Nowadays, fundamentalists on both sides dwell on differences between Islam and Christianity rather than focusing on the numerous (and significant) similarities. For starters, the two religions share an almost identical creation story. Also, as a previous post mentioned, the Ten Commandments are each reiterated and Moses and his "tablet" are even specifically mentioned. Both religions believe in the same God, many of the same prophets, and that Jesus was born to Mary.
Another significant fact to realize is the importance of Muslim Civilization to current Western Civilization. While all of Europe was in a dark age of almost 1000 years, Muslim scholars were preserving and translating ancient Greek and Roman texts. This was extremely important when the Renaissance began in Italy.
There are over 1 billion Muslims in the world. Given this fact alone, one would assume that our politicians could explain the difference between a Sunni Muslim and a Shiite. But as this article shows, many of our politicians are clueless. Perhaps that is why we think we can somehow walk into a country and solve a 1400 year civil war.
And as we mentioned in class, there are radicals in any religion. In Islam it is the Salafi movement. The word "salaf" means "righteous predecessors" in Arabic. Salafi followers maintain that the form of Islam practiced during Mohammed’s time was the purest, and it must be copied. In essence, they want to turn the clock back to the 7th century. But it is interesting to note that within the Salafi movement, there are violent and non-violent sects, and most are non-violent. Al Qaeda is an example of a violent Salafi group. In this context, it is easy to see how small of a minority the radical fundamentalists really are. They are literally a sect within a sect.
So how does Al Qaeda justify their actions? First, all Salafis believe it is their duty to unseat apostates, or unjust rulers. If a ruler is not adhering to what they consider to be the true Islamic faith, then they can use whatever means they deem necessary to remove him. This is what we see going on in many Arab countries, particularly Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, the Salafis believe that America is waging a war against Islam, and therefore, violence is a defensive jihad which is incumbent upon all Muslims. Also, there is no unconditional prohibition against killing civilians in the Koran. Given all of this, it is quite easy for Al Qaeda to justify their actions, although we may not find any of it convincing.
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I agree that Christianity and Islam have similarities. However, as a Christian, I don't believe this is due to some equivalent divine intervention, but rather that Mohammed didn't want to jostle accepted history when he created Islam. I don't think the two believe in the same God. In my limited knowledge of Islam, it seems that the god the Koran speaks of is very different than the god the Bible speaks of. By partially aligning his religion with Christianity, I think Mohammed managed to create a faith that looked similar, yet was entirely different on very important levels. For example, both religions center on the method by which we get to heaven. The Christian method and the Muslim method seem to differ greatly in that Islam requires specific works (the five pillars), but Christianity requires only belief and trust in God (Ephesians 2: 8,9). Here the two religions that look similar diverge to entirely different paths. Another example is the Muslim belief that Jesus was prophet versus the Christian belief that he is the Son of God. In Christianity, salvation by faith would be impossible without such a belief - not so in Islam. That said, I don't think the two groups should launch an all-out war on each other. Tolerance is important, but at the same time one must realize that the two faiths are very different.
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