Christianity and Muslim

The recent Taliban rule in Afghanistan , bombing attacks targeting World Trade Center in New York , Israeli-Lebanon war , attacks by Muslim extremists against Christians in Egypt and the Sudan , communal riots from Nigeria to Indonesia between Muslims and Christians , the Madrid and London train bombings - these are the events associated with Islam that capture headlines and cause grave concern . Someone may claim that in the same way Christianity could be related to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq basing on the suggestion that the USA , the country that initiated those wars , is a

Christian country . Nevertheless , such claim is fallacious as far as the USA waged those wars not on the religious grounding but rather on economic one . Or if one accepts a view of U .S officials the reason for those wars was the threat to the national security . So , when considering solely religious component of armed conflicts it is necessary t focus on the reasons of Islam 's hostility to Christianity and not vice versa

When Muslims take the name of their Prophet , Muhammad , they always add a prayer : Peace be upon Him . Peace is the avowed aim of Islam , a word that means surrender as-Salam , or the Peaceful , is one of the names of Allah (Akbar , 2002 ,

.XV . But the Islamic faith also demands , from time to time , in a holy war defined by specific circumstances , the blood of the faithful in the defense of their faith . This is jihad . In short jihad can be explained like following . The Muslims believe that Allah is the one and only god and that Muhammad was his messenger and prophet who was chosen by Allah to hand over Koran , the plan of man 's life on the earth . The moral obligation of each devout Muslim is to implement this plan in his life , family community and country , and also take care that the teaching is spread all over the world and the whole world follows the Islamic way . The struggle for the spread of Islam is a genuine goal of jihad . Nevertheless , in the context of this struggle the violence is regarded as an acceptable strategy . The known verse in Koran says Fight and slay the pagans [Christians] wherever ye find them and seize them , confine them , and lie in wait for them in every place of ambush (The Koran Surah 9 :5 . The representatives of radical Islamic groups govern their actions by this particular Islamic tradition . They interpret the word Islam ' as submission ' and those refusing to submit become enemies of Islam . However the word Islam ' has also a different meaning it means peace . Thus , there are two traditions in Islam , and both of them have to be accepted Islam is both the religion , which practices violence to achieve its goals and the religion of peace (Akbar , 2002 ,

.179 . Besides , the interpretation of jihad only as holy war in a modern world is incorrect because in a modern Islam jihad is often interpreted as referring to a process...