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[[Image:Quran.jpg|thumb|right|Pages from the [[Koran]], the holy book of Islam.]]

[[Image:Quran.jpg|thumb|right|Pages from the [[Koran]], the holy book of Islam.]]

'''Islam''' is a major world religion and socio-[[political]] system based on the teachings of [[Muhammad]], a seventh century [[Arab]]. Muhammad claimed descent from [[Ishmael]], the son of [[Abraham]]. Muhammad claimed to have received revelations from Allah via the archangel Gabriel, which were written in the [[Koran]] - thus forming the core teachings of Islam.

'''Islam''' is a major world socio-[[political]] system based on the teachings of [[Muhammad]], a seventh century [[Arab]]. Muhammad claimed descent from [[Ishmael]], the son of [[Abraham]]. Muhammad claimed to have received revelations from Allah, the entity which adherents of Islam claim to also be the [[God]] of [[Judaism]] and [[Christianity]], via the archangel Gabriel, which were written in the [[Koran]] - thus forming the core teachings of Islam. Adherents of Islam, along with their liberal allies (including in the [[mainstream media]]), claim it to be a "religion", although unlike [[Christianity]], [[Judaism]] and other religions, Islam is presented and acts in ways opposite to the teachings of legitimate religions, but more akin to the totalitarian ideologies of [[Nazism]] and [[Communism]], based on the history of Islam and its followers.

==Overview==

==Overview==

[[File:World Muslim Population Pew Forum.png|thumb|The Muslim population of the world map according to the Pew Forum 2009 report.]]

[[File:World Muslim Population Pew Forum.png|thumb|The Muslim population of the world map according to the Pew Forum 2009 report.]]

The word "Islam" means "submission" (to [[Allah]]) in [[Arabic language|Arabic]]. Islam as originally designed in the Koran presents itself as an Abrahamic faith and has [[Moses]] in it<ref>Brannon Wheeler. Moses in the Koran and Islamic Exegesis. Routledge, 2002.</ref> as well as [[Jesus]] as a prophet in Islam,<ref>Muhammad Ata ur-Rahim, Ahmad Thomson. ''Jesus: Prophet of Islam''. TTQ, INC., 2003.</ref> but not as God's son.  

The word "Islam" means "submission" (to [[Allah]]) in [[Arabic language|Arabic]]. Islam as originally designed in the Koran presents itself as an "Abrahamic faith" and has [[Moses]] in it<ref>Brannon Wheeler. Moses in the Koran and Islamic Exegesis. Routledge, 2002.</ref> as well as [[Jesus]] as a prophet in Islam,<ref>Muhammad Ata ur-Rahim, Ahmad Thomson. ''Jesus: Prophet of Islam''. TTQ, INC., 2003.</ref> but not as God's son.  

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The world’s Muslim population is expected to increase by about 35% in the next 20 years, rising from 1.6 billion in 2010 to 2.2 billion by 2030, according to new population projections by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life... In the United States, for example, the population projections show the number of Muslims more than doubling over the next two decades, rising from 2.6 million in 2010 to 6.2 million in 2030.<ref>[http://www.pewforum.org/2011/01/27/the-future-of-the-global-muslim-population/ The Future of the Global Muslim Population.]</ref>

The world’s Islamic population is expected to increase by about 35% in the next 20 years, rising from 1.6 billion in 2010 to 2.2 billion by 2030, according to new population projections by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life... In the United States, for example, the population projections show the number of Muslims more than doubling over the next two decades, rising from 2.6 million in 2010 to 6.2 million in 2030.<ref>[http://www.pewforum.org/2011/01/27/the-future-of-the-global-muslim-population/ The Future of the Global Muslim Population.]</ref>

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Islam has been criticized for some time, due to its demanding of strict submissiveness especially of women, and its predisposition to being violent suspicious of other faiths and attacking other faiths deemed a threat to Islam, as a result there have been over 23,000 terrorist attacks committed by extremist Muslims since 2001.<ref>http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/</ref> A more recent strain of Islam has combined European totalitarianism and a virulent anti-Semiticism. This version is called [[Jihadism]], [[Islamism]], radical Islam or militant Islam. Without the historic institution of the Caliph, this form degenerates into terrorist stateless activity that strikes at the heart of civilized man. Moderate Muslims have denounced the Jihadist terrorists and believe that mainstream Islam has become corrupted over the years that there needs to be an [[Islamic Reformation]] similar to that of the [[Protestant Reformation]].<ref>Michaelle Browers, Charles Kurzman. An Islamic Reformation? Lexington Books, 2004.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.danielpipes.org/954/distinguishing-between-islam-and-islamism|title=Distinguishing between Islam and Islamism|author=Daniel Pipes|date=June 30, 1998}}</ref>

Islam has been criticized for some time, due to its demanding of strict submissiveness especially of women, and its predisposition to being violent suspicious of religious faiths and attacking those faiths deemed a threat to Islam, as a result there have been over 23,000 terrorist attacks committed by adherents of Islam since 2001.<ref>http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/</ref> A more recent strain of Islam has combined European totalitarianism and a virulent anti-Semiticism. This version is called [[Jihadism]], [[Islamism]], radical Islam or militant Islam. Without the historic institution of the Caliph, this form degenerates into terrorist stateless activity that strikes at the heart of civilized man. Moderate Muslims have denounced the Jihadist terrorists and believe that mainstream Islam has become corrupted over the years that there needs to be an [[Islamic Reformation]] similar to that of the [[Protestant Reformation]].<ref>Michaelle Browers, Charles Kurzman. An Islamic Reformation? Lexington Books, 2004.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.danielpipes.org/954/distinguishing-between-islam-and-islamism|title=Distinguishing between Islam and Islamism|author=Daniel Pipes|date=June 30, 1998}}</ref>

[[Image:Mecca.jpg|thumb|left|[[Mecca]], one of the holy cities of Islam.]]

[[Image:Mecca.jpg|thumb|left|[[Mecca]], one of the holy cities of Islam.]]

There are small groups of largely Westernized Muslims who publicly reject Islamism. Such moderate Muslim conservatives are in the [[Republican Party]], known as the [[Muslim Republicans]].<ref>http://www.muslimrepublicans.net/</ref> One of America's Founding Fathers, [[Thomas Jefferson]], who was a religious [[libertarian]], declared: "''freedom for the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mohammedan, the Hindu and infidel of every denomination''."<ref>John A. Garraty, Story of America Beginnings to 1877, (1992) Holt, Rinehart and Winston, pg 706.</ref>  

There are small groups of largely Westernized Muslims who publicly reject Islamism. Such moderate Muslim conservatives are in the [[Republican Party]], known as the [[Muslim Republicans]].<ref>http://www.muslimrepublicans.net/</ref> One of America's Founding Fathers, [[Thomas Jefferson]], who was a religious [[libertarian]], declared: "''freedom for the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mohammedan, the Hindu and infidel of every denomination''."<ref>John A. Garraty, Story of America Beginnings to 1877, (1992) Holt, Rinehart and Winston, pg 706.</ref>