World Religions Report

Islam

Islam (from an Arabic word meaning complete , trusting surrender to God , is claimed by its followers as the original monotheistic religion . Although the Qur 'an , its sacred text , was only revealed to their Prophet Muhammad more than five centuries after the death of Christ , Muslims trace the beginnings of Islam to the time of Abraham According to them , the series of revelations of the Qur 'an which started in 610 CE in a cave in Mount Hira , Mecca , Saudi Arabia , marked only the renaissance of a religion which sank into insignificance

when the people of Mecca rejected the monotheism preached by Abraham . The Islamic claim further states that being the original religion , it provided the foundations for the development of Judaism and Christianity (Fisher 2005 . Islam

Since the time of the first revelation in Mount Hira , Islam has rapidly grown to become the second-largest religious denomination in the world next only to Christianity , claiming a following of almost twenty percent of the world 's population . However , its growth has been temporarily slowed down , particularly in the United States , by the effects of the American war against terrorism which is evidently directed against Muslims . This U .S .-orchestrated anti-terrorism war , coupled with the dearth of knowledge about Islam , has severely alienated the Muslims from the rest of the non-Muslim world (Fisher . 2005 . Islam ) Yusuf (n .d said that majority of the Muslims are convinced that while the U .S government has been blaming terrorism on Islam for years , it was the 9 /11 incident which dealt the most telling blow on the credibility and reputation of their religion . This was because the international media was able to depict that many Muslims around the world rejoiced after that incident . The truth is , however , that majority of the Muslim world was saddened by that incident and the repercussions it caused . They would like to tell the world that terrorism is not an official policy of Islam and that , in fact , Muslims also consider terrorists as enemies of their religion . He laments the fact that

When a crazy Christian does something terrible , everyone in the West knows it is the actions of a mad man because they have some knowledge of the core beliefs and ethics of Christianity . When a mad Muslim does something evil or foolish they assume it is from the religion of Islam not because they hate us but because they have never been told by a Muslim what the teachings of Islam are all about

Muslims are also complaining about the way non-Muslims always confuse them with Arabs . According to them , while most Arabs are Muslims , less than 20 of Muslims have Arab blood (Almuslimin .org

Allah is the only authority of this religion . Muhammad was only the messenger and prophet with whom he entrusted the sacred texts called the Qur 'an in a series of revelations and who , three years after the first revelation occurred , preached them to the people according to his instruction and his will . However...