Dar al-Islam

Dar al-Islam "in Islamic political ideology, the region in which Islam has ascendance; traditionally it has been matched with the Dār al-Ḥarb (abode of war), the region into which Islam could and should expand. This mental division of the world into two regions persisted even after Muslim political expansion had ended."

This is related to demands for a worldwide caliphate, made explicitly by some Islamist groups.

Over time, various historians and scholars have had differing ideas about the origins of this concept. One viewpoint is expressed in the 2007 book Islamic Imperialism: A History, in which the author Efraim Karsh states:

As a universal religion, Islam envisages a global political order in which all humankind will live under Muslim rule as either believers or subject communities. In order to achieve this goal it is incumbent on all free, male, adult Muslims to carry out an uncompromising struggle "in the path of Allah", or jihad. This in turn makes those parts of the world that have not yet been conquered by the House of Islam an abode of permanent conflict (Dar al-Harb, the "house of war") which will only end with Islam's eventual triumph.

See also

• Islamization and anti-Islamization
• Islamist supremacism