Islamic Impact on Modern Society

Islam, next to Christianity, is the largest spread religion in the world as 1.62 billion people, which means approximately twenty-three percent of the world’s population are Muslims. These are the people who follow the religion Islam, the reason why the two most prominent cultures in the world today are the Islamic culture and the Western culture. In the modern times, Islamic culture is perceived to be in a state of turmoil as it conflicts with the now more widespread western culture.
In its true essence, Islam promotes amity, justice, and harmony and is a peaceful religion. Yet, it’s regarded as a religion that promotes extremism. Globally, Muslims are reckoned as the people who spread terror, are narrow minded, reject modernity, and have a third world ideology. This negative stereotype has been projected on a large-scale through the modern media. However, any individual is as capable as any Muslim to commit an unthinkable act in the name of nationalism, humanism or an imagined idol. The major political impact this mindset has created are the numerous wars waging around the whole world particularly against Muslims such as in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan etc, that started with the event of 9/11, in the form of war on terror and has consistently aggravated by each passing year. Such wars have led to a general sense of paranoia among the masses. Every individual is looked upon as a prospective suspect and a feeling of insecurity has engulfed all. Moreover, the huge influx of finances in the defense mechanisms, warfare and security of the officials and people have led to an economic downturn as now less money is being spent on education, health and sanitation.
Islam itself is a flexible and an adapting religion. It is the followers on Islam who have created various distortions of the religion and the opportunists around the world who have taken advantage of this weakness. There are more or less 57 countries with Muslim majority population and the diversity among them is obvious. Most of them accept the new innovations and technological advancements and have adapted themselves to meet modernity halfway, whereas others are stuck in debating about freedom of speech and opinion and accepting modernity as a new ‘fitna’.
In the 21st century of reasoning and logic, Islam is looked upon as primitive because of the many conflicts it has with the modern societal norms. However, it is still undeniably the one religion that influences the political, social, cultural, and ethical customs of the people at large.