Understanding Islam

Introduction The literal meaning of Islam is peace. Because of many current valet de chambre events, Islam is a highly controversial and sensitive issue that has many misconceptions that need to be more fully addressed and understood. It is true that the events of 9/11 stimulate separated the history of the Statesn singings with the Moslem gentlemans gentleman into in the beginning and after phases, negatively affecting the patterns of assimilation of immigrant Islamics into American culture and order of magnitude (Simmons, 2008).This essay will begin to give factual details regarding the Islam faith, canvass Islam with another(prenominal) Abrahamic religions and discuss parkland misconceptions and current events that nourish changed the counseling the world looks at Muslims and the Islam faith. Body It will be useful to begin with attempting to marking the surface and try to actualize the teachings of Islam. Islam is a mo nonheistic religion establish on revelations rec eived by the Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century. These revelations were put down in the faiths text, the Quran. The Islam faith has Six Articles of Beliefs.People of the Muslim faith must commit great conviction in these close to important six beas. They are 1. Belief in idol. 2. Belief in the Angels. 3. Belief in the Prophets and Messengers. 4. Belief in the Sacred Texts. 5. Belief in Life After Death. 6. Belief in the Divine Decree (Abdulsalam, 2006). The believers idolise god directly without the intercession of priests or clergy. They withal have got fivesome duties that are given as rules to follow. Those are the Five Pillars of Islam Belief, Worship, Fasting, Almsgiving and voyage (Grupper, Prentice, & Roughton, 2000).The country with the some Muslims is Indonesia, with 120 million. In addition there are millions more in parts of Eastern and westboundern Europe and in the Americas. The Islam religion claims nearly 1 billion followers in countries end-to-end the world. Islam is also the youngest among major world religions but is still one of the largest (Ridenour, 2001). Islam belongs in a group of trinity religions called the Abrahamic religions. Those troika religions are Christianity, Judaism and Islam. They are three sister religions that are monotheistic and that claim the prophetAbraham as their common forefather. To compare Islam and Christianity, in relation to God, Muslims believe there is no God but Allah Christians believe that God is revealed in scripture as Father, boy and Holy Spirit, three persons who are coeternally God (Ridenour, 2001). This sometimes causes Jews and Muslims to criticize the Christians as polytheistic. In all three religions, there is an ethical orientation. All three religions speak of a choice between good and evil, which is depended upon obedience or disobedience to God (Unkown, 2007).The three also have a elongate concept of history with creation as the beginning and that God thinkt through hist ory. The believers of Islam are called Muslims which means one who lives his life according to Gods will (Langley, 1993). It would seem that this particular people and religion would be a people of peace, sincerity and love. Since 9/11, the world of the faithful in Muslim societies has been in turmoil because the living Islam, dominated by its handed-down interpreters, the well-educated ulema, has not been able to guide the community at the most critical period of its population (Sachedina, 2010).This current critical period of Islam experienceence has created many misconceptions. Only if it is assumed that the goal of Islam is to establish peace without resorting to antagonism can one claim that that militant Islamists have hijacked their religion (van der Krogt, 2010). Islam is effective all over the world and the way it is dependable is different in different locations. Islam does claim to be brotherhoods of one religion, but the Islam applyd in Indonesia is rattling dif ferent than the Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia, which is also different from that in Kazakhstan, or Iran, or Morocco.In researching for this essay, the author give many different types of Moslem groups all over the world. There are over 73 sub-sects that have emerged within Islam to sidereal day (Venkatraman, 2007). Some cool and some more aggressive. A group called Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami (The Party of Islamic poke) began working in Central Asia in the mid-1990s and has developed a committed next inside Uzbekistan, and to a lesser extent in neighboring Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan.Estimates of its efficiency vary widely, but a rough figure is probably 15-20,000 passim Central Asia. Its influence should not be exaggerated it has little in the public eye(predicate) support in a region where there is limited pr escapedsity for political Islam but it has become by far the largest radical Islamist performance in the area (Unkown, Radical Islam in Central Asia Re sponding to Hizb ut-Tahrir, 2003). The common misconceptions regarding Muslims did not begin with the terrorist attacks of 9/11, but that seems to be the current event that hits immediate to home.Islamic terrorism is a movement in which the violence caused by terrorism is derived from and used to preserve extreme interpretations of the Quran in an Islamic community. Participants of this movement call for an unquestioned devotion and blind obedience or a Quaranic tenet has been broken. A few of the Islamic terrorist groups are Al-jihad, AlQaeda (Afganistan), Hamas (Palestine), Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (Kashmir), and the Lashkar e-Toiba (Kashmir) (Venkatraman, 2007). The 9/11 terrorist attacks were performed by AlQaeda under the direction of Osama stack away Laden, the founder of AlQaeda.The death of Osama bin Laden has also certainly not stopped Islamic violence, but according to the president of the Muslim world Affairs Counsel, Salam Al-Marayati, the death of Osama bin Laden represents the beginning of the end of a dark era in U. S. -Muslim relations. He goes on to say that hopefully this ushers a new era of hope and democracy in dealing with the grievances of Muslim people throughout the world without resorting to political violence. (Lozano, 2011). The media and these current world events are a definite misconception of all Muslim people.To gratuitously contumely law-abiding Muslims by conflating them with terrorists is not only wrong, it is dangerous to U. S. national hostage (Stern, 2011). An article written in the New York Times in October of 2010, wheel spoke about local New York Islamics having open houses to invite non-Muslims in to process prayers, discussions and tours of Islamic centers as a way to defuse hostility toward the Muslim population. The idea for the program, A Week of Dialogue, emerged from a summit of Islamic leaders as a response to the furor surrounding a plan to open a Muslim community center and mosque near pri ming coat zero (Semple, 2010).Muslims in America and around the world are move to bring back the truth to the original Islamic meaning of peace. We today must look at how Muslims and non-Muslims communicate and live together in harmony. Historically, in countries where Islam has gained political power, people of all rival religions are each wiped out, or in the interest of tolerance or open mindedness, permitted to exist as second-class citizens. Christians and Jews are looked down upon and may not practice their religion openly or freely without serious consequence.But, Islam in the West is completely different from Islam in Muslim dominated countries. Muslims who live in the Western democratic countries enjoy all the benefits and privileges of freedom and democracy. They have detain civil liberties and may practice their religion freely and openly. The Quran specifically states that Islam is a religion of mercy, tolerance and moderation. Moderation being the key to Muslim and non-Muslim communication. It allows Muslims to have a good relationship with non-Muslims, but to a certain limit. unity quote from the Quran says this Let not the believers (Muslims) take for friends Unbelievers (non-Muslims) rather than believers. And whoever does that has no relation with Allah whatsoever, except by way of precaution that you may guard yourselves from them. (Surah Ali Imran, V 28). Conclusion In summation, some of the misconceptions that people around the world have regarding Islam, are backed up by some current and foregone events. We must first begin to understand the Islamic faith, its transmutation in people, areas of the world and political stances.This author does not begin to understand the depth of the Islam faith. After researching for this essay, the realization of the diversity of this faith as compared to Christianity or Judaism, is overwhelming. The peaceful people of Islam must not be judged by the terrorists and the acts they commit. We learned t hat Islam has political side and a religious side as well. The editor in chief of the journal, American Libraries, Leonard Kniffel wrote an editorial about how libraries jumped at the chance to begin educating communities on the Islam faith shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.Mr. Kniffel states that, Knowing that an anti-Muslim backfire was inevitable, they created programs to help the patrons of their libraries understand the teachings of Islam, the history of American policy related to the divergence we now find ourselves in, and what it means to be Muslim in America (Kniffel, 2002). The Muslim American Society (www. muslimamericansociety. org) has a campaign called The Straight channel Initiative. Its goals are to equip and focus on Muslims in America ages 15-30. This initiative has a goal to initiate an honest open ialog about radicalization and extremism in Muslim American communities. They are targeting high schools and college campuses to proffer programs and activi ties to involve young Muslim Americans in a proactive way that limits opportunities for radicalization (Unkown, The Straight Path Initiative, 2011). Much like any religion or people group, Islam has a group of terrorists and non-peaceful people amongst them. The misconceptions are actually very real and have information and current events to back them up.It would also be fair to say, that most religions and people groups have those kinds of people. Understanding one another(prenominal) is the most important thing we can do. By educating each other on beliefs, understandings and ways of life, we can only then begin to have peaceful dialog to bring us together. September 11, 2001 became a day for Americans to see the true colors of the terrorist sect of the Islam religion. As this is a day we will never forget, we must begin to regain by understanding and not judging the entire Islam faith for these awful acts of terrorism.References Abdulsalam, M. (2006, January 30). The Religion o f Islam. Retrieved June 12, 2011, from www. islamreligion. com http//www. islamreligion. com/articles/6/. Grupper, J. , Prentice, P. , & Roughton, R. (2000). Islam Empire of Faith. Retrieved June 13, 2011, from www. pbs. org http//www. pbs. org/empires/islam/film. html. Kniffel, L. (2002, January). Getting to know Islam. American Libraries , 48. Langley, M. (1993). valet de chambre Religions. Oxford Lion Publishing. Lozano, C. (2011, May 1). Osama bin Laden Dead End of a dark era in U. S. Muslim relations. Retrieved June 15, 2011, from L. A. Times http//latimesblogs. latimes. com/lanow/2011/05/osama-bin-laden-dead-end-dark-era-us- muslim-relations. html. Ridenour, F. (2001). So Whats the disagreement? Ventura, CA Regal Books. Sachedina, A. (2010, September). Religion, Order and Peace A Muslim Perspective. mishandle Currents , 332-338. Semple, K. (2010, October 22). At Mosques, Inviting Non-Muslims Inside to Ease Hostility Toward Islam. Retrieved June 15, 2011, from New York Times http//www. nytimes. com/2010/10/23/nyregion/23mosques. html? ef=reconstruction. Simmons, G. Z. (2008). From Muslims in America to American Muslims. Journal of Islamic Law and Culture , 10 (3), 254-280. Stern, J. (2011, May/June). Muslims in America. The National engage (113), pp. 38-46. Unkown. (2007, September 16). Abrahamic Religion. Retrieved June 14, 2011, from New World Encyclopedia http//www. newworldencyclopedia. org/entry/Abrahamic_religions. References (continued) Unkown. (2003, June 30). Radical Islam in Central Asia Responding to Hizb ut-Tahrir. Retrieved June 15, 2011, from International Crisis Group ttp//www. crisisgroup. org/en/regions/asia/central-asia/058-radical-islam-in-central-asia- responding-to-hizb-ut-tahrir. aspx. Unkown. (2011). The Straight Path Initiative. Retrieved June 17, 2011, from Muslim American Society http//muslimamericansociety. org/main/content/straight-path-initiative. van der Krogt, C. (2010). Jihad without apologetics. Islam and Christian-Mus lim traffic , 21 (2), 127-142. Venkatraman, A. (2007). Religious Basis for Islamic Terrorism The Quran and its Interpretations. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism , 30 (3), 229-248.