Click2Religion - Muhammad - Chapter 2

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>MUHAMMAD</p> <p><font size="4">CHAPTER 2 - FEAR OF ISLAM</b></font></p> </div>  </font> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">Why are so many people afraid of <i>Islam</i> (which means surrender)? It is a religion whose adherents (called <i>Muslims</i>, meaning those who have totally surrendered) believe in God (called <i><a href="http://www.al-islam.org/gallery/photos/copralah.gif" target="_blank"><b>Allah</b></a></i> in Arabic). History, both recent and long-past, has unfortunately given people numerous reasons to <a href="http://middle.usm.k12.wi.us/faculty/markwald/iranpics/iranburnhostage.gif" target="_blank"><b>fear Islam</b></a>.</p> <ul> <li>Militant Muslims <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/991023onthisday_big.html" target="_blank"><b>killed</b></a> hundreds of U.S. Marines with a suicide truck bomb and then bragged about it;<br><br> <li>Radical Muslims <a href="http://middle.usm.k12.wi.us/faculty/markwald/iranpics/iranussamburn.jpg" target="_blank"><b>stormed</b></a> the U.S. Embassy in Iran and held Americans <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,68642-412,00.shtml" target="_blank"><b>hostage</b></a> 444 days;<br><br> <li>A "group of fundamentalists" <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1006.html" target="_blank"><b>assassinated</b></a> Anwar <a href="http://www.presidency.gov.eg/html/e_anwar_el_sadat.html" target="_blank"><b>Sadat</b></a> (Nobel Peace <a href="http://www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/1978/el-sadat-cv.html" target="_blank"><b>Laureate</b></a>, Egyptian President and fellow Muslim) for trying to <a href="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/6301900057.01.LZZZZZZZ.gif" target="_blank"><b>make peace</b></a> with Israel;<br><br> <li>The Ayatullah <a href="http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/khomeini.html" target="_blank"><b>Khomeini</b></a>, much-loved by the Iranian people, expressed what appeared to be intense hatred of the West;<br><br> <li>After <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/islam/beginnings/name.html"><b>Muhammad’s</b></a> death, people in the ancient world converted to Islam at the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/islam/caliphate/jihad.html"><b>point of the sword</b></a>;<br><br> <li>Radical Muslims likely perpetrated a terrorist <a href="http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/wtc.html" target="_blank"><b>attack</b></a> on the United States.<br><br> </ul> <p>With such evidence before them, many Westerners have only one thought about the Islamic way of life: "Don’t bring it here." Yet, when one examines the written source of the Muslim religion (<a href="http://www.ee.bilkent.edu.tr/~history/Ext/Koran.html" target="_blank"><b>the <i>Koran</i></b></a>) and the man who gave his people their book of faith (<a href="http://www.al-islam.org/gallery/photos/glp7.gif" target="_blank"><b>Muhammad</b></a>), different questions surface:</p> <ul> <li>Doesn’t the <i>Koran</i> instruct Muslims to let others practice their own religious faith?<br><br> <li>If so, why did Islam spread at the point of the sword after Muhammad’s death?<br><br> <li>Doesn’t the <i>Koran</i> acknowledge many of the significant Jewish prophets and Biblical stories?<br><br> <li>If so, isn’t there an inherent reason for the two faiths to find common ground?<br><br> <li>Doesn’t the <i>Koran</i> state that Abraham is the father of both Jew and Arab and that Abraham walked with God?<br><br> <li>If so, does that mean Jews, Arabs and Christians all serve the same God?<br><br> </ul> <p>Muhammad, who lived from 570 to 632 , never claimed to be divine, and Muslims do not think of him in that sense. But Muhammad DID claim to be a prophet of God, and the Islamic faith contends he was the last of all the prophets sent by God.</p> <p>For those who have not studied him, who was Muhammad? And what was his contribution to the faith <a href="http://www.britannica.com/bcom/art/00037/91.gif" target="_blank"><b>practiced</b></a> by 22% of today’s world population? (A note about this interesting link. From <i>Encyclopedia Britannica</i>, it depicts the world’s religions in 1980. Much, of course, has changed since then.)</p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="muhammad_story_ch1.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="muhammad_story_ch3.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </body>