Religions of the World

If the findings of the study entitled “The Global Religious Landscape” issued by the Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life issued on December 19, 2012 are accepted, then all the myths that Muslims in general and the world in particular had held about Islam are shattered clearly.
Muslims are 23 percent of a world population of 6.9 billion people. Of the 230 countries surveyed, they are a majority in 49 countries where 73 percent of them live. Twenty-seven percent of them live as a minority.
985 million of 1.6 billion Muslims or 62 percent live in the Asia-Pacific region. In the Middle East, there are 317 million or 20 percent of the world Muslims. In Africa some 16 percent or 248 million, in Europe some 3 percent or 43 million and in North America and Latin America some 3.4 million and less than a million respectively live. Despite their heavy concentration in Asia-pacific, only one in four is a Muslim in that region. Sixty-six percent Muslims live in 10 countries, namely, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Algeria, and Morocco.
In North America, the number of Muslims is estimated at 3.4 million. Muslim Americans have long believed without any definite data that they are over 6 million. In fact, some believe that they are 12 million. The total number of Muslims given by the Pew Forum is 2.77 million including non-citizens Muslims as well.   
Equally ridiculous is the claim by some that Muslim voters total 6 million in the US. No one has produced any serious study so far in their demographic claims, but everyone seems to be in a race of exaggerating the actual numbers. Muslim organizations, if they claim that the numbers given by the Pew Forum are wrong, can pool their resources to sponsor a study of Muslim demographics in the country.  
The other myth that is shattered by this study is the claim about the phenomenal growth of Islam in the world, especially in the US. It is said that Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the US and the world. How this notion has become part of Muslim discourse, no one really knows. However, quoting from the Muslim writers and speakers, many in the right-wing Christian evangelical and the Zionist groups have created a climate of fear and anxiety about Islam and Muslims. Muslims tend to enjoy the fact that their faith is attracting large numbers of converts while others tend to fear the growth of Muslims and Islam as they alert their followers of the danger of this new challenge.

None offers any credible data in their claims. People who are leaving the religious establishment and who identify with no religious institutions are growing faster than any other group. They are 1.2 billion in the world almost identical with Catholics who also make up 1.2 billion of the world population. In the U.S., the number of unaffiliated people has been on the rise. In 2010, they were 16.4 percent of the population, but in 2012 their number reached 19.6 percent, a net gain of 2.9 percent.

Christians are 31.5 percent 2.2 billion of the world population. They are in the majority in 157 of the 230 countries of the world.  Four regions have Christian majorities: Latin America and the Caribbean (90%), North America (77%), Europe (75%) and sub-Saharan Africa (63%). Christians live as minorities in the Asia-Pacific region (7%) and the Middle East-North Africa region (4%). 99% percent of Christians live outside the Middle East, the birthplace of Christianity.  Europe has 26%, Latin America and the Caribbean, 24% and sub-Saharan Africa has 24% Christians. In Asia and the Pacific only 13%) are Christians

The 10 countries with the largest number of Christians account for about half (48%) of the global Christian population. They are the United States (11%), followed by Brazil (8%), Mexico (5%), Russia (5%), the Philippines (4%), Nigeria (4%), China (3%), The Democratic Republic of the Congo (3%), Germany (3%) and Ethiopia (2%).

87% percent of Christians live in countries where they are in the majority. It shows that Christianity is more evenly spread religion present in all regions dominating the culture and politics of those countries.

Jews are 14 million or .02 percent of the world population. Their majority lives outside Israel. Forty-four percent of them are in North America and 44%, in the Middle East 41%.

One billion or 15 percent of the world population is Hindus.  Ninety-four percent of them live in India, 2% in Nepal and 1% in Bangladesh.  An overwhelming majority of Hindus (94%) live in one country, India. The largest populations of Hindus outside India are in Nepal (2% of all Hindus) and Bangladesh (1%). They are the majority in India, Nepal, and Mauritius.
Buddhists are 7% or 488 million of the world population. Ninety-nine percent of them live in the Asia-Pacific region. Seven countries have Buddhist majorities: Cambodia, Thailand, Burma (Myanmar), Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Laos, and Mongolia.

The third-largest group in the world comprises of the unaffiliated number who make up 16 percent of 1.1 billion of the world population. More than 76% of them live in the Asia-Pacific region while in North America about 5% live. The largest number of unaffiliated people live in China (62%) followed by Japan (6%), the U.S. (5%), Vietnam (2%) and Russia (2%).

It seems that this century would witness the competition between religious establishments and free thinkers.  A large number of people from every religious establishment seem to be renouncing their membership and joining a growing number of unaffiliated people. Many of them may still believe in the ideals and ideas of their faith, yet they do not want to identify with the institutions or leadership of their faith. This number is going to rise sharply in the decades to come as people would start critically examining their faith traditions. This would offer one of the biggest challenges that the religious establishments have faced in centuries.

The Connecticut Shooting

The Connecticut school shooting and the cold-blooded murder of 20 children have reminded us of the dark realities of the world in which we live. Innocent lives were lost due to the alleged anger, insanity and crazy behavior of an individual. But he is not alone in our world
The culture of violence pervades our world everywhere. On an average 1,600 people were murdered every day per 2000 statistics.  That number is on the rise ever since. An estimated 800,000 people were murdered in 2011 around the globe. Two-fifths of them were young people between the ages of 10 and 29 who were killed by other young people. These figures do not include people killed in terror-related acts, drone-killing or a sustained and organized killing done in the name of securing national interests. In all of these cases, there were specific gunmen involved in the murder of the people. But there is another type of killing that takes place in our world daily. Some 25,000 people die every day, almost 9 million per year, as a result of hunger, while we waste some 40 percent of the food that we buy to consume.
Wrongful death is a wrongful death, whether through gun violence or through artificially created hunger. We cannot blame just an individual for these killings. In a global world, each one of us is responsible for the acts of violence killing hundreds of people daily.
We are the ones who do allow our governments to use violence against the enemies in the name of national security.
We are the ones who promote the idea of a just war to eliminate those who do not fit into our thought paradigms.
We are the ones who manufacture guns and weapons of human destruction and glorify them.
We are the ones who promote movies and documentaries depicting uncontrolled violence in the name of entertainment.
We are the ones who extol the virtues of war to please God.
We are the ones who glorify those past rulers who took pride in building piles of human bodies.
We are the ones who teach our children ideologies that promote hatred and anger against others.
We are the ones who allow domestic violence prevails in our family culture.
We are the ones who allow the killing in the name of honor.
We are the ones who promote the killing of others who are different than us or who differ from us or who refuse to acknowledge our superiority.
We are the ones who create an artificial scarcity of the most essential resources.
We are the ones who create an artificial hunger to maintain a price structure that suits some.
We are the ones who deny basic food for others to align ourselves with a capitalist economy.
We are the ones who promote the culture of haves and have nots in the name of progress.
This is what our man-made philosophies and ideologies have given us in the last 5,000 years. They have told us that might is right and the one who would possess the mightiest weapons would be the most right and powerful. We live this axiom every day in all aspects of our life.
In contrast to that is the divine guidance that declares humanity as one with dignity to all. It promotes the idea of the sanctity of human life and it takes a stand against the race to pile up weapons to kill others. It talks of the brotherhood and sisterhood of all human beings. It invites people, to peace, the essence of life. It tells us to live the peace within ourselves and to practice it in our daily life especially towards those who are the others.
That divine guidance is the essence of human life. This was the mission that messengers lived for. This was the message that they invited all to believe. Yet, under our own whatever instincts we have twisted the divine guidance and turned that into a sectarian call not different than the violent ideologies that pervade around us.
It is time that we bring God back in our lives as individuals and as a society. It is time that we focus on those divine ideas that invite us to peace, non-violence and dignity and respect for all.
The Connecticut shooting should remind us that gun control would not be enough, and tougher laws would not be sufficient. What is needed is a valuable framework taught in our families, communities, and schools that promote a culture of peace, a culture of the sanctity of human life and the respect for each and every individual regardless of his or her background.

Weddings: An Islamic Way

On average, I perform 15 to 20 weddings each month in this so-called sin city. People always fly from different parts of the country or the world to get married. Las Vegas has become the wedding capital of the world. In most cases, the marriage ceremony is civil but some prefer to add religious rituals also. Right outside the marriage bureau are several chapels who charge quite a lot to offer their service. These chapels usually have access to local clergy belonging to different denominations. Depending on the religious orientation of the couple, they invite the priest belonging to that particular denomination. In some instance, where the groom and bride are of different religious traditions or denominations, the marriage is performed by two priests, one after the other to accommodate the religious identity of each person.
I have encouraged Muslim couples to come to the masjid to get their nikah performed Islamically in addition to getting it registered at the marriage bureau. Sometimes people insist that they only want the Islamic part and do not like to register the marriage with the city. Unless I know the couple well, I refuse to perform such marriages. The reason is very simple. Our masajid do not have sufficient information about walk-in-getting-married couples.
Most of the time, these weddings are very simple and the services offered by the Jamia Masjid are free. Occasionally, the couple or their relatives would bring some sweets for the people in the masjid.
However, there are other types of weddings that are arranged in big banquet halls and fancy places. In most cases, the couples’ families invite their family and friends. I personally feel that the Nikah should be performed in the masjid. People can have wedding receptions later either in the mosque if there are such facilities or at a banquet hall. This will maintain the sanctity of weddings and increase the interaction between masajid and the community. Many times people invite their non-Muslim friends to join the nikah ceremonies. The visit to masajid would indeed give such people a good exposure to Muslim places of worship. This way, we will be closer to the teachings and lifestyle of the Prophet.
In weddings that are organized at banquet halls or hotels, some are very lavish and some are modest. Some families spend a huge amount of money on these weddings.  Probably, the newly married couple would be better served if the amount of money spend on celebrations is spent on helping them settle for their future life. Yet it is an individual choice and people should never lose sight of the modesty that is recommended in Islam.
Mehr is a well-established Islamic practice and most of the time people would want the same amount of mehr for their wife that was given by Ali Ibn Talib, the fourth Calilph to the daughter of the Prophet, Fatima Zahra.
The mehr of the Prophet's daughter, Fatema was
1. An armor worth, 400 or 480 or 500 Dirhams.
2. One pair of cotton Yemeni Gloves.
3. Raw and untanned hide of a goat


The mehr is a woman’s right and her property and it must be paid, preferably at the time of the wedding. While calculating the value of mehr in our times, people should weigh in all factors, including, inflation, and the cost of living, etc. It should not overburden the husband nor it should diminish the value of the gift being offered to the bride.
Most of the weddings, even with lavish spending are not an expression of pomp and show. But sometimes, one finds an occasional display of mixed dancing and loud music and transparent, sleeveless or tight dresses. This is when I have always felt uncomfortable to stay longer than the usual. I usually tell the host politely that I would not stay during the dancing, regardless of who is performing it. I usually leave immediately after the nikah and I often request the families to ensure that loud music inviting people to dance should not be played before the nikah just to maintain the sanctity of the Quran. I think there are better ways to display one’s excitement and happiness than showing it off with dancing where almost every curve of the body become visible to those who watch it. I fully realize the nature of the event, but again, there are certain styles of happiness that people should limit to those who are eligible to appreciate it.
One can argue that people watching these people dancing should control their thought process. This is an ideal situation, but we can safely assume that each one of us is at a different level of controlling one’s looks and one’s thought process.
The wedding gifts are also important. Perhaps, a better way is to offer cash as a gift rather than offering things in kind. At times, people do not find the best use of the gift in kind; the cash will help them to spend on their needs. One should not overspend on buying gifts to burden one. Those who receive the gift should be considerate toward the giver in this aspect.
The marriage sermon is very important. I avoid giving long sermons. It should explain the importance of the event, the responsibilities of the bride and bridegroom towards each other and towards their families, the methodology to resolve their differences of opinions in the future if there are any and the vision of a happy and prosperous life built around love and kindness. It is an event that brings a man and a woman together and the sermon must emphasize love and compassion towards each other. Many times, such events are attended by non-Muslims. So before the end of the sermon, I usually request the people make silent prayers in their own religious traditions to acknowledge their presence and then ask all to join in loud prayers usually given in Arabic and in English.
I believe that our wedding ceremonies can be an expression of our commitment to the teachings of our Prophet in a modest manner. We must always remember that this event is all about coming together of two individuals under the divine guidance, going against the general practice of living together as is generally practiced at least in the Americas and Europe. The couple must be congratulated, appreciated and encouraged for this. They are the stars of the event and the focus of the sermon and celebrations should ensure that within the guidelines set by Allah and his prophet, their happiness is a priority. It is not a time to preach, but a time to celebrate.

December 21: The End of Time scenarios have no scientific or scriptural basis.  

December 21, 2012, is not far. The speculations that began in 1975 will come to an end on the night of the day described by many as the most a significant day in human history. A wide range of beliefs is under discussion all over the world. The day is the end-date of a 5125-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar and various people have proposed various astronomical alignments and numerological formulae.
Some say that from December 21 a new physical or spiritual transformation will take place in our world and a new era would begin. Others say that on December the world would come to an end or some major catastrophe would occur. Some even suggest that Earth will collide with a planet called Nibiru.
These ideas have no basis in the scientific world or in the scriptures. NASA has rejected the doomsday scenarios and the Quran and the Bible are unanimous that that the end is known only to Allah, the Almighty.

Those who are promoting the doomsday scenarios have no idea of what they are talking about. If the world is coming to an end on that day, then no one would be there to appreciate their predictions and if the world continues to exist, they would be exposed one more time. But such predictions have been falsified hundreds of times and these people have not learned about it.

Those who are looking for the signs of the end time also do not think much about what they are talking about. Even if we knew for sure that the world is coming to an end on December 21, we cannot do much about it except getting ready for that day. But isn’t it that we should all be prepared to leave this world anytime. Once we are gone, it makes no difference to us whether we left this world individually or with everyone else.

We had the same hype about the end of the world in 2000 and then some experts predicted the end in May 2012 or in October 2011 that the world would come to an end. Nothing happened as the world is still intact. Yet people still believe in these meaningless and useless talks.

The reality is that each one of us should be prepared to leave this world, regardless of our age and health at any time. As a Muslim, we believe that death would not be an end of life. Rather, we would be raised once again to face the consequences of our actions in this world. We should keep that simple guidance in our mind and organize our life accordingly.

When the end will come, none of us will be there to know that the end has occurred.

December 6: The Annual Day of Deceit and Deception

Babri masjid would never be built again on the site, it once stood for several centuries. No matter, how much secular pretensions, India’s politicians may show, none would dare challenge the might of the fascist Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Shive Sena (SS), The Bajrang Dal (BD), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) especially when a leader like Modi, the architect of the Muslim genocide in Gujarat is a contender for the Prime Ministership of India.

The movement to reclaim the Babri masjid led by the alliance of fascists Hindu forces was built on deception, deceit, and lies from the very beginning. Those who participated in the name of Hinduism, in fact, exposed the emptiness, hollowness, insincerity, untruthfulness, and hypocrisy of their religious and political leadership. 

The main argument of those who demolished the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, was built around a mysterious idol that, according to a claim, appeared inside the Babari masjid in Ayodhya in 1949.

Well, the idols did not appear mysteriously. They were planted by a holy man Baba Abhiram Das and his accomplice Indushekhar Jha and Yugi Kishore Jha, as they later admitted. Two other holy men Baba Ramchandra Das Paramhans and Vrindavan Das were also expected to participate in the planting of the idol below the central dome of the mosque. The Hindu holy man Abhiram went to the mosque and beat up the mosque muezzin Muhamad Ismael and placed the idols. He together other accomplice sat inside the mosque till dawn to show the miracle to other holy men. The local President of the Allah Hindu Mahasabha, Gopal Sing Vishad, printed posters and pamphlets announcing the miracle of idols appearing inside the Babri Masjid.

The Faizabad District Magistrate, K K K Nair, a Malayalee known for his right-wing Hindu leanings reached at the spot at 4 am and provided protection and kept the officials unaware of facts until 9 AM. Nair and Hindu holy men had held secret meetings prior to that. The master strategist of the whole movement was Digvijai Nath, accused in the Gandhi murder case.

Thus. those involved in the movement to liberate the Babari masjid from the clutches of Islam and place it under the supervision of the followers of Rama were conspirators, untruthful, hallow, deceivers, satanic, unholy, cheat and full of deceit. They had no concerns for the moral values or human values of any religion. They were driven by hatred and arrogance and they acted to serve their egos. Those who led this movement in the 1990s, including the former prime minister Narsimha Rao, who presided the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the BJP, the Shiv Sena, the Hindu Mahasabha, the Hindu Visha Parishad, the Bajrang Dal and other such outfits were nothing but a band of criminally minded individuals whom truth did not matter.

Thus December 6 is a day of deceit and deception in the name of Hindu religion. The demolition of the Babri masjid did not violate the monotheism of Allah and His majesty and might, but it exposed the inherent weakness in the movement of Hindutva. It made it clear that the leadership that claims to speak in the name of Hinduism can go to any lengths to serve its purpose. It can even torment the soul of its own religion.
(These facts are available in a book Ayodhya's Babri Masjid, by Authors Krishna Jha and Dhirendra K Jha)

Theology of Islamic Politics: Morsi is Serving God, not Egyptians\

Muslim Brotherhood’s experiment with authority raises some very key issues pertaining to relations between God, the party acting in the name of God, the people and the government of a state.  When Morsi, through a unilateral decree, declared him and the constituent assembly of Egypt above the law, he essentially made the statement that a ruler governing under the divine guidance cannot and must not be questioned for his decisions and he and his majority party have every right to run the state the way they deem fit to preserve the sovereignty of God. In pursuit of his goals to make Egypt, a society submissive to the will of God, what he did was neither illogical nor immoral from his perspective. Any group acting in the name of God would do exactly what he did.  He went and is going after anyone who he deemed was an obstacle in the path of God. After all, in his theology, the interests of God cannot be compromised.

However, the fundamental question of all that has been done to serve God is to determine what the will of God is and does God really want an authoritarian, despotic and autocratic system and individual to glorify his name and to establish his will.

Compared with what the Quranic text says about establishing the will of God on earth, the actions of Morsi appear to be contradictory and conflicting. The text does not promote the idea of the usurpation of power by a few or many. It does not give power to an individual and a party to define God the way they want to define. It does not provide unlimited freedoms to rulers to unilaterally decide and determine the interests of people. It does not give the authority to a ruler to act as moral police and it does not create barriers between genders and religious communities. The text talks of preserving human dignity and not just the dignity of Muslims or supporters and members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The text describes God as the Lord of all that exists. It describes the messenger as a mercy to all that exists and it defines itself as a manifesto to all. Thus, those who claim to act in the name of God must ensure that all including those who reject God and their style of work are accommodated, accepted and respected. The text protects the right to dissent and calls it paramount right and declares that no one would be deprived of it.

What Morsi has done demonstrates some bitter facts.

1.      The Muslim Brotherhood, President Morsi and the scholars backing them have a real problem in understanding the divine text in changing realities and living it in the interest of all.

2.      The intellectual bankruptcy of Islamic groups in addressing power-related issues is evident.

3.      President Morsi, rather than realizing and admitting his mistakes, is adamant in repeating them and is ready to turn the crisis into a violent conflict even if it means bloodshed of innocent people.

4.      The bulk of the Muslim intellectual and religious leadership is either corrupt or consists of morons who are not willing to call a spade a spade. They act like a mafia as they do not act on the basis of the divine dictate that demands that truth must never be compromised.

5.      President Morsi’s actions have caused a major setback to political movements inspired by Islam.

6.      Muslim political parties are not ready to run the affairs of a state.

7.      Muslim political parties are more concerned about controlling power than serving people, not just those who are their supporters, but everyone including those who reject them.