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An Iraqi Muslim faces the holy city of Mecca to pray. About 97 percent of Iraq’s people are
adherents of Islam, the majority belonging to the Shia branch of the faith.
I
t is impossible to understand Iraq without understanding the
country’s most important religion, Islam. The Islamic faith is a
vital part of everything Iraqis do. Islam is the world’s second-
largest religion; there are more than a billion Muslims, and many
of them live in the Middle East and Asia. In Iraq, almost 97 percent
of the people are Muslim.
I
SLAM
The name of this
monotheistic
religion, Islam, comes from the
Arabic verb
aslama
, which means “to surrender.” Muslims, or fol-
lowers of Islam, are those who surrender to the will of Allah, who is
considered the one true God. Muslims believe that in the seventh
century
CE
, Allah spoke through the Angel Gabriel to Muhammad.
Over a period of 22 years, the Prophet, as Muhammad is called,
received Allah’s messages and taught them to his followers. At first
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Religion, Politics,
and the Economy