1.1 Defination and Impotance of the term Ummah

The word ummah simply means a tribe, a community, or a nation. The word has occurred in various passages of the Glorious Qur'an. It has been used to refer to different meanings. At one place, for example, beasts and birds said to be an ummah (6: 38); at another one man, prophet Ibrahim (Abraham), as is referred to as an ummah. (14: 120); at yet another place (2: 213), all mankind is referred to as an ummah. Ummah now specifically means the Muslim ummah and the expression was used for the followers of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) which comprised all men and women who responded to his universal and eternal message. The ummah is, therefore, a higher unit than nation, community, country or state. The concept of the word ummah has been lately vaguely demoted of late in that it is usually confined to multiplicity of sovereign independent nation states in which the majority of citizens is Muslim.

Today Muslims are living all over the globe. They constitute a fifth of the world's total land mass, and comprising almost a sixth of the world's population. This is including the states in which 50 % or more of its populations are Muslims. However, there are some Muslim authors who talk only about the Muslim World that include the countries whose presidents and rulers are Muslims or those whose constitution considers Islam the official religion of the state. Assuming this definition to the Muslim world, there are 220 million Arabs living in 22 countries, ruled by Arabs. 450 Million Muslims are living in 33 non Arab Muslim countries.

The character of the Muslim ummah has changed over the centuries. The non-Arabs constitute a majority. Indonesia, with a population of over 170 million, is the largest Muslim state in the world, followed by Bangladesh and Pakistan.

1.1 Defination and Impotance of the term Ummah

The Muslim minority in India is larger than the Muslim Majority in Pakistan. The Muslim ummah and the Arabs were once synonymous terms. But today the non-Arabs constitute the majority of the Muslim world.

The Muslim world expands over nearly eleven million square miles, almost continuously from Morocco to Indonesia. The area's strategic significance lies in its inherent ability to control most of the land, sea and air routes linking the four continents of Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia. It constitutes the southern flank of three of the most powerful groups of China and Western Europe. The few narrow passages in the Afro-Asian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, which are the arteries of international trade, are in the hands of the Muslim world which has the capability of choking these points and can, if it so chooses, interfere with international economic life.

Not only that. The strategic advantage is backed by vast economic resources, both in agricultural produce and mineral wealth. The Muslim world has a virtual monopoly of jute (90 %), natural rubber (70 %), Arabian gum (85 %), spices (67 %), and palm oil (65). It produces 35 % of the world's cotton. Its mineral wealth is equally impressive. It produces 51 % of the world's tin, 32 % of phosphates and is rich in iron ore, natural gas, copper, aluminum, coal, bauxite, manganese, chromite, uranium, gold cobalt and silver.

In oil, without which industrial life is unthinkable today, the Muslim world has a near monopoly. The Middle East alone account for 40 % of the world's total production of oil. The potential resources are estimated at 60 % of the world's total compared to only 14 % of the U. S. S. R, and 7 % of the USA. If the Algerian, Nigerian, Libyan and Indonesian resources are added to those of the Middle East, the potential of the Muslim world approaches that of a monopoly.

1.1 Defination and Impotance of the term Ummah

The Muslim states, not only sustain the economics of the industrialised world, but are so located that they can either cripple or ensure the continued flow of oil to the industrial countries where life without this resource will come to grinding halt. Japan relies for 85 % of her oil requirements. On the Middle East; European countries are totally dependent on it. While it supplies 60 % of Australian needs, Africa is dependent on it for 80 % of its requirements.