Islamism In The 20th Century

Muhammad’s father-in-law Abu Bakr took over leadership of the umma as the successor (caliph) of Muhammad. Abu Bakr faced two main tasks: standardization of the Islamic religion and consolidation of the Islamic state. Abu Bakr successfully re-established Muslim authority over the Arabs and oversaw the compilation and organization of the Quran in book form.

The spread of Islam throughout the world was among the most significant worldwide movements in history. Beginning as the faith of a small community of believers in Arabia in the seventh century, Islam rapidly became one of the major world religions. The core beliefs and culture of this faith is the belief that Muhammad (570-632), a respected businessman in Mecca, a commercial and religious center in western Arabia, received revelations from God that have been preserved in the Qur'an. The core of Islam remains the same today after 1396 years. Islam still translates to “submission” and Muslims still live by the Qur’an and follow the 5 Pillars of Islam. However, throughout the Pre-Islamic, Umayyad, and Abbasid

Imagine a powerful tool someone could use in order to reach and influence the masses, from even a small community to a whole nation or even multiple nations. Something that can be used to spread awareness and information, whether it be true or false, used to paint a picture and influence masses to a single viewpoint. Propaganda: “ideas or statements that are often false or exaggerated and that are spread in order to benefit a cause, a political leader, a government, etc.” Could there be a more perfect tool used to influence millions of people; whether it be promoting or bashing a person, and idea, or a nation? Something as innocent as a poster on wall seen by a passerby, but with a sentimental message that urges attention. People have

‘’In the winter of 1915-1916, two diplomats, Sir Mark Sykes of Britain and François Georges-Picot of France secretly met to decide the fate of the post-Ottoman Arab world. According to what would become known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the British and French agreed to divide up the Arab world among themselves.’’ (Fromkin) In the agreement, the British would get control of Kuwait, Iraq, and Jordan while the French would get control of Syria, Lebanon, and turkey.’’ The Sykes-Picot Agreement contradicted the promises that were made to Sherif Hussein by the British this caused a huge amount of tension between the British and Arabs. But, this isn’t the last of conflicting agreements the British would make.’’

The world you once knew is falling to ashes and food is become such a scarcity that people are fighting over a few pieces of bread. The political class is too busy fighting among themselves to care for anyone else. Children are roaming the streets and begging for work to feed their dying, hungry stomachs. This is not a scene from a horror movie, but rather the reality of the beginning of post classical era. In these times of hardship the people turned to a higher power, which resulted in a religious boom. The main religion during the post classical era that had the greatest impact on people was Islam due to Muhammad, trade routes, the Black Plague, conquests and Islamic culture.

Certain characters of George Orwell’s Animal Farm use faulty logic and rhetorical trickery, like fear and bandwagon, to manipulate other characters. They serve to expose and enhance several themes of the book. Napoleon and the pigs, as well as Jones, use fear tactics to scare the animals into behaving. Jones uses force to oppress the animals, whereas the pigs used both verbal and physical manipulation. Napoleon sent Squealer, who was known to be able to “turn black into white,” to manipulate the animals verbally through fear tactics (36).

Although it has been argued that Islam spread through violence, in fact, Islam spread quickly and gained many converts because it’s technological discoveries drew people to the empire, the social and political benefits it's convers and economic advantages.

“In world history, the most important new factor in the eastern hemisphere was Islam,a religion that is linked to Judaic-Samaritan tradition of the Middle East.” Islam spread across North Africa to West Africa beginning from the eighth century onwards, by means of military conquest, enabling Muslims to wield tremendous political influence and power. The introduction of Islamic religion impacted social, political and cultural aspects of Africa by means of trade, politics, and conversion.

The religion known as Islam began sometime during the 7th century in southwest Asia. The prophet, Muhammad, received revelations from God and wrote them down in a book. Islam is the world’s third largest monotheistic religion. Muhammad began starting battles with everyone and persuaded them to come back with him where they would late become part of Islam. Many battles occurred between Muslim armies and other armies located around Syria. These battles consisted of blood baths and arrow showers but led to conquests of Alexandria and Spain. Most would think the conquered would have been disappointed at the Muslims, but some of them were actually glad with them. Because of Muslim expansion, empires were weakened by war which made them easier targets

Today the average life expectancy of men and women worldwide is 71.0 years1, a number that surpasses any life expectancy of humans on record. Today people are living longer than ever because of advanced surgical procedures along with key innovations in medical technology. Over the past one hundred years, life expectancy of an average human has increased exponentially and the numbers show the numbers will only increase in the next one hundred years. However, before the privileges of advanced medicine were prevalent, humans would not live past their 50th or even 40th birthdays as there were no standard methods in treating sick patients. Women would die shortly after giving childbirth due complications, broken bones would be left untreated and unprotected cuts would lead to infections that eventually led to life-threatening illnesses, all due to the lack of proper healthcare and medical knowledge. Around the turn of the 1st millennium, however, the world saw an influx of new ideas in medicine, especially surgery and, unbeknownst to many, was due to the golden age of Islam, specifically the 9th 10th and 11th centuries which cleared the way for standard medical practices.

After Islam emerged into a religion in 622 CE, the Golden Age of Islam started in the 8th century where it prospered for four hundred years. The faith in Islam was able to spread through trade between three continents and through things people learned that Muslims developed. Moreover, these ideas came from Muhammad, who preached that there was a God named Allah who spoke through him, and that people should follow his teachings. During the Golden Age of the Islamic Empire, Islam significantly contributed to algebra, astronomy, and irrigation.

Islamic civilization was able to encompass such a large empire because of their contributions and the effects of them. They had successful trade routes and not only was goods transported from one place to another but also beliefs and ideas as well simply trying to convert people. The second reason was because of how devoted, willing to die for their god. The final reason was because they made everyone of their religion equal to each other every one was offered into the god’s garden of paradise and equality. The history of Islam is basically all political, economic, social and cultural developments.

Islamic rule spread over major areas of Africa, the Middle East, South, Southeast and Central Asia, Spain, and Southern Italy. Many Christians saw Islam as a religion of the sword. They have been very violent throughout their history. Arabian armies engaged in attacking the remnants of the Byzantine Empire. The First Crusade was launched in order to stop the Arabian invaders.

The Islamic faith began with the call of one man. His name was Muhammad and in 610 A.D the angel Gabriel appeared to him in the city of Mecca. Gabriel told Muhammad that God had commissioned him to be his last prophet an event known as the Night of Power. From here Muhammad began preaching to peoples in an effort to fulfill his mission of summiting them fully to God. His call to monotheism and anti materialistic teachings was rejected in Mecca as the people were accustomed to the worship of many gods and based their lives around possession and sales of goods. Muhammad then moved north were his following grew and he eventually build and army of people seeking a more fulfilling lifestyle. He pinned this army against Mecca who submitted peacefully and the masses came to adopt Islam. As Muhammad's death came in 632 A.D. the majority of Arabia had come to accept Islamic beliefs and practices and all of his revelations were combined to construct Islam’s holy book, the Qur’an. But, Muhammad’s death was not

The Islamic world has tried to become strong again through both secularism and religion, with neither answer showing a complete, absolute advantage over the other. This is shown through Atta Turk completely removing Islam out of the newly formed Turkish society, the Baath Party’s secular ideology while still committing massacre, and Hezbollah using a radicalized form of religion to gain political strength.