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Conversion to Islam is adopting Islam as a religion or faith. People who have converted to the religion often refer to themselves as "reverts." Conversion requires a formal statement of the shahādah, the credo of Islam, whereby the prospective convert must state that "there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah."
The members and those who want to become members place their hands on the back of the person in their front, as is known from the tradition of the early Muslims at the time of Muhammad, and so form chains of physical contact with the caliph. This physical contact is seen necessary only for those present at the ceremony.
The plural form in Arabic is muslimūn (مسلمون) or muslimīn (مسلمين), and its feminine equivalent is muslimāt (مسلمات). The ordinary word in English is "Muslim". For most of the 20th century, the preferred spelling in English was "Moslem", but this has now fallen into disuse.
The history of Islam is believed by most historians [1] to have originated with Muhammad's mission in Mecca and Medina at the start of the 7th century CE, [2] [3] although Muslims regard this time as a return to the original faith passed down by the Abrahamic prophets, such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, and Jesus, with the submission (Islām) to the will of God.
In 2010, 73% of the world's Muslim population lived in countries where Muslims are in the majority, while 27% of the world's Muslim population lived in countries where Muslims are in the minority. India's Muslim population is the world's largest Muslim-minority population in the world (11% of the world's Muslim population). [ 193 ]
The essay Islamic Declaration is described by John V. A. Fine as a 'theoretical' work on the question on whether Islam and an Islamic state could exist in a modern world, [1] and by Kjell Magnusson as "in terms of genre ... a religious and moral-political essay ... discusses the predicament of Islam and Muslims in the contemporary world". [2]
Economic and social gain was also an incentive to become a Muslim: conversion to Islam conferred economic and social status. Under the feudal system imposed by the Ottomans, only those who converted to Islam could acquire and inherit land and property, which accorded them political rights, a status usually denied to non-Muslims.
In several countries, self-reported Muslims practice the religion at low levels. According to a 2012 survey by Pew Research Center, who interviewed Muslims across the world, about 1% of those interviewed in Azerbaijan, 5% in Albania, 9% in Uzbekistan, 10% in Kazakhstan, 19% in Russia, and 22% in Kosovo said that they attend mosque once a week or more.