The Tenets of Islam are Similar to Judaism and Christianity
The foundation of Islam is derived from both Judaism and
Christianity making it one of the three largest monotheistic religions in the
world. There are currently more than 1.5
billion Muslims worldwide and it was recently announced by the Vatican that
Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world.
The tenets of Islam are indeed similar to Judaism and
Christianity, and the Holy Koran (which is the Holy book for Islam) contains
stories and information which are in both the Holy Torah and the Holy
Bible. Muslims, followers of Islam,
respect the same prophets as Jews and the Christians but believe Muhammad
(Peace Be Upon Him) is the last messenger from God. Muslims also believe in the same God as the
other monotheistic religions, with “Allah” merely being the Arabic word for
God. It is important to remember that
not all Muslims are Arabs and not all Arabs are Muslims; so, when Christian or
Jewish Arabs pray to God, they use the word Allah.
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It's a nice idea, but most scholars on both sides will say that the God of Judeo-Christianity is not the same God in Islam. There are similarities but significant differences. For example: God/Jesus cannot lie, Allah is a master deceiver. Jesus forbade use of the sword, Muhammad urged its use. Jesus taught forgiveness, enduring suffering under oppression, Muhammad taught revenge. see http://www.ankerberg.com/Articles/_PDFArchives/islam/Christianity-vs-Islam.pdf
Furthermore, the God of Judeo-Christianity is a "gentleman" in the sense he won't force himself on you, nor command the faithful to forcefully convert anyone.
Yes, the Torah and Old Testament Bible record violence in the past, but hardly promote violence today. Very few would argue that there are current day commands in these scriptures similar to the current day commands of the Koran. A strong majority of the terrorism in the world today is in fact Muslim. There are several places where the Koran and Hadith speak of violence (in the later and "active" Medinan verses) ... yes some are conditional and subjective on whether Islam is being "threatened," which could be something such as a prohibition to where a burka or head scarf. But this subjectivity is how terrorists get their " mandate " to carry out violent acts.
The argument above is correct, unfortunately. What that means to me is that Islam is no BETTER than Christianity or Judaism, because all religions have teachings and depict incidents in their scriptures that promote violence. Thus Muslim attempts to compare their faith with religions more prevalent in the Western world actually backfire, since these religions are actually losing ground to secularism. Once you assume that everything in either the Bible or the Quran is of God, no matter how disgusting it is from a modern perspective, you risk lives, including your own. We need to get rid of that blind assumption, from Muslims, Jews and Christians alike, before we can say that they are truly peaceful religions. If the people are violent by nature, the violent elements in religion makes them worse, not better.