What We Must Know About Islam
Muslims are involved in all the great conflicts of today: from Sudan to Israel to Iraq to Chechnya to Kashmir to the Phillipines. The September 11, 2001 attacks were perpetrated by fanatic Muslims. Islam today animates the enemies of the Western democracies, just as communism did during the Cold War era. To understand why these Muslims act as they do, we must understand Islam. These questions are a start.
1. What do Muslims believe?
The key elements of Islam are these beliefs:
One G-d, with no physical shape, created the universe and all life.
G-d made a covenant with Abraham (aka Ibrahim) and his descendants, but when the Jews subsequently became unfaithful to the covenant, G-d abandoned them.
Jesus was a prophet, but not divine.
The final and greatest of all prophets was a Muhammad (570-632 CE), a resident of Mecca, Arabia, whose prophecy is called the Koran.
2. Was Islam influenced by Judaism?
Muslims address G-d as Allah, an Arabic form of the Hebrew Eloha. Images of Allah are forbidden. They observe a sacred day of rest (Friday), circumcise their sons, fast, pray daily, abstain from pork and use ritual slaughter, give charity, study sacred texts, and have a system of religious law. Originally, Muhammad instructed his followers to face Jerusalem during prayer, and only late in his life changed the direction to Mecca. Many Jews lived in Yathrib, near Mecca, and Muhammad must have been aware of their beliefs and practices.
3. How does Islam view the Jewish people?
Muhammad expected the Jews of Arabia to accept him as a prophet, and was deeply disappointed when they did not. For a time, he was allied with the Jewish community of Yathrib; when he concluded that the Jews had betrayed him, he had them driven from the city, which he renamed Medina (state).
Jews, along with Christians, have been permitted to live in Muslim countries, but only as inferior people, called "dhimmis." Idol-worshippers, such as Hindus, were not allowed to live among Muslims at all. Islam has no concept of race, and all who convert to Islam are welcomed and accorded full rights.
4. Why is Jerusalem holy to Muslims?
As noted in the answer to Question 2, Muhammad recognized Jerusalem as a holy city. He never visited any part of the Land of Israel, and neither the land nor Jerusalem are mentioned in the Koran at all.
After the death of Muhammad a tradition arose that his spirit ascended to Heaven from a huge rock on the Temple Mount. The Dome of the Rock was erected by the Caliph Omar around this stone, and Muslims from all over the world come to pray there.
5. Is Islam compatible with democracy and a secular state?
The earliest Caliphs, successors to Muhammad as leaders of Islam, were elected. However, Islamic political doctrine holds that the Koran, not the will of the people, should be the law of the land. Accordingly, in strictly Muslim countries, such as Iran, elected officials have no power to change the religious nature of the state or subsitute their own acts for Islamic law.
As noted previously, non-Muslims have an inferior status, which can be changed only by conversion.
6. President Bush says that Islam is a religion of peace. Is he right?
In the view of Islam, until the entire world embraces the faith, it will continue to be divided into two perpetually hostile camps: Dar Al-Islam and Dar Al-Harb, the homes of Islam and the Enemy, respectively. Any conflict in which the vital interests of Dar Al-Islam are at stake is termed a "jihad" or holy war, in which all able-bodied Muslim men must participate. The war against the Crusader states in the Twelfth Century and that against the State of Israel today are examples of jihads.
7. Does Islam forbid suicide?
Suicide as a response to illness or other personal problems is forbidden by Islam. But if a Muslim dies in jihad, he is considered a martyr ("shaheed".) Even if striking a blow against the enemies of Islam is certain to result in death, it is not considered suicide, and the "shaheed" is assured of reward in the Next World.
8. Who has the authority to speak for Islam today?
The form of Islam practiced in Iran and southeastern Iraq is called Shia. Shia clergy are organized into a hierarchy, of which the highest-ranking members are called "ayatollahs." The "fatwas" (religious edicts) of the ayatollahs of a country are binding on all Shiite Muslims in the country.
Most of the Muslims in the world belong to another group, called Sunni. This group does not have a hierarchy, and the leaders of the various mosques decide and speak only for their own congregations.
In the United States, Louis Farakhan (aka Louis X aka Louis Eugene Wolcott) leads a group known as the "Nation of Islam", which follows the teachings of Elijah Muhammad (aka Elijah Poole, 1900-1977). This group holds that whites are a mutant and wicked race, in contrast to traditional Islam, which recognizes no racial distinctions at all. Malcolm X (aka Malcolm Little, 1929-1965), a major spokesman for the Nation of Islam in New York in the early Sixties, learned on a pilgrimmage Mecca in 1964 that much of what he had been preaching was not Islam. While trying to secure a following of his own, he was assassinated in Harlem on February 21, 1965.
1. What do Muslims believe?
The key elements of Islam are these beliefs:
One G-d, with no physical shape, created the universe and all life.
G-d made a covenant with Abraham (aka Ibrahim) and his descendants, but when the Jews subsequently became unfaithful to the covenant, G-d abandoned them.
Jesus was a prophet, but not divine.
The final and greatest of all prophets was a Muhammad (570-632 CE), a resident of Mecca, Arabia, whose prophecy is called the Koran.
2. Was Islam influenced by Judaism?
Muslims address G-d as Allah, an Arabic form of the Hebrew Eloha. Images of Allah are forbidden. They observe a sacred day of rest (Friday), circumcise their sons, fast, pray daily, abstain from pork and use ritual slaughter, give charity, study sacred texts, and have a system of religious law. Originally, Muhammad instructed his followers to face Jerusalem during prayer, and only late in his life changed the direction to Mecca. Many Jews lived in Yathrib, near Mecca, and Muhammad must have been aware of their beliefs and practices.
3. How does Islam view the Jewish people?
Muhammad expected the Jews of Arabia to accept him as a prophet, and was deeply disappointed when they did not. For a time, he was allied with the Jewish community of Yathrib; when he concluded that the Jews had betrayed him, he had them driven from the city, which he renamed Medina (state).
Jews, along with Christians, have been permitted to live in Muslim countries, but only as inferior people, called "dhimmis." Idol-worshippers, such as Hindus, were not allowed to live among Muslims at all. Islam has no concept of race, and all who convert to Islam are welcomed and accorded full rights.
4. Why is Jerusalem holy to Muslims?
As noted in the answer to Question 2, Muhammad recognized Jerusalem as a holy city. He never visited any part of the Land of Israel, and neither the land nor Jerusalem are mentioned in the Koran at all.
After the death of Muhammad a tradition arose that his spirit ascended to Heaven from a huge rock on the Temple Mount. The Dome of the Rock was erected by the Caliph Omar around this stone, and Muslims from all over the world come to pray there.
5. Is Islam compatible with democracy and a secular state?
The earliest Caliphs, successors to Muhammad as leaders of Islam, were elected. However, Islamic political doctrine holds that the Koran, not the will of the people, should be the law of the land. Accordingly, in strictly Muslim countries, such as Iran, elected officials have no power to change the religious nature of the state or subsitute their own acts for Islamic law.
As noted previously, non-Muslims have an inferior status, which can be changed only by conversion.
6. President Bush says that Islam is a religion of peace. Is he right?
In the view of Islam, until the entire world embraces the faith, it will continue to be divided into two perpetually hostile camps: Dar Al-Islam and Dar Al-Harb, the homes of Islam and the Enemy, respectively. Any conflict in which the vital interests of Dar Al-Islam are at stake is termed a "jihad" or holy war, in which all able-bodied Muslim men must participate. The war against the Crusader states in the Twelfth Century and that against the State of Israel today are examples of jihads.
7. Does Islam forbid suicide?
Suicide as a response to illness or other personal problems is forbidden by Islam. But if a Muslim dies in jihad, he is considered a martyr ("shaheed".) Even if striking a blow against the enemies of Islam is certain to result in death, it is not considered suicide, and the "shaheed" is assured of reward in the Next World.
8. Who has the authority to speak for Islam today?
The form of Islam practiced in Iran and southeastern Iraq is called Shia. Shia clergy are organized into a hierarchy, of which the highest-ranking members are called "ayatollahs." The "fatwas" (religious edicts) of the ayatollahs of a country are binding on all Shiite Muslims in the country.
Most of the Muslims in the world belong to another group, called Sunni. This group does not have a hierarchy, and the leaders of the various mosques decide and speak only for their own congregations.
In the United States, Louis Farakhan (aka Louis X aka Louis Eugene Wolcott) leads a group known as the "Nation of Islam", which follows the teachings of Elijah Muhammad (aka Elijah Poole, 1900-1977). This group holds that whites are a mutant and wicked race, in contrast to traditional Islam, which recognizes no racial distinctions at all. Malcolm X (aka Malcolm Little, 1929-1965), a major spokesman for the Nation of Islam in New York in the early Sixties, learned on a pilgrimmage Mecca in 1964 that much of what he had been preaching was not Islam. While trying to secure a following of his own, he was assassinated in Harlem on February 21, 1965.
posted by Gerald S Glazer at 1:33 PM
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