In the article “jihad vs. mcworld,” benjamin r. barber points out that “in november of 1991 switzerland’s once insular culture boasted best-seller lists featuring terminator 2 as the no. 1 movie, scarlett as the no. 1 book, and prince’s diamonds and pearls as the no. 1 record album.” many people worry that the prominence of american culture goes beyond the media and represents the wholesale imposition of american values on other cultures, a process called:

the technology changed agriculture in an impacting manner since many people left the field work by a cellular or other technological appliances

the arab empire adopted the muslim religion as their main belief. arabs would influence the people from the territories they invaded towards islam (the muslim belief).

nevertheless, throughout the history of the arab empire, rulers brought intellectual individuals from other religions to their centers of learning. these other foreigners included jews, christians, greeks, persians, and indians.   these resulted in the adoption of important knowledge developed by these cultures by the arabic empire. for example, the works of aristotle were translated from greek to arab and indian scientists brought the numerical concept of "zero" to the arabs.

nowadays, 93% of the arab population is muslim, which at the same time is subdivided in sects including the sunni, zaini, alawi, shia. the remaining 7% is composed mainly of christians.

the earth’s crust is broken into separate pieces called tectonic plates (fig. 7.14). recall that the crust is the solid, rocky, outer shell of the planet. it is composed of two distinctly different types of material: the less-dense continental crust and the more-dense oceanic crust. both types of crust rest atop solid, upper mantle material. the upper mantle, in turn, floats on a denser layer of lower mantle that is much like thick molten tar.

each tectonic plate is free-floating and can move independently. earthquakes and volcanoes are the direct result of the movement of tectonic plates at fault lines. the term fault is used to describe the boundary between tectonic plates. most of the earthquakes and volcanoes around the pacific ocean basin—a pattern known as the “ring of fire”—are due to the movement of tectonic plates in this region. other observable results of short-term plate movement include the gradual widening of the great rift lakes in eastern africa and the rising of the himalayan mountain range. the motion of plates can be described in four general patterns:

collision: when two continental plates are shoved together

subduction: when one plate plunges beneath another (fig. 7.15)

spreading: when two plates are pushed apart (fig. 7.15)

transform faulting: when two plates slide past each other (fig. 7.15)