Page 93 - A Call for a Turkish-Islamic Union

any contemporary philosophers think that the
future of the Islamic world has a direct bearing

M on world peace and security, for it is potentially
a serious power. Approximately one-fourth of humanity fol-
lows Islam, their lands contain rich natural resources, and
the entire region has a great strategic importance. Until the
Second World War, most Muslim countries were European
colonies. Some of them had to undertake wars of liberation
to gain their independence. This situation changed the look
of Islamic geography. However, the real change took place
after the cold war ended. Until then, the Islamic world was

considered in terms of Africa, the Middle East and Asia;
now, it has become more of a Eurasian affair with Albania
and Bosnia to the west and Chechnya and Tajikistan, Kyr-
gyzstan and Kazakhstan to the east. In the 1980s, Turkey was
the only Muslim country represented in the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Now there are
nine Muslim countries: Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and

Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey,
Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. 8
Such changes in the Islamic world's demographic dis-
tribution have had an impact on the term "Islamic geogra-
phy." Until the beginning of the twentieth century, except for
short-term invasions, Muslims for the most part lived on
Muslim soil under Islamic rule. From the beginning of the
twentieth century onward, Muslims have migrated by
choice to Europe and America, where they gradually be-

came significant minorities. Currently, Islam is the fastest