Islamic scholar John L. Esposito (2000), in Contemporary Islam: Reformation or Revolution?, argues that the 20th century witnessed enormous change with respect to the Islamic world:
The twentieth century has been one of the most dynamic, explosive, and innovative in Islamic history. Within a span of a few centuries Muslim societies have passed from subjugation to European imperialism to national independence, from remnants of medieval empires to modern nation-states, from a transnational but somewhat regionally fixed community to a global community not only of Muslim-majority communities in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia but also of significant Muslim-minority communities in Europe and the United States.
While there are more than one billion Muslims worldwide, different countries and regions demonstrate unique religio-cultural identity as contemporary Islam experiences a revival. Islam is the second largest religion in the world behind Christianity, but both are monotheistic religions. While religio-cultural identity of Muslims varies in the Arab region, Iran (Persia), and Turkey, this rich diversity of Islamic practice does not differ with respect to the five pillars of Islam that all Muslims practice and accept as prescribed by the Quran. The five pillars of Islam are what unites all Muslims and makes the religion distinct from other religions. These five pillars of Islam are as follows:
While the five pillars of Islam provides Muslims with membership in a unified worldwide community of believers, different regions or countries exhibit religio-cultural differences that are quite varied. In the contemporary Muslim world, the Arab region, Iran and Turkey all exhibit distinct religio-cultural differences. Both Iran and Turkey are more secularized than the Arab region, and each has experienced better relations with Israel, Europe and the U.S. than their Arab world counterparts. Different histories and different conte...