# Islam A monotheistic Abrahamic religion founded in 7th-century Arabia on the prophetic teachings of Muhammad ibn Abdullah, who Muslims regard as the final messenger of God (Allah) in a prophetic line including Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Islam is built around submission to God (the word *islam* means "submission"), the revealed text of the Qur'an, and the Five Pillars of religious practice. With roughly 1.9 billion adherents, Islam is the world's second-largest religion and its fastest-growing. In US right-wing political discourse, Islam appears primarily as object of foreign-policy framing, civilizational-rival rhetoric, and domestic othering — rarely as coalition participant in the way Christianity is. ## Founding and origins According to Islamic tradition, the Prophet Muhammad began receiving revelations from God through the angel Gabriel in 610 CE while meditating in a cave near Mecca. These revelations, continuing until his death in 632, became the Qur'an. Muhammad preached strict monotheism, ethical reform, and social justice in a Mecca dominated by polytheistic traditions and tribal hierarchies. Persecuted by Meccan elites, Muhammad and his followers emigrated to Medina in 622 (the *hijra*, the start of the Islamic calendar) where they built the first Muslim political community. By Muhammad's death in 632, most of the Arabian Peninsula was under Muslim political authority. The Rashidun ("Rightly-Guided") Caliphs (632–661) — Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali — extended Muslim rule rapidly across the Levant, Persia, Egypt, and North Africa. The succession dispute after Uthman's assassination (656) and the subsequent civil war (656–661) produced the foundational Sunni-Shia split, the most consequential schism in Islamic history. Subsequent caliphates (Umayyad 661–750, Abbasid 750–1258, Ottoman 1517–1924) carried Islam from Spain to South Asia and into sub-Saharan Africa. The classical Islamic civilization of the 8th–13th centuries was a major center of philosophy, science, mathematics, and medicine, transmitting much of Greek thought to medieval Europe. ## Core beliefs and practices **Theological core.** Strict monotheism (*tawhid*) — one God, indivisible, without partners or offspring. Muhammad as the *Seal of the Prophets*, the final messenger in a line including Abraham (*Ibrahim*), Moses (*Musa*), and Jesus (*Isa* — recognized as prophet and messiah, though not as Son of God). The Qur'an as the direct, uncreated word of God revealed in Arabic. Belief in angels, the books of the prophets, prophets, the Day of Judgment, and divine decree (*qadar*). **The Five Pillars.** The core ritual obligations: (1) *Shahada* — declaration of faith; (2) *Salat* — five daily prayers facing Mecca; (3) *Zakat* — obligatory almsgiving; (4) *Sawm* — fasting during the month of Ramadan; (5) *Hajj* — pilgrimage to Mecca, required once in a lifetime for those able. **Sacred texts.** The *Qur'an* (recitation) — 114 *suras* (chapters) revealed to Muhammad. The *Hadith* — collected reports of Muhammad's sayings and actions, second in authority only to the Qur'an. The *Sunna* — Muhammad's example, derived from Hadith. Distinct hadith collections are authoritative across different traditions. **Sharia and fiqh.** *Sharia* is the divine moral and legal framework derived from the Qur'an and Sunna; *fiqh* is the human jurisprudential interpretation of sharia. Sunni Islam developed four main legal schools (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali); Shia Islam has its own (Ja'fari being the dominant). Sharia covers ritual obligations, family law, criminal law, commercial law, and political theory. In contemporary states the application of sharia varies dramatically — from full incorporation ([[Saudi Arabia]], Iran) to personal-status-law-only (most Muslim-majority states) to no role at all (secular states like Turkey under Atatürk). **Eschatology.** Belief in resurrection of the dead, the Day of Judgment, Heaven (*Jannah*), and Hell (*Jahannam*). Eschatological figures include the Mahdi (a messianic figure, particularly central in Shia thought) and Jesus's return (in Islamic eschatology, Jesus returns to defeat the Antichrist *al-Dajjal*). ## Major divisions The Sunni-Shia split, dating to the 7th-century succession crisis after Muhammad's death, is the religion's defining internal division. Each now has its own entry (Phase 4, built 2026-08-15): - **[[Sunni Islam]]** — ~85–90% of Muslims globally. Recognizes the four Rashidun Caliphs as legitimate; emphasizes consensus (*ijma*) of the Muslim community and the four Sunni legal schools. Dominant in most of the Muslim world: Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and many others. - **[[Shia Islam]]** — ~10–15% of Muslims globally. Holds that legitimate succession to Muhammad ran through his cousin and son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib; rejects the first three Rashidun Caliphs. Internally subdivided: Twelver (the largest branch, including the Iranian state religion), Ismaili (the Aga Khan's community), and Zaydi (Houthi-aligned in Yemen). Concentrated in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, parts of Lebanon, parts of Pakistan, parts of Afghanistan. - **[[Wahhabism]] / Salafism** — an 18th-century reform movement within Sunni Islam founded by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab; aligned with the Saudi state. Calls for return to the perceived practices of the early Muslim community (*as-Salaf as-Salih*). Funded global mosque-building and Islamic-education networks through the 20th century; significant influence on jihadist movements. - **[[Sufism]]** — the Islamic mystical tradition; cross-cuts Sunni and Shia. Emphasizes inner spiritual development, direct experience of the divine, and master-disciple relationships within Sufi orders (*tariqas*). Historically the vehicle for Islam's spread through much of South Asia, Central Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. Additional smaller branches: Ahmadiyya (founded 1889, persecuted as heretical in much of the Muslim world); Ibadi (the dominant tradition in Oman); the Nation of Islam (a US-based syncretist movement, theologically distinct from mainstream Islam). ## Demographic footprint **Global:** ~1.9 billion adherents (Pew, 2020) — roughly 25% of world population. Projected to overtake Christianity as the world's largest religion by the second half of the 21st century, driven by high birth rates and growth in the Global South. Largest Muslim-majority countries: Indonesia (~230M), Pakistan (~225M), India (~200M Muslim minority within Hindu-majority country), Bangladesh (~150M), Nigeria (~100M), Egypt (~90M). **United States:** ~1% of US adults (~3.5 million). A small but politically visible minority, with extensive engagement on civil-liberties, foreign-policy, and immigration policy questions. ## Right-wing politics tributaries Islam appears in US right-wing discourse mostly as object rather than as coalition participant. The main tributaries: **As civilizational rival in right-wing geopolitical framing.** The "clash of civilizations" thesis (Samuel Huntington) — that Islam and [[the West]] are in long-term civilizational conflict — has been deeply influential in US right-wing foreign-policy and immigration thinking, the Bush-era War on Terror, and contemporary [[Eurabia]] / "[[Great Replacement]]" narratives. The dissident right also routinely invokes Islam as Christianity's civilizational counterpart that Christians should emulate in coalition-building and moral certainty. **As object of post-9/11 domestic securitization.** Surveillance programs targeting US Muslim communities, the [[Patriot Act]] framework, anti-sharia state-law campaigns (largely symbolic but politically mobilizing), the Trump-era "Muslim ban" travel restrictions, hate-crime spikes against Muslim and Sikh communities. **As foreign-policy framing.** Iran (Shia, Islamic Republic since 1979) as US right-wing geopolitical adversary; Saudi Arabia (Sunni, Wahhabi) as US right-wing geopolitical partner despite its theocratic governance; the Israel-Palestine conflict mediated through both [[Christian Zionism]] and anti-Muslim framing; the Abraham Accords as Trump-era foreign-policy signature. **As object of conspiracy theory.** Recurring conspiratorial framings: "creeping sharia," "Muslim Brotherhood infiltration" of US institutions, false claims that prominent Democrats are "secretly Muslim," demographic-replacement panics about Muslim immigration to Europe. **Christian-Muslim alliance moments.** Periodic surface-level alliances on shared social-conservative agenda items — opposition to LGBTQ rights, abortion access, secular public schooling. Generally tactical and short-lived. ## Connections - [[Theocracy]] — Iran's Islamic Republic and Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi monarchy are the paradigmatic contemporary Islamic theocracies; both heavily referenced in right-wing political discourse - [[Christian Zionism]] — the framework that organizes much US evangelical engagement with the Israel-Palestine conflict and, by extension, the Muslim Middle East - [[Hamas]] — the Palestinian Islamist organization; particularly load-bearing in post-October-2023 US right-wing discourse on Islam - [[Iran]] — see `/Foreign Influence/Iran.md` for the foreign-influence layer ## See also - [[Christianity]] — shared Abrahamic monotheism and the "Western civilization vs Islam" frame that structures right-wing engagement - [[Judaism]] — the third Abrahamic religion; complicated triangular dynamics with US Christian Zionism, anti-Muslim politics, and Israel-Palestine - [[Theocracy]] — Foundations/Types of Government sibling - [[World Religions Timeline]] — the comparative chronological spine placing Islam's founding, the succession crisis, and the modern revivalist movements alongside the other world traditions - [[Religions and Right-Wing Politics]] — the payoff MOC collecting every tradition's political tributaries in one place - [[Islam Timeline]] — the tradition's own chronological spine, from the Hijra through the caliphates to 2026 - [[Caliphate]] · [[Sharia]] · [[Jihad]] · [[Islamic Golden Age]] · [[Orientalism]] — the concept layer these pages assume