Welcome to Gaia! ::

For the record, Muslims and Christians don't believe in the same God, as Muslims often claim--one of the greatest reasons proving that is that Muslims don't believe that Jesus was the Messiah, nor do they believe God to be three in one. The belief in the Trinity (that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit combined) is a big part of the Christians' faith, and Muslims disagree about that.
Also, in the Muslims' book the Sunna, Muhammad teaches that it is okay to force people into Islam--to against their will convert them into a Muslim (by their definition). He wrote that it's acceptable to trick people into Islam.

(This is pretty much off-topic now, but at the beginning there was a lot of talk about this, so I just wanted to add this.)

Did you see that thing about the group of people in the midwest who always have those rallies with the signs that say "Thank God for AIDS" and "Thank God for war"? They are rediculous. Those people are fanatics. If that doesn't prove fanaticism to be a bad thing, then I don't know what does.

Um, what?

While Muslims and Christians do believe in the same God, Muslims do not believe in Jesus Christ, and feel that Muhammed is a great prophet, like John the Baptist. As for the Sunnah, it does indeed exist as the secondary source of Islamic law after the Qu'ran and is a collection of Muhammed teachings on religious action.


As for fanaticism, there are two kinds. There's the brand of fanaticism that involves using the bible as a bar to beat people over the head with, and there's the brand involving using the bible as a bar to do chin-ups on. The first brand takes verses from the bible, and throws them at other people, ignoring other parts of the bible that condemn this practice. People following this brand of fanaticism are like the Pharisees of Israel; they's loud, hypocritical, judgemental, and very skilled at getting their message out to the public, which is why most people think of this type of fanaticism instantly. The other kind of fanaticism is giving your life over to Christ completely, giving up sins, and trying to do as much good in the world as you possibly can before you kick the bucket. People like this are usually soft-spoken, humble, generous, loving, kind,... Etc.

Which is more fanatical? Which is better?

Fanaticism and religion sadly are often seen together because us Humans have gotten so good at manipulating good forms of faith into racism, fascism, and other bad -isms.

Which makes it all the more important for us to be kind, active Christians who spread love, peace, and do our best to stop hatred. People have the right to hateful things, but we have the same right to say kind things and do good deeds!

Drown out the hatred with our love and good acts!

They do believe Jesus Christ was also a prophet, but a lesser one. They just don't believe that he was the messiah or the son of God. ( i was also confused on the egg thing..)

rolleyes
Heh! I'll repeat after you. What Koran are you reading?
Muslims have nothing to do with the Catholic church [except for a long and drawn out war in which much of the superior Islamic culture was wiped out by rampaging crusaders.]. Also, "killing anyone who isn't a muslim" is not a belief of any non-fanatical Muslims, just like bombing abortion clinics isn't a belief of any non-fanatical Christians. The important thing to understand about Islam is that it's a belief system constructed within the parameters of a world view completely different from ours. We, stuck in our American/Western boxes, have to do a good deal more than just read the Koran word for word, just like you can't always take the Bible literally.

As for "abusing women". I personally object to some of the customs of the Islamic faith. However, it's important to understand their origins. Muslims understand the immense power of the woman over men. Therefore, many of their laws are there to protect both sexes from impurity and misplaced lust. Organizations like the Taliban take the original laws of Islam much farther than they were originally intended, just like many Medieval papacies took the laws of the Bible completely out of context.

Yay! I thought I was by myself too. D: