The purpose of this manuscript is to present a reliable estimate in form of tables of the Muslim population and its percentage in each country in the Americas. This data is summarized to be a reference for other studies and discussions related to Muslim population. The data show that Muslim population in the Americas, both in size and in percentage, remains very low. Accordingly, there are less...

Background Research on the impact of maternal smoking during pregnancy (MSDP) on scholastic achievement in the offspring has shown conflicting findings. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of MSDP on scholastic achievement in a birth cohort of children in 4th, 7th and 10th grades. Methods We analysed data from the LIFECOURSE study, a cohort study of risk and protective factor...

Learners in South Africa lag behind in literacy and numeracy skills relative to their peers in other countries. This is ascribed to a lack of quality education in the preschool and Foundation Phases of schooling, and conditions related to poverty. The Basic Concepts Mediated Learning Programme (BCMLP) aims to promote the conceptual development of young children through training teachers to be m...

This article explains the level of economic freedom in Muslim countries through the theory of institutional path dependency. Islamic countries are generally not free and they have a poor record regarding property rights. To explain these realities we use the institutional history of Muslim countries. We define three steps: the Arab and Ottoman Empires when Islamic law was of great importance, E...

We construct a unique geocoded dataset on temples, dynasties and battles in medieval India and propose a test to identify the motive for observed temple desecrations in that period. We test two competing historical narratives of temple desecrations. The first focuses on the idea of iconoclasm, i.e. destruction of religious sites and imagery deemed heretical, as embedded in Islamic theology. The...

The rapid Arab-Islamic conquest during the early Middle Ages led to major political and cultural changes in the Mediterranean world. Although the early medieval Muslim presence in the Iberian Peninsula is now well documented, based in the evaluation of archeological and historical sources, the Muslim expansion in the area north of the Pyrenees has only been documented so far through textual sou...

Gender, Economic Development and Islam: A Perspective from France Muslims do less well on the French labor market than their non Muslim counterparts. One explanation for this relative failure can be characterized by the following syllogism: (1) the empowerment of women is a sine qua non for economic progress; (2) in-group norms among Muslims do not empower women; and hence (3) Muslim communitie...

A !is article problematizes the complexity of Muslim approaches to the question of modernity. It challenges both a hegemonic voice of a singular and superior Western modernity and an essentialist Islamist response to modernity. It examines the alternative approach of multiple modernities. !is approach calls for a critical dialogue and negotiation between tradition and modernity, expedite...