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To many Americans today, it seems as though the people of the Middle East are from another planet entirely, so different are their cultural values, morals, and religions. Unfortunately, after 9/11 and other terrorist attacks, some even see them as evil or inhuman. Islam equates to devil worship, and The Koran is just another weapons manual.
These stereotypes couldn’t be farther from the truth. Islam, a largely peaceful religion practiced by many in the Middle East, is a monotheistic religion based on the teachings of the Koran, a book considered by its followers to be the direct Word of God (sound familiar, Christians?). Muhammad, often branded by westerners as a false prophet, in fact is not even viewed by Muslims as the creator of Islam, but rather as a restorer of the original, uncorrupted faith of Adam (yes, Adam, the first man on earth according to the Bible).
Religious practices of Islam include the Five Pillars of Islam, which are five duties that Muslims are obligated to fulfill. These Pillars are: Faith, Prayer, Alms, Fasting, and Pilgrimage to Mecca. Though they may be unfamiliar to westerners, none of these is dangerous in itself, and none promotes anything but peace. (In fact, the word Islam directly translates to “peace.”) Aside from these Five Pillars, there is also Islamic law, which touches on every branch of life, whether it be diet, banking, war or marriage.
If Islam is so peaceful, you may ask, how do some Muslims find justification to do such horrible things as bomb Americans and commit other atrocious acts of terror? As in other religions, the message of the holy texts can be interpreted the wrong way, and a small percentage of followers can turn to dangerous fundamentalism and can do horrible things in what they believe is the name of their religion. In the case of Islam, some interpret the Koran as containing a sixth Pillar of Islam, called Jihad. Jihad means “to strive or struggle,” and is defined by the fundamentalist minority to mean “exerting one’s utmost power, efforts, endeavors, or ability in contending with an object of disapprobation.” This object can be anything, but when used without any further specification Jihad is understood to refer to its military aspect. In the expanded Muslim law, Jihad is used to mean military exertion against non-Muslim combatants in the defense or expansion of the Islamic state, in order to universalize the religion. Most Muslims today understand Jihad to refer to defensive warfare exclusively, but those few who do not have found the justification to act offensively, with terrible results.
With almost two billion Muslims, Islam is currently the second largest religion in the world, and is the fastest-growing religion. Instead of fearing and hating it, Westerners need to learn to accept this way of thought as Eastern and Western cultures continue to collide, or at least to strive to understand it enough to be tolerant. After all, in many aspects these two ways of thought are strikingly similar, and even in spite of their differences we all need to recognize that even on the other side of the world, everybody is human.
