Islam : A Religion Of Violence

Mecca’s envy of Medina resulted in a series of battles between the two cities, which helped provoke the “Battle of the Trench,” in which the Meccan’s surrounded the city of Median. Mohamed helped built tunnels and trenches for soldiers to get a way. Many of the people surrendered to the new Monotheistic faith, which combined Hebrew, and Christian faiths.

Islam, meaning peace in Arabic, is one of the most misunderstood religions in the world. Many people view it as a religion of hatred and crime, while others view it as peace. Islam is the world’s second largest religion and the youngest. There are approximately 1.57 billion Muslims in the world today. The origin of Islam, Prophet Muhammad, and beliefs of Islam affect how Islam is being taught and viewed today.

One of the biggest issues in our world today is the issue and conflict that the West is having with Islam. For almost the past two decades, it seems that the West And Islam have been in constant conflicts with each other. This papers will discuss and compare the opinions of Bernard Lewis in The Roots of Muslim rage and Nicolaas van der Zee in The Roots of Muslim rage Revisited, and their respective opinions on this issues. Both authors in many ways fundamentally disagree with each other, when searching for a cause and solution to this problem. This essay will discuss the valid points made by both authors, and will attempt to show how both authors have valid and sensible arguments on the issue on hand.

Muhammad, the founder of the new religion Islam, was born in Mecca, a thriving trading town. Since he had lost his parent at a young age, Muhammad was raised by his uncle who was the leader of the clan

In “A Devil’s Theory Of Islam,” Edward W. Said reviews a book by Judith Miller. In the book, Miller focuses on Islam in the Middle East, and Islam as a threat to the West. Islam since the eighth century was always known as a religion that contains violence and terror. However, Said says that the violence has mostly affected the Middle Eastern countries by dragging them down into poverty. Said says that Islam’s acts affect its citizens, and powerful Islamic countries are under the control of the United States.

The Quran teaches Adam was the first prophet, with many prophets to follow, who spread the word of God. The main message was to worship only the one true God, but much of the teachings were either lost or altered leaving the last prophet, Muhammad, as the final teachings in the Quran. This was the beginning of Islam. The Quran is the written words of Muhammad as given to him by God through the angel Gabriel, on mount Hira near the city of Mecca in 610CE. Included in the Quran is Sharia law. Muhammad eventually moved to Medina where he became the

Around 610 CE, the Prophet Muhammad’s journeyed to an isolated cave and received holy messages from the archangel Gabriel. These simple messages flourished over time into the Islamic faith and were compiled to create the Qur’an - the scripture of Islam. During a time of polytheistic supremacy, the teachings of Muhammad struggled to be established. “[T]he Qur’an emphasizes that while conversion to Islam should never be performed by force, its faith and moral strictures should be practiced in a society that abides by them and seeks to implement them in all human spheres of activity”, thus, followers of Muhammad employed manners of force to converted believers of other faith systems (Ellwood 587). This is an example of misinterpreting the holy scriptures. Although the use of force increased the boundaries of early Islam exponentially, the Qur’an’s insistence of pacifism was negated. To appease adopted converts sanctioned into Islam, some of their practices were accepted, for example, veiling women with a hijab, chador, or burqa are not innately Muslim, these practices were accepted from Persian people who were conquered by Muslims. Within their growing domain, Muslims accentuated the avoidance of idolatry and the Five Pillars which state to confess your faith, pray five times a day, give alms to the poor, fast during the month of Ramadan, and partake in the Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca. Jihad, or the struggle against the evils of the world and inner sin, is known as the sixth pillar of Islam and is also a commonly misinterpreted doctrine. Greater jihad or the internal struggle against the evils of oneself is the more important element of jihad, however, lesser jihad or the struggle to defeat external evils can be misinterpreted into justifying the killing of non-Muslims, violence against those who don’t acknowledge the Qur’an, and can even be used to legitimize a Holy War. Once again,

Muhammed was born in Mecca is Saudi Arabia in 570 AD. He was believed to be the prophet god hand sent to them as the final prophet. He was sent by god to teach mankind how to be good and he was born in Mecca a Holy City. Muhammed is told by an angel to go stop people from worshipping idols and he does just that. Then he and his supporters go with him to Medina. That counts two Holy Sites for the Islamic people Mecca for being the birth place of Muhammed and Medina for being the beginning of the Hirja. After that they made an Army and went back to conquer Mecca. He made an army and apparently always had one. The Islamic people have conquered many places for much less than it being Holy Land and have two Holy Sites fully under their control yet they fight for more! Yet, they fight long and hard take something from a people who has nothing and have been attacked for no reason and killed for believing differently. This leads to the final point, the

I believe that there have been many misconceptions of Islam that are portrayed and plastered all over the news, media and even billboard for years now. Millions of Muslims living in the western world have found themselves under a lot of inspection by their societies. Charles Peirce a philosopher who is known for his methods for fixing belief proves a good point and idea in order for people to be more considerable of their thoughts and beliefs to reason correctly before judging the Islamic religion to be promoting violence. People instead of judging all people in Islam and any religion, should be thinking more maturely as to who is the evil doer, instead of taking their anger out on innocent people and the wellbeing in society to keep a unity in the world. However, another famous philosopher whom I disagree with who argues Peirce’s methods of belief is David Hume. Hume believes that of which to avoid all problems, all religious belief should be rid of.

Today, word of “Islam” connected with more terrorism and violence. Here, article “Islam” by Vincent J O’Malley explains about what is Islam in real sense. According to O’Malley, connection between world second largest religion Islam and terrorism makes very different and negative scenario towards Islam religion in the world population. He explained Islam through different question related religion and philosophy in the article. He started with Muhammad’s life and his background with first question. According to O’Malley, Muhammad was born in 570 in the area of Arabian Peninsula at Mecca. Muhammad was raised by grandfather in the begging and, after he was taken by his paternal uncle. He also describe about Muhammad personal life that he was married with Khadija while he was 25 years old. After first question about Muhammad’s personal life, he moved to the next question of Muhammad’s religious insight. In the begging Muhammad was believed in polytheism but latter on changed with monotheism. According to O’Malley, monotheism means “there is no god but God”. He also explain, Muhammad was borrowed some stuff from the Christianity and Judaism to develop his own religion. Muhammad included some old and New Testament from the Christianity regarding Jesus, Mary and John. After discussing about Muhammad’s religion, Writer O’Malley moved to next question about begin of Muslims calendar. So, the whole idea about beginning of Muslim calendar has explain about beginning of Islam religion.

Since the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, a large focus of the Western Powers, like the United States, has been on the Middle East. Out of this has come a conclusion that this area of the world is prone to be more violent than other parts and this is largely to due to the Islamic religion. This the West has concluded in large part through observation coupled with some qualitative data. However, is this an adequate assertion of the area, and of the religion of Islam? To begin various types of violence will be explored quantitatively and qualitatively to see if there is a difference in the level of violence seen in the Middle East as compared to Western States. Once it has been determined if there exists a difference in

Islam emerged as a powerful religion in the seventh century. Prior to this, Christianity and Judaism dominated life throughout the Middle East and Europe. In order to develop as a system of faith, Islam borrowed ideas such as monotheism, an afterlife and many other concepts from the two prominent religions. Hence, Islam was revolutionary for the introduction of controversial values such as the rejection of Jesus Christ and its distinct differences in beliefs.

To truly understand islamic history, one must examine the life of the individual who gave birth to such a phenomenon. Ibn Ishaq’s’ The life of Muhammad’ (1955), Syed Ameer Ali’s ‘The Spirit of Islam: A history of the Evolution and Ideals of Islam, with a Life of the Prophet’ (1923) and Ali Dashti’s ‘Twenty-three Years: A study of the Prophetic Career of Mohammad’ (1985), claim that Islam did not begin prior to Muhammad’s birth. The focus of that time period was centred on the idea of conquest which was nationalistically and politically driven. “Tonight has risen a star under which Ahmad was born” (Brown, 2009) cited by Jews emphasises that the birth of Muhammad ignited a spark that would significantly impact those who came to believe in him and those from different denominations. Islamic history flourished through the life of Muhammad specifically his early adulthood, revelations, opposition, ascension to heaven, emigration (hijra) and the battles.

For about fifteen hundred years, Saudi Arabia’s history has centered on one major theme: Islam. Muhammad, the founder of Islam, was born around 570 A.D. in the city of Mecca. Early in the 7th century A.D., according to Islamic belief, Muhammad, while meditating in a cave on Mount Hira, was visited by the angel Gabriel. Gabriel

Islam is ranked as the fastest growing religion in the world, and is predicted to rival Christianity in terms of global population by 2050. However, it is still misunderstood by millions of people, including Muslims themselves. Islam, meaning peace and submission to God, is a religion of ethics, obedience and harmony, and is based on a faithful belief system. Conversely, in various parts of the world, Islam is broadly misrepresented as a religion of intolerance and killing. Common confusion, misunderstanding, and pure ignorance often leads into a negative portrayal of Islam. An example of this can be seen in the term “Jihad.” Contrary to popular belief, Jihad is not a synonym for combat. The term Jihad is an Arabic word that has many