Tablighi Jamaat is a transnational religious movement which was founded in 1926 by Muhammad Ilyas in India. The movement primarily aims at Islamic spiritual reformation by working at the grass roots level, reaching out to Muslims across all social and economic spectra to bring them closer to the practices of Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Tablighi Jamaat (TJ) came forth as an offshoot of the Deobandi movement and its inception is believed to be a response to Hindu revivalist movements, which were considered a threat to vulnerable and non-practicing Muslims. Tablighi Jamaat gradually expanded from local to national to a transnational movement and now has followers in over 150 countries.
At a recent gathering of intelligent and progressive women I was reminded how little Americans know about Islam. The atmosphere of the meeting was creative and the conversation clever until the word Islam was uttered-floating like a poison balloon above our heads. Immediately, a women sitting to my right grimaced and said "I don't like how Arabs treat their wives." Islam=Arab=misogynism? Although I often encounter this type of reflexive response on the topic of Islam, I was startled. I did not expect such an uninformed statement coming from this group.
For the thousandth time, I asked myself--how much do Americans really know about Islam? Let's face it; Americans know more about Tiger Woods' sex life than they do about Islam. Unfortunately, most Americans learn about Islam primarily through various media outlets which have miserably failed to provide a balanced view of the world's second largest religion. Islam is here to stay and Americans need to begin to question the media's agenda and they need to take initiative and do some investigation on their own.
If Arabs do not make up the majority of Muslims-who does? According to the Pew Research Center's informative report, Mapping the Muslim World, "more than 60% of the global Muslim population is in Asia and about 20% in the Middle East and Northern Africa." The ten largest Muslim populations by country are as follows:
Indonesia 202 million
Pakistan 174 million
India 160 million
Bangladesh 145 million
Egypt 78.5 million
Nigeria 78 million
Iran 74 million
Turkey 73 million
Algeria 34 million
Morocco 32 million
It is interesting to note that none of the top ten countries are ethnically Arab. Muslims, like Christians, cannot be confined to one continent or people. Islam is not a monolithic religion but is, in actuality, fantastically diverse. It may further surprise you to find that "China has more Muslims than Syria; Russia is home to more Muslims than Jordan and Libya combined; and Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon."
What does all this mean? It means that most Americans wouldn't know a Muslim if one dropped on their head. Like Christians, Muslims are an extraordinarily diverse people who are unified by their religion. So the next time you think you have identified a Muslim because they looked like an "Arab"-keep in mind that you probably missed a couple dozen who didn't.
