Islam Is The Second Largest Religion

Islam: suppressor of women, enemy of Western nations, and breeder of terrorists. The West has many stereotypes and misconceptions about Islam that are due to the media, prejudice, and ignorance. Islam is often seen as an "extremist" or "terrorist" religion. Often, the media's reports about Islam are incorrect due to ignorance or not wanting to acknowledge its true teachings. This is one of the reasons why Westerners are often wary of Muslims. In contrast to what the media portrays, Islam is a peaceful religion, which does not promote violence or terrorism.

Islam, a religion of people submitting to one God, seeking peace and a way of life without sin, is always misunderstood throughout the world. What some consider act of bigotry, others believe it to be the lack of education and wrong portrayal of events in media; however, one cannot not justify the so little knowledge that America and Americans have about Islam and Muslims. Historically there are have been myths, many attacks on Islam and much confusion between Islam as a religion and Middle Easter culture that is always associated with it. This paper is meant to dispel, or rather educate about the big issues that plague people’s minds with false ideas and this will only be touching the surface.

The religion of Islam has become a controversial issue in today’s 21st century. In spite of excessively negative representations by Western propaganda, increasing numbers of the population are pursuing to learn more about the wonderful religion of Islam. More frequently than not, these people are becoming more pleasantly startled by the product of their exploration. In fact, increasing numbers of people are embracing Islam nowadays then they did prior to the horrific attacks on September 11th, 2001; which evoked much attention to misconceptions about Islam and Muslims. Yet, there does endure an abundant amount of misconception and misinterpretations about Islam, frequently invigorated by political policies which reckon their interest’s to patronage Islam 's enemies. Islam is a religion which elucidates the way of life and is the second largest religion after Christianity, with approximately one-fifth of the world 's population and is currently the fastest growing religion. Muslims are existent all around the world and come from diverse nationalities, cultures and races. However, Islam instills that all people are principally equal no matter the differences (colour, class, culture, etc.) as long as they are peaceful and law-abiding citizens. The behaviour of particular erroneous groups or individuals outside mainstream Islam cannot be accredited to Islamic beliefs and practices as correspondingly hostility in North Ireland or illegal mafia activities being attributed

The freedom fighter Nelson Mandela once said, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” After the memorable attacks in New York, London, and Madrid, the West became a unwelcoming and hostile place for Muslims, and the world started to be known as the “Islamic World” and “The West”. The Islamic world as in the picture is a place where men oppress women, a place vicious to technological advancements and a place where Muslim children are raised with the thought that the west is an unfavorable place for them. The “West” however

Islam originated 610 AD in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Throughout time there are many stories and legends on how Islam sprung. According to the Quran it declares, that the holy book of Islam was brought down by angel Gabriel from Allah. Angel Gabriel gave the holy book to Prophet Muhammad. To prove this, the Quran states, "this is a revelation from the Lord of the universe. The Honest Spirit (Gabriel) came down with it, to reveal it into your heart that you may be one of the warners, in a perfect Arabic tongue" (Sura 26:192-195). "Say, 'Anyone who opposes Gabriel should know that he has brought down this (the Qur 'an) into your heart, in accordance with God 's will, confirming previous scriptures, and providing guidance and good news for the believers '" (Sura 2:97). [http://www.allaboutreligion.org/origin-of-islam.htm] The prophets before Muhammad, all contributed to the religion of Islam, but prophet Muhammad made it final by the revelation of the Quran and how to be a correct Muslim.

The word “Islam” is taken from the Arabic word “Salema”, which translates to obedience, peace, purity, and submission. There are many people who don’t know that these traits are the foundation of Muslim religion. Ignorance on a subject often leads to false judgment, and the deep-rooted conflict between the United States and the Islamic State is largely due to such ignorance. An entity cannot involve itself in another’s affairs and make calculated decisions if it does not educate itself on the entirety of the situation. This neglect to learn has led to greater issues because of events that have transpired as a result of harsh judgment. There is a huge misconception of the difference between the natural devotion to Islam and the radicals who

The contemporary world of Islam faces an uphill battle defending itself from modern day misconceptions and the forced involvement with geopolitics. Islam struggles with the western world’s perception of the religion and cultural understanding. Modern day Muslims will have to overcome insurmountable hurdles in an attempt to rebuild the diversity and complexity within the Islam faith. Islam is in a constant battle with Western Civilization and its forced power and ideology on the Middle East. The current religious struggle between the Middle East and the West derives from thousands of years of bloodshed and conflict between the worlds three major religions; Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Blood that was shed during a period of holy wars and the ever expanding ruling powers such as Greece and Rome. The candle of hatred burns in modern times with the presences of radical extremist groups like the Taliban and Al-Qaeda that continue to ignite hatred towards the West by manipulating the Qur’an and preaching concepts that conflict with the laws of Islam.

Islam originated from the country known today as Saudi Arabia. It was founded by a man named Muhammad ibn Abdullah. Muhammad was known as a Prophet because people believed that he was a messenger for God. It is also known that the angel Gabriel spoke to him and gave him the messages that Muslims would later follow. After Muhammad’s death that is when the two groups of Muslim formed. The two groups are the Sunni and the Shia. The difference between these two groups are that the Sunni group believes that the successor after

Ever since September 11, 2001 Americans along with the majority of the world’s population have been skeptical of Muslims. It’s a sad reality but it’s hard for people to think of a Muslim without linking them directly to terrorism. But these assumptions aren’t totally out of the blue—the Muslim’s religion, Islam, teaches a low tolerance for other religions and the Islamic government has no separation of church and state, so it’s only normal to assume that their government shall have a low tolerance as well—some however, immediately translate this into terrorism. Through the Islamic government and religion, relations with foreign countries, and separation amongst themselves it can be concluded that Islamic Fundamentalism is clearly a threat

Islam is portrayed and is commonly accepted as the most violent and largest direct threat to the West. This is a generalization made by most of the West, but it is not particularly the West or the Islamic people’s fault. There is constant turmoil in Islamic countries in the Middle East and these conflicts are what make the news in the West. The only representation in the media that the Islamic nation gets is that of war. Though most Islamic people are not violent, the select few that do participate in terrorist groups give the rest of the Islam nation a bad image.

Instead, from its onset, Islam spread as a conquering power and remained that way for some time. Explaining it this way, the reader gets a sense of the psychology behind Islam and why, besides being a religious task, spreading Islam is such a goal. By showing the issues Islam faces today in the context of past Islamic traditions, Lewis paints a much clearer picture of the skewed view today’s radicals have and the way they use history to manipulate. He examines influential Muslim voices like Saddam Hussein and Usama Bin Laden, who have used history to give Islam victim status or to claim the continuance of a predecessor’s mission to not only justify terrorist activities, but also to recruit followers. He tells the history of Bin Laden’s statement referring to the “humiliation and disgrace” Islam supposedly has suffered. What Bin Laden was referring to was the defeat of the Ottoman sultanate in 1918 and the imperial presence of Westerners on sacred Muslim lands. Lewis explains the offense many Muslims take to the desecration of their holy lands by foreigners. He describes how the discovery and exploitation of oil in the Holy Land of the Hijaz has exacerbated the growing resentment many Muslims

The objective of this work is to examine Islam, a highly controversial sensitive issue in today's world and specifically to examine the misconceptions, beliefs, and values of those of the Islamic faith. Most people think that the majority of Muslims live in the Middle East, while in reality there are more people of the Islamic faith living in Indonesia. Islam, just as Judaism and Christianity, is practiced in various cultures, serves to shape, and is shaped by those cultures. This study examines the perceptions of those of the three faiths in various countries and how they view one another and seek to answer how a level of threat is felt by those belonging to these three religious groups in various countries. Countries examined in this study include those of the United States, Great Britain, India, Pakistan, and the Middle East. The depth of understanding or the teachings of Islam among the various religious groups in these various countries will also be examined in terms of how these understandings impact the ways that Muslims and non-Muslims interact and communicate with one another.

To illustrate, ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) organizes suicide bomb attacks in many countries and they claim that they justify this attacks with Islam and different interpreting of Quran. These attacks pose a threat for the innocent people all around the world and cause a massive fear from Muslims among non-Muslim people. What’s more, due to ISIS’s belief that it represents the Islam, people generalize all Muslims as terrorists. In this point, in his article ‘Islamophobia plays right into the hands of Isis’ Jones (2015) express that it is certainly enough to say that the vast majority of Muslims do not except their interpretation of Islam and he emphasizes that there is a highly big distance between Muslim world population and the ISIS. Besides, as it is known ISIS also attacks several Muslim countries and causes to death many Muslims. In spite of this fact, it might be suggested that one of the most important reason for the Islamophobia in the world is existence of terrorist groups and their brutal

The connection between Islam and terrorism was not intensified until the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center that pushed the Islamic faith into the national and international spotlight (Smith, 2013). As Smith (2013) articulated, “Many Americans who had never given Islam a second thought before 9/11 now had to figure out how to make sense of these events and relate to the faith tradition that ostensibly inspired them” (p. 1). One way in which people made sense of these events was through the media channels that influenced their overall opinions by shaping a framework of censored ideas (Yusof, Hassan, Hassan & Osman, 2013). In a survey conducted by Pew Forum (2012), 32% of people reported that their opinions of Muslims were greatly influenced by the media’s portrayal of Islam that depicted violent pictorials and fundamentalist Muslims. Such constant negative depiction is likely to lead to the inevitable—prejudice and hate crime. For instance, in 2002 alone there were approximately 481 hate crimes that were carried out against Muslims (Smith, 2013). Ever since the 9/11 attacks Muslim people have been the target of “suspicion, harassment and discrimination” (Talal, n.d., p. 9).

Islam is not a new religion but the final culmination and fulfillment of the same basic truth that God revealed through all His prophets to every people. For a fifth of the world's population, Islam is not just a personal religion but a complete way of living. Over a billion people from all races, nationalities and cultures across the globe are Muslim--from the rice farms of Indonesia to the deserts in the heart of Africa; from the skyscrapers of New York to the Bedouin tents in Arabia.