion by Christian standards. […] Most British Muslims belong to the Sunni tradition of Islam. […] There are over 600 mosques in the UK and around 60 Muslim schools. (BBC)
Whereas the Islamic code of public conduct—made apparent by the apparel of women—might be considered antagonistic to some, for others, it makes them feel comfortable. Hence one can see at all levels of secular society, a degree of positiveness has been made.
Heritage Muslims and Muslim converts interact with non-Muslims at the international, national, and local levels, in both government and civil society. In this way, non-Muslims who are open to learning on a multi-leveled basis come into touch with practicing Muslims whereby various forms of discourse take place.
Also, within some sectors of secular Western society, there are those who have become dissatisfied with the deterioration of society and seek a more meaningful life and turn to Islam. Even in the midst of the propaganda machine of the “war on terror,” many conversions to Islam continue still, expanding the practice of the religion beyond territorial boundaries.
I hope this answer is satisfactory. If you have any other inquiries, please do not hesitate to send us again. Thank you and please keep in touch.
Salam.
This response is from About Islam’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.
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