Spread of Islam
Islam is an independent monotheistic religion and goes back, like Christianity and Judaism, to Abraham, the progenitor of the Israelites. Today, Islam is the second largest religious community and has about 1.8 billion followers.Muslim countries and thus the main areas of spread are in northern Africa and the Middle East. Islam is also widespread in many other countries. Only in the Americas is it still a minority religion. Among the religious directions of Islam are mainly:
| Country | Distribution | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Indonesia | 87.2 % | 238,713,000 |
| Pakistan | 95.0 % | 219,832,000 |
| India | 13.0 % | 185,351,000 |
| Bangladesh | 89.5 % | 151,574,000 |
| Nigeria | 50.0 % | 106,701,000 |
| Egypt | 90.0 % | 98,336,000 |
| Iran | 96.5 % | 84,846,000 |
| Turkey | 99.0 % | 83,928,000 |
| Algeria | 99.0 % | 43,736,000 |
| Iraq | 97.0 % | 42,228,000 |
| Ethiopia | 33.9 % | 40,776,000 |
| Afghanistan | 99.0 % | 39,698,000 |
| Morocco | 99.0 % | 36,706,000 |
| Saudi Arabia | 99.0 % | 35,591,000 |
| Yemen | 98.0 % | 32,322,000 |
| Sudan | 70.0 % | 31,960,000 |
| Uzbekistan | 88.0 % | 30,725,000 |
| Mali | 94.8 % | 20,766,000 |
| Malaysia | 61.3 % | 20,581,000 |
| Niger | 80.0 % | 20,202,000 |
| Syria | 89.0 % | 18,979,000 |
| Somalia | 99.9 % | 17,049,000 |
| Senegal | 94.0 % | 15,864,000 |
| Burkina Faso | 60.5 % | 13,371,000 |
| Kazakhstan | 70.2 % | 13,339,000 |
| Tunisia | 99.1 % | 12,153,000 |
| Guinea | 85.0 % | 11,502,000 |
| Ivory Coast | 38.6 % | 10,607,000 |
| Jordan | 94.2 % | 10,502,000 |
| Democratic Republic of the Congo | 10.0 % | 9,589,000 |
| Azerbaijan | 93.4 % | 9,469,000 |
| Chad | 53.1 % | 9,122,000 |
| Tajikistan | 90.0 % | 8,775,000 |
| United Arab Emirates | 76.0 % | 7,118,000 |
| Libya | 96.6 % | 6,506,000 |
| Kenya | 11.1 % | 5,884,000 |
| Ghana | 17.6 % | 5,779,000 |
| Mozambique | 17.9 % | 5,742,000 |
| Russia | 4.0 % | 5,738,000 |
| Philippines | 5.0 % | 5,694,000 |
| Turkmenistan | 89.0 % | 5,644,000 |
| Uganda | 12.1 % | 5,548,000 |
| Cameroon | 20.0 % | 5,440,000 |
| France | 8.0 % | 5,420,000 |
| Sierra Leone | 60.0 % | 5,052,000 |
| Kyrgyzstan | 75.0 % | 5,019,000 |
| Mauritania | 100.0 % | 4,615,000 |
| Palestine | 91.0 % | 4,480,000 |
| Germany | 4.7 % | 3,910,000 |
| Oman | 85.9 % | 3,883,000 |
| Thailand | 4.9 % | 3,508,000 |
| Lebanon | 58.5 % | 3,272,000 |
| Benin | 24.4 % | 3,171,000 |
| Kuwait | 73.2 % | 3,111,000 |
| United Kingdom | 4.4 % | 2,962,000 |
| Malawi | 13.0 % | 2,586,000 |
| Gambia | 90.0 % | 2,376,000 |
| Myanmar | 4.0 % | 2,152,000 |
| Sri Lanka | 9.7 % | 2,149,000 |
| Qatar | 77.5 % | 2,083,000 |
| Madagascar | 7.0 % | 2,024,000 |
| Eritrea | 50.0 % | 1,810,000 |
| Israel | 19.3 % | 1,807,000 |
| Togo | 20.0 % | 1,729,000 |
| Kosovo | 95.6 % | 1,707,000 |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | 50.7 % | 1,658,000 |
| Albania | 56.7 % | 1,594,000 |
| Nepal | 4.4 % | 1,322,000 |
| Canada | 3.2 % | 1,224,000 |
| Djibouti | 94.0 % | 1,039,000 |
| Bahrain | 70.3 % | 1,029,000 |
| Guinea-Bissau | 45.1 % | 929,000 |
| Netherlands | 5.0 % | 877,000 |
| Central African Republic | 15.0 % | 819,000 |
| Comoros | 98.0 % | 805,000 |
| Singapore | 14.3 % | 780,000 |
| Bulgaria | 10.0 % | 688,000 |
| North Macedonia | 33.3 % | 688,000 |
| South Sudan | 6.2 % | 666,000 |
| Liberia | 12.2 % | 634,000 |
| Australia | 2.2 % | 565,000 |
| Maldives | 100.0 % | 521,000 |
| Switzerland | 4.9 % | 426,000 |
| Austria | 4.2 % | 376,000 |
| Georgia | 9.9 % | 367,000 |
| Brunei | 78.8 % | 351,000 |
| Burundi | 2.5 % | 314,000 |
Origin and distribution
Islam has its origin in the year 610 on Mount Hira near Mecca, where the prophet Mohammed received the order to preach from the angel Gabriel. From there his sermons spread first over Medina and later over a large part of the Arab tribes of Saudi Arabia.By the year 650, the Arabs, through military conquest, had spread their rule and the Islamic faith in Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and parts of Iran. This "Islamic expansion" ebbed away after the beginning of the 8th century. Like other religions, Islam has since spread mainly through emigration and the influence of international traders. It was not until the 11th century that the spread made great strides again through the Islamization of the African east coast, and later also the west coast. North and east of what was then Arabia, significant parts of Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and India were added up to the 13th century as a result of several years of war by Ghāzī fighters. Even parts of western China were Islamized.
In Europe, the 2nd millennium marked the beginning of a period of wars between Christianity and Islam that flared up again and again. Focal points were above all the Iberian Peninsula and the areas of the then Ottoman Empire in Southeast Europe. Starting from the Indian Ocean, the same happened in South and Southeast Asia. To this day, Malaysia, Indonesia and the south of Thailand have a clearly predominant Muslim population, while India almost completely reverted to Hinduism after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.