QUESTION.
What is the difference between the words 'Islam', 'Islamic', 'Muslim' and 'Arab'?
Answer:
Islam is the name of a monotheistic religion, believing in the One God, Allah. The word Islam comes from the word 'salaam', which means peace.
A Muslim is someone who submits their will to God. A Muslim is a follower of the religion of Islam. Similarly, a Christian is a follower of Christianity.
If something is Islamic, it is related to or influenced by the religion of Islam, such as culture, dress, art, law or location. example: Islamic law, Islamic scholar, Islamic school.
An Arab is a member of an ethnic group mainly inhabiting most of the Middle East and North Africa. They speak Arabic as a native language and identify as Arabs.
Not all Arabs are Muslim and not all Muslims are Arab. There are millions of Arabs who are Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and Atheist. Similarly, there are millions of non-Arab Muslims.
There are around 2 billion Muslims in the world today. Less than 15% of them are Arab.