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 A recent global survey suggests that Muslims are more religious than Christians and Hindus.
December 3rd, 2011
10:00 PM ET
Conflict, theology and history make Muslims more religious than others, experts sayBy Richard Allen Greene, CNN (CNN) - Every religion has its true believers and its doubters, its pious and its pragmatists, but new evidence suggests that Muslims tend to be more committed to their faith than other believers. Muslims are much more likely than Christians and Hindus to say that their own faith is the only true path to paradise, according to a recent global survey, and they are more inclined to say their religion is an important part of their daily lives. Muslims also have a much greater tendency to say their religion motivates them to do good works, said the survey, released over the summer by Ipsos-Mori, a British research company that polls around the world.
Islam is the world's second-largest religion - behind Christianity and ahead of Hinduism, the third largest. With some 1.5 billion followers and rising, Islam's influence may be growing even faster than its numbers as the Arab Spring topples long-reigning secular rulers and opens the way to religiously inspired political parties. The case against TLC’s “All-American Muslim” But while there's no doubt about the importance of Islam, experts have different theories about why Muslims appear to be more religious than members of other global faiths - and contrasting views on whether to fear the depth of Muslims' commitment to their faith. One explanation lies in current affairs, says Azyumardi Azra, an expert on Islam in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim majority country. Many Muslims increasingly define themselves in contrast with what they see as the Christian West, says Azra, the director of the graduate school at the State Islamic University in Jakarta. "When they confront the West that they perceive or misperceive as morally in decline, many Muslims feel that Islam is the best way of life. Islam for them is the only salvation," he says. The case for TLC’s “All-American Muslim” That feeling has become stronger since the September 11 attacks, as many Muslims believe there is a "growing conflict between Islam and the so-called West," he says. "Unfortunately this growing attachment to Islam among Muslims in general has been used and abused by literal-minded Muslims and the jihadists for their own purposes," he says. But other experts say that deep religious commitment doesn't necessarily lead to violence. "Being more religious doesn't necessarily mean that they will become suicide bombers," says Ed Husain, a former radical Islamist who is now a Middle East expert at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. In fact, Husain argues that religious upbringing "could be an antidote" to radicalism. American Muslim women who cover explain their choice The people most likely to become Islamist radicals, he says, are those who were raised without a religious education and came to Islam later, as "born-agains." Muslims raised with a grounding in their religion are better able to resist the distortions of Islam peddled by recruiters to radical causes, some experts like Husain argue, making them less likely to turn to violence. But he agrees that Muslims are strongly attached to their faith, and says the reason lies in the religion itself. "Muslims have this mindset that we alone possess the final truth," Husain says. Muslims believe "Jews and Christians went before us and Mohammed was the last prophet," says Husain, whose book "The Islamist" chronicles his experiences with radicals. "Our prophet aimed to nullify the message of the previous prophets." The depth of the Muslim commitment to Islam is not only a matter of theology and current events, but of education and history, as well, other experts say. "Where religion is linked into the state institutions, where religion is deeply ingrained from childhood, you are getting this feeling that 'My way is the only way,'" says Fiyaz Mughal, the director of Faith Matters, a conflict-resolution organization in London. The Ipsos-Mori survey results included two countries with a strong link between religion and the state: Legally Muslim Saudi Arabia, which calls itself the guardian of Islam's two holiest sites, Mecca and Medina; and Indonesia, home of the world's largest Muslim population. The third majority Muslim country in the study is Turkey, which has a very different relationship with religion. It was founded after World War I as a legally secular country. But despite generations of trying to separate mosque and state, Turkey is now governed by an Islam-inspired party, the AKP. Turkey's experience shows how difficult it can be to untangle government and religion in Muslim majority countries and helps explain the Muslim commitment to their religion, says Azyumardi Azra, the Indonesia expert. He notes that there has been no "Enlightenment" in Islam as there was in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, weakening the link between church and state in many Christian countries. "Muslim communities have never experienced intense secularization that took place in Europe and the West in general," says Azra. "So Islam is still adhered to very strongly." But it's not only the link between mosque and state in many Muslim majority countries that ties followers to their faith, says professor Akbar Ahmed, a former Pakistani diplomat who has written a book about Islam around the world. Like Christians who wear "What Would Jesus Do?" bracelets, many Muslims feel a deep personal connection to the founder of their faith, the prophet Muhammad, he says. Muhammad isn't simply a historical figure to them, but rather a personal inspiration to hundreds of millions of people around the world today. "When a Muslim is fasting or is asked to give charity or behave in a certain way, he is constantly reminded of the example set by the prophet many centuries ago," argues Ahmed, the author of "Journey Into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization." His book is based on interviews with Muslims around the world, and one thing he found wherever he traveled was admiration for Muhammad. "One of the questions was, 'Who is your role model?' From Morocco to Indonesia, it was the prophet, the prophet, the prophet," says Ahmed, the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington. But while Ahmed sees similar patterns across the Islamic world, Ed Husain, the former radical, said it was important to understand its diversity, as well. "There is no monolithic religiosity - Muslims in Indonesia and Saudi Arabia are following different versions of Islam," says Husain. "All we're seeing (in the survey) is an adherence to a faith." Political scientist Farid Senzai, director of research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding in Washington, raised questions about the survey's findings. "Look at the countries that are surveyed - Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Turkey," he says. "There are about 300 million Muslims in those three countries, (who make up) about 20% of Muslims globally." Islam is "incredibly important" in Saudi Arabia, he says. "But in Tunisia or Morocco you could have had a different result. It would have been nice if they had picked a few more Arab countries and had a bit more diversity," says Senzai. The pollster, Ipsos-Mori, does monthly surveys in 24 countries, three of which are majority Muslim – Turkey, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. The other countries range from India to the United States, and Mexico to South Korea, and are the same each month, regardless of the subject the pollsters are investigating. In the survey released in July, about six in 10 Muslims in the survey said their religion was the only way to salvation, while only a quarter of Hindus and two out of 10 Christians made that claim about their own faiths. More than nine out of 10 Muslims said their faith was important in their lives, while the figure was 86% for Hindus and 66% for Christians. Ipsos-Mori surveyed 18,473 adults via an online panel in April and released the findings in July. Results were weighted to make the results as representative as possible, but the pollster cautioned that because the survey was conducted online, it was harder to get representative results in poorer countries where internet access is not widespread. CNN polling director Keating Holland also warns that in an "opt-in" survey, where respondents actively choose to participate, results tend to come from "people who are confident in their opinions and express them openly... not good for intensely private matters like faith or income or sex." Online surveys in countries that are not entirely free are also open to the possibility that pollsters get "the approved response" in those nations, "where the people who are most likely to be willing to talk about such matters are the ones who hold, or at least verbalize, opinions that won't get them in trouble if they are expressed," Holland says. That may have been an issue in Saudi Arabia, where respondents were given the choice of not answering questions on religion due to their potential sensitivity in the kingdom. The Saudi sample was the smallest, with 354 participants, meaning "findings for Saudi Arabia must be treated with caution," Ipsos-Mori said. About 1,000 people participated in most countries, but sample sizes were smaller in the three majority Muslim countries and in eight other countries. The survey participants did not reflect the true percentage of Christians and Muslims in the world. Christians were over-represented – as were people who said they had no religion – and Muslims were under-represented. Nearly half the respondents identified themselves as Christian. Eleven percent were Muslim, 4% were Buddhist, 3% were Hindu and 3% were "other." A quarter said they had no religion and 6% refused to say. Fiyaz Mughal, the interfaith expert, argues that even though the countries surveyed might not be representative of the entire Muslim world, the findings about Muslims rang broadly true. Muslims in different countries were committed to their faith for different reasons, he says. "Saudi Arabia is an institutionally religious state. Indonesia has religion tied into its culture," says Mughal. But Muslim immigrants to Europe also show strong ties to their religion, either as a defense mechanism in the face of a perceived threat, or because of an effort to cling to identity, he contends. He detects a link between insular communities and commitment to faith regardless of what religion is involved. It is prevalent in Muslim Saudi Arabia, but he has seen it among Israeli Jews as well, he says. "The Israeli Jewish perspective is that (the dispute with the Palestinians) is a conflict of land and religion which are integrally linked," Mughal says. "What does play a role in that scenario is a sense of isolationism and seclusion in Israeli Jewish religious communities, a growing trend to say, 'Our way is the only way,'" he says. Religious leaders of all faiths need to combat those kinds of attitudes because of the greater diversity people encounter in the world today, he argues. They have a responsibility to teach their congregations "that if they are following a religion, it is not as brutal or exclusive as possible," Mughal says. "Things are changing. The world is a different place from what it was even 20 years ago." Politicians, too, "need to take these issues quite seriously," he says. "In the Middle East there are countries - the Saudi Arabias - where you need to be saying that diversity, while it may not be a part of the country, is something they have to deal with when moving in a globalized area," he says. But Senzai, the political scientist, says that it's also important for the West to take the Muslim world on its own terms. "Many Muslims want religion to play a role in politics," he says. "To assume that everyone around the world wants to be like the West - that they want liberal secular democracy - is an absurd idea." - CNN's Nima Elbagir and Atika Shubert contributed to this report. soundoff (5,459 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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because it's newer!!!! Just give it another 650 years, and It'll be allright.....
oh and by the way, I'm a Muslim.... so it's not one sided.
650 years? Yeah right.
Carrie, google muslim condemnation of 911 – Muslim organizations condemned the attacks within minutes of them taking place, all muslim countries condemned them and religious leaders issued several rulings condemned terrorism in general...also, where do you think America sends terror suspects that it wants to torture? it sends them to its muslim allies countries.
"new evidence suggests that Muslims tend to be more committed to their faith than other believers." why are they so committed? ohhh, i don't know....maybe because they can be taken out and SHOT if they aren't? talk about a religion that should be wiped offthe face of the Earth....
because Islam fulfills their minds and souls. Seems ignorance and hate fulfills yours.
Thats the reason bro.
I just want to go on record as hating Islam – not the people that follow it, but the stupid religion itself
Well the basic fact is that 90% of christians on message board hate Islam and insult Prophet Whereas 99% of muslims never insult Christianity or Jesus ... The fact reveals who are more peaceful and who are the hatemongers
I think it reveals more about the people that use message boards, honestly.
@PeaceLover so true!
Because they are living 500 years behind progress. Pure and simple.
Apparently, you haven't evolved with the time either. As a human civilization, it's been a couple of millenia that we don't judge and comment on other cultures like we are writing on a public restroom wall.
LOL Yeah right. You run with one.
GMA GMA Kapuso Pasko Na!
Christopher Hitchens is right: how dare religious people try to insist that we indulge their fantasies and pretend to respect their beliefs. If you believe that Captain Crunch is a real person, keep it to yourself.
Muslim is a religion for men they are the scholars, the business men, the leaders, the politicians if you will. Men like power and islam empowers them over women. Islam can be a peaceful religion but it need more honesty from the people. Daddy beats me cus he loves me is there motto. I was in a relationship with a muslim man and it was sad. No humility, no empathy, no compassion. just power starved mysogonist men.
And alex is right egypt has a population of 10 million cpots even though it has been ruled by muslims for 1400 years and so what about a few skirmishes most of the time they live in peace
You must have missed the latest protest where the Muslims attacked the Christians who were protesting the burning of their churches or last Christmas when the Muslims shot them coming out of church. If that is living in peace well I guess to an Egyptian that was a mellow day.
They are not living in peace. They are hating each other. Egypt is filled with the violence and hate of Islam.
Why in my research can I not find one "Mulsim" country that has freedom of religion; and not one "Christian" country that does not? No wonder they seem more religious; they have no choice, but to die. Jesus already did that for us! Praise be to the One Triune God!
If Jesus has done everthing, then what reason do you have to be moral? Go run around like a wild animal as you have been unconditionally saved
maybe because you're anti-Islam christian hate mongering sites to do your research? how about using muslim sites to research islam to be fair?
Look at Turkey, an Islamic democratic country with way more religious freedom than its neighbor Greece. Muslims are not even allowed to have a mosque, house of prayer, unless its a basement or undisclosed.
As the easiest example of a Christian country that does not allow freedom for other religions, the Vatican City is a nasty place filled with criminals using religion to further their hatred that the Bible teaches them. The Vatican also houses many pedophiles that are protected by the Vatican. They hate children otherwise they would not hide and protect their molesters..
Christians are no better than Muslims in this respect. Their religion is also full of hate. It is only the Age of Enlightenment that gives you freedom of religion. Without that, we would be living in a theocracy.
Turkey is the exception that proves the rule, for it has been taken over by a Muslim extremist party. Now it is considered a theocracy wearing a mask of democracy. They will close schools that teach "western" ideas and knowledge. Turkey is on its way to becoming just another sand-pit filled with dung.
Greece's legislature was recently terrorized by Muslim extremists and threatened into paying millions of dollars for a mosque even though they could not afford it. Greece is now under the Muslim thumb of terrorism and theocracy. That is why their economy is bankrupt. They let Muslims come into the country and now it will become a sand-pit filled with dung-rats just like every other Muslim country.
Dearest Aber, Kat, et. al.,
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son...
No hate – just love!
Why moral? See John 3:16
im sorry what i am trying to explain is that just because a couple of individuals hijack a religion does not mean that all muslims are terrorist just like in Christianity
No one is saying all Muslims are terrorists. What is this dirt you have been eating?
What you fail to address is the fact that in Christianity many mistakes were made and it was the Christians who worked to standup against the tyranny of the church. Show me one Mosque were they truly stand up against terrorism and try and bring down radical Islam. Show me ONE group of Muslims taking to the streets against any radical Islamic group. Please just one example.
Carrie, google muslim condemnation of 911 – Muslim organizations condemned the attacks within minutes of them taking place, all muslim countries condemned them and religious leaders issued several rulings condemned terrorism in general...also, where do you think America sends terror suspects that it wants to torture? it sends them to its muslim allies countries.
They may not be terrorist, but they hide behind them and enable them. If you're not going to fight a disease within your own body, it's not something to brag about.
Any one who is making no sense comment about islam without reading about it from the source needs needs first to read the Quran and Sunna(The prophet life) then come forward and write your , hopefuly, constructive comments.
Then here is my comment. Islam is not a religion of peace but a religion of hate. We see proof of this in the actions of Muslims all over the world every single day. There is also proof of this in the Q'uran and all the supplementals. We have it in writing that Islam is about violence and hate. The Q'uran is where it all begins, so I do not see why you would challenge anyone to read it when it is full of hate and violence. You are very stupid.
I think the Koran is followed more like a law..that could be the reason. Religion in general caters to the population that is mostly unfortunate or the lower classes of society..
I think what you're implying is that any religion is against the oppressors and the abusers in the society, which are by definition, the wealthier class. But at least in the case of Muslims, historically, the Muslim empire (and the people living therein) were the wealthiest societies of their time. Even today, Muslims countries are the richest, if you look at all the energy resources that are concentrated in the middle east. All I am opposing, is the simplistic approach to studying other religions which is often meant to be self-satisfying explanations, rather than rigorous academic studies.
Those riches are mostly from the sale of oil. Muslims do not produce much on their own because their education is often limited to reading the Q'uran to the exclusion of all else. That is fundamentailism at its worst. They do not produce wealth with their religion. That takes humans working in the real world. Religion retards the believer's understanding of the universe around them.
Only those who are secular can succeed in becoming educated without the limitations brought by religious fundamentalism.
When was the last time you went to a university yourself? I have gone to some of the finest schools in the nation, i.e. UC Berkeley and MIT, and I can tell you that most of the professors and researchers are foreigners, including Muslims, Chinese, Hindus. I have also traveled to Turkey myself and I can tell you that what you're saying could not be any farther from the truth. You need to educate yourself or at least listen to the ones who have. Besides, even the oil wealth still contradicts your original statement. It doesn't matter where their money comes from, the bottom line is they are not unfortunate at all! They are often much richer than an average american.
Did I not say secular? Why then would you point to a university as being religious when it is not? It is not their religion that is teaching them things in the university. Knowledge is only data. What you do with it is determined by many other factors.
If religion dominates your life and your decision-making processes, you will not be truly objective and will always be biased. That is not scientific or rational. Religion isn't about being rational, it is about having a slave mentality towards a being that does not exist and who's words are recorded by liars pretending to be mystical. That is all it takes to be mystical. I could do it any time of day, but I have more rational things to do with my time.
Neither the Torah, Bible, or Q'uran say anything beyond the limited and badly-educated mentality of these mystical pretenders. Their morals are the morals of a nasty brutish and thuggish socially primitive people.
Every religious text screams this whether you prefer to ignore it or not. The reactions of religious believers is correspondingly sociopathic and psychopathic according to the individual.
The less you believe, the more secular and the likelyhood that you are going to have other things to do with your time than spend it with your face on the floor mumbling to someone who is not there.
Don't you laugh when you think of all Muslims outside a certain radius praying towards everywhere but Mecca? They are so stupid to pray like that, but that's the slave mentality for you. It is easier for a slave to murder in the name of the master than to be a murderer on their own self's authority. Just as it is to kill for a larger purpose if your purpose does not also include consideration for others. But praying away from Mecca is a good joke. It always makes me laugh.
History often works in cycles. There was a time when most Christians were religiously fanatic. Around this same time Muslims were comparatively more secular, and because the Islamic empires were the world powers they viewed European Christians as religious extremists with backward lifestyles. Over the centuries the tables have turned and the West now finds itself in a position of world dominance. Intellectual and material achievements have relinquished the need for spirituality for many westerners. But if the West's power was usurped by another region, and new economic and ideological conditions were thrust upon them I would imagine many westerners would protect their values "religiously".
I think the only way to understand any religion is to study its "Holy Book", rather than go asking people who "claim" that they follow the religion, In Islam's case that book is "Al-Quran". Only by studying Al-Quran you can understand what islam is all about and what it represents. You can find the best and the worst among the "labelled" muslims and that tells you nothing about the religion itself, the same way you can find good and bad people in Christianity, Jewdaism, Hindusm and so forth. Its a waste of time to conduct these surveys with no practical value. Many so called muslims follow their own conjectures believing that these are God's commandments because these have been taught to them by their forefathers and a vast majority of the people have not studied Al-Quran at all – not even once in their lives! And these belives and in direct contradiction to the teachings of Al-Quran. So I would recommend anyone who sincerely wants to find out the truth to study Al-Quran as it is the ONLY book that itself claims it is from Allah/God and claims that there are no contradictions in it. It itself provides the reader with many proofs that the book is authentic. Its a challenge from Allah/God Himself to the reader!! All other so called "Holy" books are full of contradictions. email me if you have any questions at draazimkamal@hotmail.com
There are plenty of contradictions in the Q'uran and it is a book filled with hate and violence, commanding all believers to kill non-believers who do not "submit" to the oppressive and hateful violence of Muslims.
Your attempts to lie are bare for all to see. Why did your god make you into a fool?
This article is extremely biased. Why is it that whenever we find something nice in a different culture or religion hat we lack, we have to try to come up with the most negative explanations for it in order to make ourselves feel better. And look at the so called "experts" who are quoted in this article: a guy who wrote a book called "Islamist" is definitely the last person to ask about Islam and its success (Islamist is a term mostly used by Islamophibes). And then, this expert is quoted to have said that "Our prophet aimed to nullify the message of the previous prophets." Even a Muslim kid could tell you that this statement is a blasphemy to Muslims, as one of the main teachings of Islam is to believe in all the prophets and that they all confirm each other... I am sad to see that the good old CNN has turned into a perfect example of yellow journalism.
Yes! Believe in all prophets, but, convert or else.
Brian, I agree with you 100%
Punisher2000, that's just a common misconception. I have many Muslim friend and have read the Quran for myself. It actually doesn't say anywhere in the Quran to kill people if they don't convert. In fact, it says "Let there be no compulsion in religion as truth has become clear from falsehood". The problem is we americans are largely ignorant and arrogant at the same time. We want to stick to our misconceptions about other so we don't as guilty for not learning more about them. There are bad and good people everywhere.
The Q'uran is filled with hate and violence against non-believers, just like Christianity, Judaism.
Just because some people do not follow the violent parts does not make them disappear.
No I do not claim that just because no one follows something it doesn't exist. Instead, I encourage you to read the context. Scripture and in particular Quran are not a children's book. They have to be studied along with the full context of each passage. Whether we agree with them or not, we have to know that there are people who have dedicated their entire lives to studying and understanding scriptures. I suggest that you go and for whatever verse that you find "violent" ask a Muslim Imam for an explanation. You should do the same for any other religion as well.
Why would I want to ask a crazy person to explain their craziness to me? That's just crazy. You make me laugh.
If there were ever a religion that needs to disappear, it is Islam.
Religion doesn't have to disappear. People, being imperfect, interpret it litterally, not knowing any better. There are fanatics in every religion.
I think what needs to disappear is this fascist mentality that allows us to decide what religions have to disappear and which ones should stay. I think the last people who tried to make similar calls were the Nazi's.
The Koran clearly states it's okay to commit murder. Only true muslims know that and practice it. Islam needs to go.
Thanos, I bet you never seen a Koran in your life, let alone know what it actually says. Here is a verse from the Koran: killing one soul unjustly is as killing ALL people and saving the life of one person is like saving ALL people.
Are you a true Muslim Thanos? If not, you better keep your opinion to yourself, because I have a lot of practicing Muslim friends and none of them would agree with. And quite frankly, I don't think it's up to you to judge whether they're true Muslims or not. I personally suggest that next time you do your homework before throwing out inaccurate statements about other cultures and religions. America is all about education and freedom of religion.
The Q'uran has many contradictions, just like every religion. Many passages were put into the Q'uran in order that anyone using Taqiya against ignorant non-bellievers would have a ready excuse they could use to deflect questioning.
There are over 500 surahs that call for the destruction, death, violence, etc of non-believers. The Q'uran is filled with them.
To pick one that says different is to be practicing "taqiya", a name for the deliberate falsehoods and dissembling that is used by Muslims to fool ignorant non-believers and protect themselves against discovery.
I think you just proved how educated you are by not even knowing that there is only 114 surahs in the Quran, and how there are more than 500 surahs that are violent. I encourage anyone who is reading your comment to go to Wikipedia or any other website and see for themselves how many surahs there are total. This shows you have no idea what you're talking about.
Muslims are generally more religious than others because Islam is a religion of reason, thought, and is rich spiritually. The more educated Muslims are likely more religious as Islam is understood and appreciated as a practical way of life generally.
Islam is a practical way of life for eighth century goat herders.
Unless of course you are female, then you have no options. Please show me a Muslim woman who is treated as an equal in a Muslim nation. Please show me a woman who holds a rank in a muslim nation higher than a man. Benazir Bhutto murdered by devoted Muslims.
Agent, goat herders nowadays have jobs while you are unemployed, smart one.
carrie, are you one of those who assume Muslim women who wear veils do so because they are forced to do so by their families? Muslim women are supposed to be treated like queens by their husbands and male relatives (yes I know negative news of azzholes imply different). Muslim women have been elected presidents, vice presidents and prime ministers in several muslim countries. When was the last time a woman was even nominated for president in the US? In almost all Muslim countries, female graduates of universities far exceed those of males.
Ow, Kat, that hurt. I kinda liked it. Are you wearing high heels?
Islam is all about fear nothing more.
and where did you learn that? some right wing nut job? why dont you enlighten yourself by reading the source: Quran. Just like how you wouldnt go to an auto mechanic for heart surgery, you shouldnt learn about Islam by watching fox news
I was given a Qu'ran by a co-worker. I opened it. The FIRST line in that book is "This book is for those who fear Allah.". See, right away it plays on your fears, and doesn't stop. I fear NO 'god' or 'devil'. That book is nothing more than the rantings and ramblings of a man who was in the middle of the desert for a month hallucinating, probably from heat exhaustion, or a mild heat stroke. Mohammed wasn't a prophet of any kind. No one is or ever was. He was just a delusional ped-o-phi-le. Hey... you Muslims .. tell me the truth ... your 'glorious' Mohammed DID marry a NINE year old girl, right ??? true or false ... yes or no .. that's all you need to answer.
To play devil's advocate (I am a Christian, not a Muslim), but the Bible says to fear God and keep His commandments, for that is the whole duty of man (Ecclesiastes 12:13 I think). In the Bible's case "fear" does not mean to go cower in a corner with dread; it means to respect God, be in awe of everything he has created and what he has done for you. And of course where he will put you if you don't try to keep his commandments. If the Quran starts that way, I can only assume that it's along the same line of thought.
BHS
musilm lies to distract from the truth. Tell me who took down the twin towers. You must be very proud
According to Micheal Moore and his film farenhite911 your Bush and CIA to be blamed for twin towers. You r dumb stupid who dosnt know anything but hate.
Tommy, you sure sound like the educated one
He sounds like he's auditioning for the sequel to "Conspiracy Theory".
Islam is a faith that has not evolved. Imams are educated to know the Koran by heart, knowing little else. It is an unstructured religion, where anyone can issue a fatwa, where there is no central authority or a body that makes the rules. Islam has stayed firmly anchored in the 7th century. Its adepts are as religious as we were in the middle ages
Christianity evolved because Jesus convinced God how wrong God was to have such a long list of reasons for his people to kill others. At least, that's what the Bible says.
Observer, do you understand that Jesus is God? The Trinity says so.
my god how can a man be god. god is up in the heavans even christians don't describe jesus as god talk to a priest dumbo
Islam actually has evolved since the beginning and continues to do so. There are numerous schools of thoughts withing Islam because Islam is a dynamic religion and allows people to think, deduce and practice Islam given different conditions and environment around them. It is a plus that Islam does not have a central authority. It would be rigid like Christianity and its Pope. Islam is open and accepts different views. The basics are the same but the details are open to discussion.
Punisher2000,
Do you understand that the Bible says God is unchanging. So is God schizophrenic when he was Jesus and changed everything? Saying Jesus was God just makes all the changes Jesus made that much more ridiculous.