ABSTRACT
Islam is the second-largest and fastest-growing world religion, with minority populations in y-six countries spanning North Africa to Southeast Asia, and signicant minorities in Europe and the United States. Despite its more than 1.2 billion adherents, many in the West know little about the faith and are familiar only with the actions of a minority of radical extremists. Islam has had a signicant impact on world a airs, both historically and in the contemporary era. erefore, it is important to understand not only what it is that Muslims believe, but also how their beliefs are carried out both privately and publicly, both as individuals and as members of the Muslim community. We will see that Islam is not monolithic. Although Muslims share certain core beliefs, the practices, interpretations, images, and realities of Islam vary across time and space. e multiple and diverse images and realities of Islam and Muslims are in a number of phenomena worldwide:
• e many cultures in which Islam is to be found, from Africa to Southeast Asia, Europe to North America.
