One way to begin to think about the "Muslim world" is to examine the concept of the "Christian world." Is there such a thing? Or [in the United States at least] do we understand almost automatically that Christians today are a pretty diverse bunch, and that there are so many differences among them that the fact that they belong to a single faith isn't really enough to make them into a monolithic "world" or "civilization?"

For example, if we invited guest speakers to a classroom from, say, China, Germany and Brazil to talk about their cultures and daily lives, we wouldn't assume that they were similar at all, even if they all happened to be Christians. However, when we think of Muslims, Americans tend to assume much more uniformity.  If all our three guest speakers happened to be Muslim, for most Americans, that fact would tend to eclipse their cultural, linguistic, socio-economic and other differences. Moreover, the impression most Americans have of Muslims is that they are not only pretty much the same, they and their faith are strange and frightening, and linked very closely to terrorism. Even though Islam is historically and doctrinally linked to Christianity and Judaism, it is more often seen as different from and threatening to members of those faiths than as an example of religious brotherhood.

To understand the incredible diversity of the world's Muslim communities, we should first think about the many ways all humans are different. Each of us has a number of intersecting identities.

For example, we all:

• Are members of one or more cultural, ethnic or race groups
• Speak one or more languages
• Are citizens of a particular country, subject to its laws
• Are members of a local community, urban, rural or suburban
• Are members of a family
• Belong to a profession (or are students)
• Are rich or poor or somewhere in-between
• Are male or female
• Either have or have not had access to education at some level
• Are either members of a faith community or are not
• Are either believers in a religion or not, and practitioners of a religion or not-and if so, are continuum of orthodoxy and a continuum of fervency and regularity of practice
• Have some political ideas and leanings
• Consume material goods, eat food, need shelter
• Enjoy particular kinds of leisure activities

Of course, we can continue to expand this list to include many more types of identity, from sexual identity, to fandom of sports or music groups or teams, to physical abilities and body types, and on and on. Muslims have all of these multiple identities as well, and these differences shape their lives as they do everyone's.

Where and How Do Muslims Live?

Let's see how this looks in real Muslim communities. We tend to think of Muslims as being Arabs from the Middle East, perhaps because that is where Islam originated, or perhaps because that is where much of the news coverage of Muslims arises. Far too often, in imprecise speech and writing, Arab = Middle Eastern = Muslim.

[For a great example of this, see Slate's analysis of a New York Times article at http://www.slate.com/id/2095636/.]

However, of the 1.3 billion or so Muslims in the world (over 1/5 of the world's population), the largest single group is in Indonesia-a long way from the Middle East!

In fact, if we look at the countries with the largest Muslim populations, we discover that only half of the top ten are in the broader Middle East, and only three are Arab countries.

Largest Muslim Populations

*Data from CIA World Factbook at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

Most Muslims live outside of the Middle East - the majority in Asia, and in fact, east of Iran. As you can see from the table, there is an enormous concentration of Muslims, nearly half a billion people, in three countries of South Asia: Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. African Muslims also make up a significant proportion of the total Muslim population. Not only does largely Arabic-speaking North Africa (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco) have over 180 million, but there are also approximately 220 million Muslims in sub-Saharan African countries as well. Some of these countries have Muslim majorities, like Senegal and Sudan; others have Muslim minority populations, like Kenya or South Africa. There is a large Muslim population in China, although a relatively small proportion of the whole; Chinese government figures put it at just over 20 million, but other sources claim it is higher. Of course, there are also significant Muslim minorities in European countries and the United States. France alone has a Muslim population of 5-6 million, primarily of North African descent. All together, just under 20% of the world's Muslims are Arabs.

The enormous geographic diversity of Muslim societies means that there is also enormous cultural diversity. Muslims speak many languages, eat foods and wear clothing specific to their local cultures, celebrate holidays differently, and, of course, live according to the laws of their nations. They even practice Islam differently in many respects, just as Christians in different world regions have developed local practices in their worship. For example, in Indonesia, local shadow puppet plays present stories from the lives of the prophets and major figures from Islamic history; in Senegal, the majority of the population is affiliated with a Sufi order while Sufism is banned in Saudi Arabia; in Iran, women must cover their hair while in Turkey and France there are laws preventing Muslim women from covering their hair in some public spaces, such as schools, universities and government offices. Local cultures as well as local politics influence the practice of Islam.

Furthermore, individuals count! The educational attainments, individual talents and aspirations, family culture and personal religiosity of a person have as much bearing on their practice of Islam as the broader societal mores around them. When we think about Islam and Muslims, we must keep all of this cultural diversity in mind!