View source for Social Progress in Islamic Societies: Achievements and Challenges

The title is the first chapter of the book “The State of Social Progress of Islamic Societies pp 69-106”,  by Richard J. Estes<ref>School of Social Policy and PracticeUniversity of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphiaUSA</ref> and Habib Tiliouine<ref>Faculty of Social SciencesUniversity of Oran2OranAlgeria</ref> published as a Part of the International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life book series (IHQL). The following is an excerpt of its abstract.


==Muslim population of the world==

Today, approximately one-fourth of the world’s population is part of the expanding Islamic Ummah (1,634 million people). Muslims are found in large numbers in all regions of the world but are concentrated most heavily in Africa and Asia. Muslims also constitute sizeable minority populations in Europe as well as in North and South America and, to a lesser extent, Oceania.

==Social and financial status of Muslims==

Despite the obvious wealth of some Islamic financial centers and oil-exporting countries of West Asia, most Muslims live under conditions of poverty, joblessness, illiteracy, ill health, social and political unrest and, in some regions, religious extremism. 

==Financial reports==

This chapter reports a 45-year time series analysis of the nature, extent, and pace of social progress that is taking place within 53 of the 57 member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Data are reported at four levels of analysis (country-specific, subregion, region, and for the OIC-as-a-group). Comparisons also are made between the development changes that are taking place within the OIC countries and those occurring in the world-as-a-whole. 

==Social and political reports==

The chapter also considers the contribution of the “Arab Spring” that began in December 2010 in promoting the emergence of more participatory political systems in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa--the so-called MENA region. 

==Findings==

The findings reported present a sometimes bleak portrait of the current state of social development in many OIC countries but, as often, offers a generally optimistic picture of the positive social and economic changes that are taking place in many of the group’s socially least developed countries of Sub-Saharan Africa.

==Notes==