Islam

Pages from the Koran, a 7th century epic poem by a single author claimed to be inspired by a supernatural being Muslims call 'Allah' just like how Christians claim the bible was inspired by a supernatrual being called yahweh.

Islam is a major world religon based on the teachings of Muhammad (sometimes Mohammed), a seventh century Arab. Muhammad claimed descent from Ishmael, the son of Abraham. Muhammad claimed to have received revelations from Allah, the entity which resembles 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 anyone with a brain (including in the mainstream media), claim it to be a religion, because it is.

The Koran's singular authorship offers no corroborating evidence, just like the bible.

Overview

The Muslim population of the world map according to the Pew Forum 2009 report.

The word "Islam" means "submission" in Arabic. Islam, as originally designed in the Koran, is an Abrahamic faith and has Moses in it, as well as Jesus as a prophet in Islam, and specifically denies Jesus's divine nature.

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.

Islam has been criticized for some time, due to its demanding of strict submissiveness (especially of women) by people who deny women bodily autonomy, its suppression and violations of human rights (also including those of women), and its predisposition to being violent toward those of religious faiths and attacking those faiths deemed a threat to Islam; there have been over 23,000 terrorist attacks committed by adherents of Islam since the Islamic terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. A more recent strain of Islam has combined European totalitarianism and a virulent anti-Semitism. This version is called lesser jihad, Islamism, radical Islam or militant Islam. Without the historic institution of the Caliph, this form degenerates into stateless terrorist activity that strikes at the heart of civilized man. Some who identify as Muslim have denounced the violent ihadism while others remain silent. Some Muslims and non-Muslims theorize that mainstream Islam has become corrupted over the years that there needs to be an Islamic Reformation similar to that of the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation movements were costly and bloody for well over a century.

Mecca, one of the holy cities of Islam.

most westernized muslims publicly reject Islamism. Such moderate Muslim conservatives are in the Republican Party, (because they agree on their hatred of women and gays) known as the Muslim Republicans. 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."

Issues with Islam arose in the 2012 U.S. presidential campaign. When far right idiots went crazy when 2 of the leading candidates restated basic facts

Multiculturalists ignore or minimize violence in the history of Islam and exaggerate Christian atrocities to advance a moral equivalence. Proponents of this view often cite the Great Crusades--an unsuccessful attempt by Western Christians to retake parts of the Byzantine Empire as well as to take over large swaths of land that rightfully belonged to them. They brand people who hate Muslims "racists" (even though Islam is not a "race") and therefore they should be branded bigots instead

A follower of Islam is called a "Muslim" (rarely "Moslem"), a term which means "one who submits (to Allah)". The older terms "Mohammedan" and "Muhammedan" ("follower of Muhammad"), have fallen out of use.

Because of its history of terrorism, mass murder, suicide attacks and the overall lack of value it places on human life, Terrorists are generally shown as having no regard whatsoever toward human life.

Theology

Masjid al-Haram, the holiest site in Islam.

There are no clergy, but there are religious teachers, or Imams, who have their followings. All Muslims are supposed to follow the teachings of Muhammad, whom they believe to be Allah's last and greatest prophet (although Jesus, in Matthew 7:15-20, warned "Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are voracious wolves. You will recognize them by their fruit. Grapes are not gathered from thorns or figs from thistles, are they? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree is not able to bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree to bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will recognize them by their fruit", which serves to explicitly describe Muhammad and such like him). The teachings of Muhammad are transmitted through the Koran, the Hadith, and the Sunnah. The Sunnah is a general term for "the life and doings of the Prophet", which all Muslims are called on to replicate. Islam claims that the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Muhammad in a cave reciting verbatim a revelation from Allah. The first word that Gabriel says to Muhammad is "Iqra" or "Recite/Proclaim",which is found in the 96th Sura of the Koran.

Muslims believe that Allah revealed the Koran to Muhammad. The key miracle of Islam comes from the historical condition of the illiterate and uneducated Muhammad, as the Koran is composed in an erudite and complex form of Arabic prose and poetry. The Koran was not written down in a systematic fashion until a decade after Muhammad died, preferable transmission being through oral recitation. The Koran is claimed by Muslims to be the pure and holy word of Allah, uncreated and eternal. In Islamic belief the term uncreated is very important, as it implies that there is no author for the Koran, only the delivering of the word to Muhammad who delivered it to the Sahab and the Salaf (The Companions and the Pure), who delivered it to the scribe delegated to record it in the reign of the Caliph Uthman bin Affan.

Origins

Like Christianity and Judaism, Islam originated in the Middle East. Islam claims to trace its roots back to Abraham through his son Ishmael. Muslims do not believe that Muhammad was the founder of Islam, rather they claim that he restored the original faith of Abraham and the prophets that followed as recorded in the lost books of the Tawrat and Injil.

Based upon this belief, the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, is claimed by adherents of Islam to have become corrupted through the translations and misinterpretations accumulated over several millennia. The criticism of the Torah centers around the reconstruction of the existing Biblical text required after the "Babylonian captivity". The criticism of the New Testament centers in the many disputed gnostic texts which contradict the orthodox biblical canon. Interestingly, Islamic jurisprudence accepts that the Injil was complete and whole up until the revelation of Muhammad. Therefore, there is some inconsistency in the claims made against the New Testament. For more information, see The Bible versus the Koran.

Muhammad spent many years attempting to unite disparate polytheistic Arab tribes in the power vacuum created by the fall of the Roman Empire through recitations of his epic poem, which borrowed heavily from Hebrew scriptures and dietary laws, meeting with only limited success. He was eventually driven out of Mecca by the powers that be for challenging state authority, an event known as the Hijra or "Flight from Mecca" which marks the beginning of the Islamic calender.

Eventually Muhammad was summoned back to Mecca by a faction of sympathizers, mainly tribal family members, as political chaos engulfed the city. Muhammad conqueered the city after a prolonged siege with attacks on the civilian population and hundreds of beheadings to any who refused to accept his claims to a divine mission of carrying out the will of Allah. The doctrine of abrogation (nashk) in Islamic scholarship teaches that the later instructions of Mohammad supercede any earlier contradictory verses in the Koran. Hence was born political Islam, a doctrine of war, conquest, and vengeance, over any earlier utterances which teach Islam a religion of peace. Peace only exists in Islam insofar as all Islam's enemies are subjugated.

Today

Islam is the world's second largest religion with over 1.6 billion followers, and is claimed to be the fastest growing ideology in America. This rapid growth is mainly due to conversions, high birth rates, and convenient redefinitions of the term "Muslim". Conversions to Christianity (from any faith or lack thereof) outnumber those to Islam, but are keeping up with the birthrate discrepancy.

Indonesia has the largest Islamic population in the world.

Historical Background

According to Islamic belief, in approximately 610 A.D., Muhammad, a 40-year-old merchant of the Quraysh tribe in Mecca, located in the Hijaz (now eastern Saudi Arabia), was commanded by the angel Gabriel (or Jibreel) to "recite" the message of Allah (professed by adherents of Islam to be their god). Gabriel said mankind had lost sight of Allah's previous messages to earlier prophets, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Solomon, and Jesus, among others, and that Muhammad was to spread Allah's message to all people so that mankind would know how to live, how to show respect for Allah, and how to prepare for the judgment day.

Map of the expansion of Islam

The message to Muhammad was to be Allah's last and fullest revelation, a direct copy of the Umm Al Khitab, the mother of all books located in heaven next to Allah; Muhammad was the "seal of the prophets." Muhammad won some converts to Islam in his local area, but his monotheist preaching threatened to undermine the profitable polytheist pilgrim traffic supporting many Meccan merchants. In 622 A.D., the merchants drove Muhammad and his followers out of Mecca to the city of Yathrib (later renamed Medina, or the city – as in the city of the prophet). This flight (hijra) from Mecca to Medina marks the beginning of the Islamic lunar calendar, and is celebrated each year in the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Muhammad's forces, composed of the sahaba (companions) from Mecca, and the Ansar (allied tribes from Yathrib) started attacking the trade caravans going in and out of Mecca, cutting off its economic lifeline. After a series of battles between the Meccans and Muhammad's forces, Mecca finally accepted Muhammad's ultimatum to succumb and convert to Islam. The city welcomed the prophet back in 630. Muhammad died in 632.

Tribal elders in a traditional council called the "Shura" elected Abu Bakr to be Muhammad's successor, or Caliph (Khalifa). Abu Bakr united the tribes of the Arabian peninsula during his two years as head of the new faith. Upon his death, the elders elected Umar ibn al-Khattab the next Caliph. During Umar's ten-year reign, Islam invaded and spread through conquest and negotiation into Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, and parts of Persia (modern-day Iran). Umar was assassinated by a Persian in 644, and was succeeded by Uthman ibn Affan, who continued the invasions to spread Islam into North Africa, Cyprus, the rest of Persia, Afghanistan, and parts of India and Pakistan. Over the next two centuries, Islamic armies continued to expanded Islam's empire into sub-Saharan Africa, Spain, South-east and Central Asia, and Turkey.

The Muslim armies conquered and superceded the ancient Sassanid and Byzantine empires which had ruled before. Within a generation of Muhammad's death Islamic armies occupied an empire stretching from the Nile river to the far-off Persian province of Khorasan. Reasons for the rapid conquest are varied and obscure. The Arab armies were more akin to tribal war bands raiding and settling where and when they could. The Byzantine and Sassanid empires had been at war for centuries. The constant simmering conflict between Constantinople and Persia reached a climax in the early 7th century. The Sassanids conquered briefly Egypt and the Levant threatening the central Byzantine heartland of Anatolia. Under the military reforms of the emperor Heraclius, the Byzantine army consolidated and counterattacked, recapturing all that they had lost and capturing the Sassanian capital of Ctesiphon in 628.

This brief end of the Roman-Persian wars disrupted the frontier areas which had predicated their economies on raiding and mercenary activities. Two major areas in Arabia were directly affected. The Lackmid tribe and the Gassanid tribe both acted as mercenaries for the Persians and Romans. The official religion of both tribes analogically mirrored that of their overseers. Monophysite Christianity was common, particularly of the Jacobite sect. The death of Muhammad and the subsequent Ridda wars occupied these warrior tribes until the reign of Caliph Umar. Additionally, there was great religious unrest in the Levant and Egypt. These areas resented the ruinous taxes and the harsh orthodoxy imposed by the emperor in Constantinople.

The same climate was present in the Sassanid realm with the rise of the dualism of the Manicheans. Under the Caliph Umar, the Arab tribes which had concluded the infighting following the death of Muhammad were allowed to raid into the Byzantine and Sassanid fronteirs. The weakened state of both regimes from both military and economic exhaustion and religious unrest made them fertile picking grounds for the tribal warbands. The Arabs were chiefly successful in holding these areas in that they upheld a lightweight regime of low taxes based in the Islamic laws and distant government. Rather than employing an army of bureaucrats and nobility, the early Arab empire was more favorable towards maintaining the existing government structures under the leadership of Arab tribes. In this atmosphere it is hardly surprising to note the reports from both Islamic and Christian sources of peaceful capitulation and invitation of the invading forces.

Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (the Mosque of the Prophet) in Medina, Saudi Arabia, the site of Muhammad's tomb.

Islam and war

See also: Irreligion/religion and war and Islamic terrorism and Atheism vs. Islam

In his book The Irrational Atheist, Vox Day wrote:

“

It’s also interesting to note that more than half of these religious wars, sixty-six in all, were waged by Islamic nations, which is rather more than might be statistically expected considering that the first war in which Islam was involved took place almost three millennia after the first war chronicled in the Encyclopedia, Akkad’s conquest of Sumer in 2325 B.C. In light of this evidence, the fact that a specific religion is currently sparking a great deal of conflict around the globe cannot reasonably be used to indict all religious faith, especially when one considers that removing that single religion from the equation means that all of the other religious faiths combined only account for 3.35 percent of humanity’s wars.

”

Divisions within Islam

Uthman was assassinated in 656 A.D. by soldiers who then installed Ali ibn Abu Talib, Muhammad's son-in-law, as Caliph. Ali's followers believed Muhammad had chosen Ali to be Muhammad's heir, and had disagreed with the selections of Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman as Caliphs. Ali's claim to the position was challenged by Muawiyah, a kinsman of the murdered Uthman. Five years later, Ali was assassinated by Kharjites, dissidents who broke away from the main body of Islam because they rejected Ali's accepting arbitration to resolve his leadership dispute with Muawiyah. Ali's supporters, or the Shiah al-Ali (or Shiat Ali, partisans of Ali) believed that Ali was the true Caliph and was, in part, divinely inspired. Ali's sons, Hassan and Husayn followed as Shia Caliphs, Hassan dying in 669 or 670 A.D., possibly by poisoning, and Husayn slain by soldiers of his rival, the Sunni Caliph Yazid, in 680 A.D.

The Shia Islamic community has divided further as followers coalesced around several of Ali's descendants or successors, called Imams. The "twelvers," predominant in Iran, believe the twelfth Imam is in hiding and will reveal himself just before judgement day. Ismailis rejected the seventh Imam and practice a spirituality that seeks hidden meaning in scripture. Ismailis ruled much of North Africa as the Fatimid Dynasty of Egypt in the tenth through the twelfth centuries, and today are found primarily in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India. The Sunni majority reject the premise that men can be divine, including Muhammad, Ali, or Jesus, and did not accept any of the Imams who followed Ali. Sunnis remain more committed to traditions and less inclined to accept Shia mysticism. Today, about 15% of the world's Muslims are Shia and 85% are orthodox Sunni.

There are other factions within Islam. Sufis, a name possibly derived from the wool garments they wear, developed around mystical practices and trance-induced revelations. Sufis are found today in Turkey, Syria, and parts of Africa. One of the most famous modern followers of Sufism was American professional boxer Muhammad Ali in his later years. Other movements have taken reform tracks, such as the Unitarians of Saudi Arabia, also called Wahhabis after their 18th century reformist founder Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. The conservative Wahhabis are found today in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Today the Wahhabi line has a tendency to produce extremists, such as Osama Bin Laden. Some critics would argue that the Taliban of Afghanistan took conservative reform to an extreme. Other sects or break-away groups include, among others, the Alawis found in Syria and Turkey, the Druze in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Israel, the Ibadhis (Kharjites) in Oman and Africa, the Ahmadiya of Pakistan, and the Zaydis of Yemen.

Islamic Guidance

During his lifetime, Muhammad's companions learned and later transcribed the verses (surrahs) of the Koran as Muhammad spoke them. In Islam, the teachings of Mohammed were believed to be direct divine revelation from Allah.

The third Caliph, Uthman, collected and codified the various versions of the surrahs into one written Koran that became the standard Arabic text used by the world's Muslims today. The Koran is longer than the Bible and written in general order of longest chapters to shortest rather than in any order of when they were spoken, sometimes making the work appear to be confusing. In all there are 114 chapters. Most of the later recorded sayings of Mohammed, which were also more warlike, actually appear earlier in the text. Present-day Muslims look first to the Koran as a guide to life, then to the Sunnah, or the way of the Prophet (his life as an example for others) as recorded by his early companions, and then to the Hadith, a collection of the Prophet's sayings, comments, advice, and descriptions.

Frequently, Muslims disagreed over how to interpret certain passages in the Qur'an, the Sunnah, or the Hadith in their search for the ideal life and perfect path to heaven. From these interpretations Sunni Muslims developed four schools of law, or interpretations of law, named after their founders or early leaders: the Hanbali, considered the most strict school and predominant today in Saudi Arabia; Shafi, the school of widest acceptance, found in Egypt, parts of Palestine-Syria, south Arabia, and the Far East; Maliki, prevalent in North Africa, Sudan, and Nigeria; and Hanafi, considered the most moderate school, predominant in Ottoman Turkey and today found primarily on the Levant and Indian subcontinent. Frequently, Islamic countries have two separate legal systems, one for civil, criminal, or commercial law, and a second, and separate, system for religious law. Religious courts and their judges (qadis) might handle issues dealing with marriage, divorce, child custody, inheritance, religious education, charitable or religious property (Waqf), or family matters. Among Middle Eastern countries, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen have Shariah courts serving alongside their secular courts or have adopted Shariah (Islamic law) as the basis of their legal systems.

Clergy

Sunni Islam does not have a priesthood or clerical hierarchy to conduct religious services or interpret scripture, but it does have prayer leaders, called Imams, and religious scholars, called Ulama, who often are educated men familiar with the Koran and able to offer commentaries on Koranic verses. Sunni Muslims also respect the teachings and interpretations of scholars, judges, and academics who may interpret laws, write treatises on Sharia (religious law) or Hadith, and issue Fatwas, religious declarations intended to enlighten or guide Muslims.

Shia Islam has a hierarchy that resembles a priesthood. Mullahs are prayer leaders, but usually do not interpret religious law. Mujtahids are religious scholars who may interpret law or passages from the Koran or Hadith. The lower order of Mujtahids are called Hojjatolislam. Ayat Allah (literally sign of Allah, also Ayatollah) is a higher order of Mujtahid who may issue Fatwas, or religious edicts, in addition to leading Islamic schools, interpreting religious law and the Koran, and offering sermons or discourses on proper Islamic behavior.

Five Pillars of Islam

• Shahadah (Profession of Faith) -The Shahadah is the Muslim profession of faith. 'aÅ¡hadu 'al-lā ilāha illā-llāhu wa 'aÅ¡hadu 'anna muħammadan rasÅ«lu-llāh, a loose English translation reads "There is none worthy of worship except Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah" This testament can be seen as the foundation of all of the other tenets of Islam and swears off the divinity of Christ.

• Salat (Ritual Prayer) -All Muslims are required to pray to Allah five times each day while facing Mecca. Praying six times a day is consider willful disobedience to Allah, per shariah law, an act punishible by death.

• Zakat (Charity) Zakat is often described as charitable giving. Able Muslims must donate to the poor based on the wealth one has accumulated. In current usage it is interpreted as 2.5% of net worth held for a full lunar year.

• Sawm (Fasting) All able-bodied Muslims (children, pregnant women, the elderly, and the ill are exempt) must not eat during the daylight hours of the entire month of Ramadan. According to Muslims, this purifies the body and soul.
• Hajj (Pilgrimage) All able-bodied Muslims must make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lives.

Other Aspects of Islam

Jihad

Jihad is the "effort" or "struggle" each Muslim faces in the everyday trials of life, such as the effort to get better grades in school, or the striving to achieve better results from a job, or the struggle to avoid sinful temptations. Jihad also can be applied to warfare.

• Atheism vs. Islam
• Atheism vs. Christianity

See also

Islam in Africa

• Arab American
• Islamic republic
• Islamophobia
• Qur'an
• Jihadism, an extremist, take on Islam
• Ramadan
• In the midst of a Maelstrom: the Holy Spirit and silence: an essay encounter of Israeli Messianic Jew and Egyptian Muslim in Alexandria
• List of countries by number of Muslims
• Undercover Muslim
• Islamic worldviews
• Islamophilia
• Judaism and Islam
• Atheism vs. Islam
• Islam and Christianity

Further reading

• Armour, Rollin. Islam, Christianity, and the West: A Troubled History (2002) excerpt and text search
• Armstrong, Karen. Islam: A Short History (2002) excerpt and text search
• Berkey, Jonathan P. The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800 (2002) excerpt and text search
• Campo, Juan Eduardo. Encyclopedia of Islam (2009), basic introduction
• Esposito, John J. The Oxford History of Islam (2000) excerpt and text search
• Glasse, Cyril. The New Encyclopedia of Islam ( 2nd ed. 2008)
• Lewis, Bernard. Islam in History: Ideas, People, and Events in the Middle East (2001), by leading conservative historian excerpt and text search
• Martin, Richard C. et al. Encyclopedia of Islam & the Muslim World (2003), more advanced
• Newby, Gordon. A Concise Encyclopedia of Islam (2002) excerpt and text search
• Robinson, Chase F. ed. The New Cambridge History of Islam (Volume 1) (2009), summarizes advanced scholarship
• Ruthven, Malise, and Azim Nanji. Historical Atlas of Islam (2004)
• Schimmel, Annemarie. Islam: An Introduction. (1992)
• Sonn, Tamara and Mary Williamsburg. A Brief History of Islam (2004) excerpt and text search
• Wheatcroft, Andrew. Infidels: A History of the Conflict Between Christendom and Islam (2005) excerpt and text search