ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Muslims and their communities and how they attempt to live in relation with what they describe as their religion. Among all religions examined in Western studies of religions, it can be argued that the study of Islam has been the most problematic because of social encounters characterized by cultural misunderstandings, religious competition, and political conflict between Europe and Muslim-majority countries. The religious traditions associated with ideas of Islam are unusual in that they had a term for themselves from the very beginning of their historical origins. It is important to recognize the roots of Christian and European antagonism to Islamic traditions and Muslims. The inertia behind the expansion of Islamic traditions could not be stopped by Muhammad's death. After an initial period of uncertainty regarding the leadership of the umma and the fidelity of previously converted tribes, Muslim Arabs exploded out of Arabia, certainly inspired by their ideology and likely propelled by population pressures.
