Common Era
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Common Era is the calendar system widely used in the Western world to number the year part of a date. This way of giving the date does not have an obvious connection to a particular faith. The year numbers are the same as those used for Anno Domini (AD), which is the Christian calendar. The number of this year is the same in both systems.
Common Era is usually abbreviated to CE. BCE is used as the abbreviation to indicate years Before Common Era, which uses the same numbering as BC or Before Christ.
Many faiths and countries have their own calendars, but the number of the present year is different. For example, Muslim countries use the Islamic calendar which counts years since the first Hijra (when the prophet Muhammad went from Mecca to Medina). In the Islamic calendar, the year 2008CE is 1429AH. Writing dates as "Common Era" means that no one faith has particular priority.
