The Asian tsunami in December focused world attention on one of the biggest and most important parts of the Islamic world.

The region has been called a "Muslim archipelago" - and a glance at the map shows why.

The area stretching from southern Thailand and the Malaysian peninsula up to Indonesia and the Philippines is made up, for the most part, of thousands of far-flung islands.

It was here that Islam arrived in the 12th and 13th centuries, brought by Muslim merchants to an area where Hinduism and Buddhism were already well-established.

Islam took root - but it has always co-existed, usually peacefully, with other faiths and cultures. Today, many in the Islamic world see it as a role model for combining faith with modernity. But can it really deliver?

Read more from Roger Hardy on the series