The telephone, satellite television, and the Internet have connected the Islamic community of 1.2 billion people across the globe. This connectivity has strengthened Muslims' sense of belonging to one community, which Islamic scholars call ummah. But it has also brought the realization that Islam, as practised around the globe, is heterogenous. A group of Muslims in oil-rich Saudi Arabia have urged the worldwide adoption of a purist strand of Islam and advocate making it the sole basis of society and politics, a position which has created tension and promoted extremism. Australian scholar of Islam, Riaz Hassan, says the only way to resolve this tension is to accept the existence of "culturally and religiously differentiated ummah" in different parts of the world. - YaleGlobal