| Not a large part of the world, but those 3 countries (Jordan not being that big in and of itself) have more population than the US and Canada and before the latest expansion of the EU had roughly the same population.
The point here is that the muslim world (primarily dominated by conservative tribal governmental institutions) is actually larger in population than the Christian world. IIRC there was a recent news article (can't find it right now) saying that Islam has passed Christianity in the number of followers on the planet.
And those countries are growing fast in wealth and world political influence. While we in the west think so grandly of our world dominance of the last millenium, there are other cultures that seek to take that leadership from us. They are developing their own ideology and schools to propogate their thinking. While western institutions may not recognize their scholarship, we will have to deal with their cultures in this increasingly small world.
And their cultures are far more tribal and not at all like our liberal western thought.
Your experience is in what you think of as the bigger part of the world, but the world is a changin... |