Islam in India Islam is the second-largest religion in India, making up 14.2% of the countrys population with about 172 million adherents(2011 census). Islam first came to India with Arab traders as early as 7th century AD to coastal Malabar. Islam arrived in the 11th century to coastal Gujarat. Islam arrived in north India in the 12th century with Turkic invasions and has since become a part of Indias religious and cultural heritage. Over the centuries, there has been significant integration of Hindu and Muslim cultures across India and the Muslims have played a prominent role in Indias economic rise and cultural influence. In India, there are 70%-75% of Muslim population are of Shia and 25% - 30% of Sunni. Shias muslims are the adherents of Fatima Bibi and her son Hassan and Hussain and the Sunnis are the adherents of Aisha and her father Abu Bokkar and their descendants Yazid. The historic background of the Sunni–Shia split lies in the schism that occurred when the Islamic prophet Muhammad died in the year 632, leading to a dispute over succession to Muhammad as a caliph of the Islamic communityspread across various parts of the world, which led to the Battle of Siffin. The dispute intensified greatly after the Battle of Karbala, in which Hussein ibn Ali and his household were killed by the ruling Umayyad Caliph Yazid I, and the outcry for his revenge divided the early Islamic community. Today, there are differences in religious practice, traditions, and customs, often related to jurisprudence. Although all Muslim groups consider the Quran to be divine, Sunni and Shia have different opinions on hadith. Sunnis are a majority in most Muslim communities in Southeast Asia, China, South Asia, Africa, most of the Arab World, and among Muslims in the United States (of which 85-90% are Sunnis).[10][11] Shias make up the majority of the Muslim population in Iran (around 90–95%), Azerbaijan (around 85%),[12] Iraq (around 60-65%) and Bahrain (around 65%). Minority communities are also found in Yemen where over 45% of the population are Shia (mostly of the Zaidisect), according to the UNHCR.[13] Others put the numbers of Shias at 30%.[14][15] About 10-15% of Turkeys population belong to the Alevi sect. The Shia constitute around 30-40% of Kuwait,[16][17] 45-55% of the Muslim population in Lebanon, 10% of Saudi Arabia, 15% of Syria, and 10-15% of Pakistan. Around 10-15% of Afghanistan, less than 5% of the Muslims in Nigeria, and around 3% of population of Tajikistan are Shia.[18] ...Shias are about 10-to-15 percent of the entire Muslim world. We dont have accurate statistics because in much of the Middle East it is not convenient to have them, for ruling regimes in particular. But the estimates are that they are about 10-to-15 percent of the Muslim world, which puts them somewhere between 165-to-190 million people....The overwhelming majority of that population lives between Pakistan and Lebanon. Iran always had been a Shia country, the largest one, with about 60 million population. Pakistan is the second-largest Shia country in the world, with about 30 million population. And, potentially, there are as many Shias in India as there are in Iraq.[19][20] —Vali Nasr, October 18, 2006
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 06:12:53 +0000
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