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I believe Americans do not understand or know the history of Islam which is giving a false option of the religion. Many people think of Muslims in a terrible negative horrific way. If you read the Quran you would find it a wonderful just and loving book. Islam is one of the three religions that are called the Peoples of the Book. Islam teaches that God creates and communicates with human beings. He communicates by inspiring human beings towards goodness and by sending Prophets who deliver God’s message to humanity. A Muslim is taught that the first Prophet was Adam. It mentions many other Prophets like Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Moses, Jacob, Joseph and Jesus. They all brought the same message, i.e., belief in one God, upright human conduct and belief in the accountability of human acts at the end of time.

Muslims respect and venerate Jesus Christ. They consider him to be one of God’s greatest messengers to humankind. The Quran re-affirms the miraculous birth and the miraculous abilities of Jesus. Furthermore, his mother Mary is considered one of the most pure and exalted women of all creation. When I was in Turkey at the house that is claimed to be Mary’s last house there was a huge line of Muslims waiting to see her house.

All Muslims are required to believe in Moses and Jesus as Prophets of God. Islam is the final religion revealed to human beings through the last Prophet who was called Muhammad. God’s message to humanity was delivered in the Quran which was revealed to Muhammad. It deals with issues which affect human beings in their earthly lives, issues like piety, upright human conduct and worship. It also provides guidelines on how to create a just and virtuous society, practice ethics and teaches the belief in the day of resurrection.

There are two major schools of thought – the Shi’as and the Sunnis and the differences are purely theological and jurisprudential. The Shi’as believe that the Prophet had, appointed Ali to be his successor and the Sunnis believe that the community selected its own leader after Muhammad’s death.

Modern Islam is a vigorous, complex amalgam of peoples, movements, and goals, and not the monolithic, centrally coordinated, hostile enterprise that outsiders sometimes assume it to be. Anyone who has looked closely at the history of Islam and has come to appreciate the strength of its community mindedness will realize that Islamic solidarity on certain issues – proper social relations, resistance to domination by secularist and otherwise non-Islamic political and cultural forms, obedience to the Quran and the Sunna, and the vision of the a unified umma under the Sharia to solve the world’s ills – is a hallmark of the tradition, with roots in the early period.

The term fundamentalism has been used to characterize various forms of Islamic revivalism. This term is also applied to ultraconservative Protestant Christian biblical literalists and inerrantists in the Christian religion. Thus, we shouldn’t propose that all Islamic peoples here or other places around the world are fundamentalists. I have friends in Turkey and here in the United States that are not fundamentalist and would be open to Process thought.

Iliff School of Theology in Denver

Thanks for responding Thomas!! I’m glad I’m not alone and I know how you are feeling. I cried for 2 years after I quit school because I loved it so much! Oh well, now we are getting back into it in a very small way. I am also really into my own art as well and having a great time creating it and showing my work. I’m glad you’re here too! Elvi

Here is Fig.2 I seem to only add one image at a time.

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I don’t understand why I can’t upload all three images. I’m trying again.They really show what I was talking about!

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