World religions

Menu

Islam: The second largest
world religion...and growing.

Quotations:

	"The messenger of Allah said: "Islam is to testify that there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, to perform the prayers, to pay the zakat, to fast in Ramadan, and to make the pilgrimage to the House if you are able to do so." He said: " You have spoken rightly", Jebreel (Gabriel) from Number 2 of "Al-Nawawi's Forty Hadiths." 1
	"If anyone harms (others), God will harm him, and if anyone shows hostility to others, God will show hostility to him." Sunan of Abu-Dawood, Hadith 1625.
	"Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians...and (all) who believe in God and the last day and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve."  The Qur'an, 2:62
	"Jim Jones, David Koresh and Meir Kahane do not typify Christianity and Judaism in the eyes of the civilized West, but those same eyes are prone to see Osama bin Laden and Mullah Muhammad Omar as typifying Islam," Richard Bulliet 2

Webmaster's note about attributing guilt and responsibility:

One of the themes running through some holy books is that of "scapegoating." ₅ This is the concept that guilt and punishment can be transferred from those responsible for an evil act, to others who are innocent of that act. This theme is rarely -- if ever -- discussed in religious homilies or sermons. Yet it seems fundamentally unjust and evil according to every moral code that I have seen. By not holding perpretrators directly responsibility for their actions, innocent people become marginalized and denigrated.

For example:

• When some Muslims think of Christianity in America, they think of Pastor Terry Jones of Dove World  Outreach Center in Florida as a typical Christian. He advocates burning copies of the Qur'an.
  
  
• When some Christians think of Islam in the Middle East, they think of Osama Bin Laden or Musab al-Zarqawi, leaders of Al-Qaeda, as typical Muslims.
  

They confuse the beliefs or practices of an individual or a small minority of believers for the entire religion. As one example, in the minds of some Americans, responsibility for  9/11 terrorist attack on New York City and Washington has spread from 19 radical, violent, fundamentalist Muslims and their Al-Qaida handlers to all 1.6 billion followers of Islam.

We ask our visitors to consider two items when reading this section of our website -- and for that matter all of the other 6,000 essays:

• The irrationality of blaming innocent persons for the sins of a tiny minority within their group. One of this web site's mottos is: "When some people deviate from reality, others are often hurt."
  
  
• When one refers to any religion or faith group/tradition/denomination within a religion, we are generally referring to more than the beliefs and teachings of its founder. The culture in which the religion developed has generally had a major impact as well. So, for example, the four main versions of Sharia law are all based on the Qur'an -- and to a lesser degree on the Hadith. However, they have been profoundly influenced by the cultures in which Islam grew.

About Islam:

Estimates of the total number of Muslims range from 0.7 to 1.8 billion worldwide and 1.1 to 7 million in the U.S.  ₃ We accept the best estimate of the world's Muslim population as 1.57 billion, concluded by the Pew Forums. About 23% of all people on Earth follow Islam. The religion is currently in a period of rapid growth.

Christianity is currently the largest religion in the world. It is followed by about 33% of all people -- a percentage that has remained stable for many decades. If current trends continue, Islam will become the most popular world religion sometime in the mid-21^st century.

Topics included in this section:

• 1994 to now: The rise in Islamophobia: hate speech & violence against Muslims

• Information about Islam:
  
  
  • Beliefs about Islam, as expressed by Muslims:
    • Part 1: Gallup survey. "The Truth about Islam"
      
      
    • Part 2: Personal stories of 40 women, 45 men, and "The Muslim Next Door"
      
      
  • Introduction to Islam:
    • Part 1: Its origin, Muhammad, texts, beliefs,  etc.
      
      
    • Part 2: Its practices, schools, holy days, etc.
      
      
  • Comparing the beliefs of Islam and Christianity 
    
    
  • Comparing the growth rates of Islam and Christianity
    
    
  • How many Muslims are there in the U.S. and in the rest of the world?

Geographical distribution of Sunni and Shiite Islam

₄

• Contemporary Muslim information sources
  • Muslim information websites
  • Muslim books; free ebooks: translations of the Qur'an; bookstores, publishers
  • Web sites featuring clothing, cards, etc
    
    
• Quotations:
  • Quotations from the Qur'an

  • About the Hadith: sayings and deeds of Muhammad

    • Examples of Hadiths
  • Comparison of Qur'an verses with the Hebrew Scriptures' Ten Commandments
    
    
• Beliefs and Practices:
  • Apostasy  (Irtidad) -- abandoning Islam
  • The environment and global warming
  • The Hajj -- pilgrimage to Mecca
    • The significance of Eid-Ul-Adha
  • Holy days of Islam -- seasonal days of observance and celebration
    • Rabbi Allen Maller has donated an essay for this web site titled "Why Hanukah is for Muslim Jews."
  • Homosexuality
    • Reasons why same-sex marriage is bad, as given on Aljazeera's website
  • The concept of Jihad
  • Sharia law
    • Punishment for non-marital sex
    • Sharia law in Ontario, Canada
    • Sharia law in the UK
  • When is killing innocent humans permitted? Terrorist attacks and the principle of tattarrus
  • Paradise: life after death
  • The fast during Ramadan
    • Determining the dates of Ramadan
  • Status of women:
    • Female genital mutilation among Animists, Christians, and Muslims
    • The role of women in predominately Muslim countries
    • Corporal punishment of women
      
      
• Tolerance items:
  • 2011-JAN: Status of religious freedom worldwide, with emphasis on predominately Muslim countries.
  • Accommodation for and by Muslims in North America
  • Should Americans fear Islam? -- An ABC This Week panel discussion/debate/free for all
  • Islamic prayers in public schools
  • Senate/House resolutions promoting religious tolerance towards Muslims.
  • Why do "they" hate the West?
  • "Terror has no faith" An essay by Ibraham Hooper of CAIR
  • "Is religious tolerance a passing phenomenon? Religious tolerance in the West's past & future, donated by Bilal Cleland
  • Speech by Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez at the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, in TN on 2012-NOV-18.
    
    
• Peace:
  • A prayer for peace and unity
  • Appeal for peace by Muslim scholars, sent to Christian leaders
    
    
• Conflicts:
  • Is Islam a religion of violence or peace?
  • 2002: The Washington-area sniper
  • A book about Islam on the University of Northern California reading list
  • Al Qaeda's beheading of Paul Johnson in Saudi Arabia
  • An excerpt about Iran from a book by Reza Aslan titled "No god but God"
  • Some Muslim statements condemning terrorist acts -- statements that the media rarely covers
  • Radical Muslim group(s) in U.S. Prisons
  • 2006 conference in Iran of Nazi Holocaust deniers
    
    
• Religious topics:
  • Can a person be both a Christian and a Muslim?
  • "Fundamentalism" within Christianity and Islam
  • Names given to the "Holy Land"
  • Religious terms used to refer to Islam and Muslims
    

In addition to the above, we have short passages on:

• Virgin birth of Jesus (pbuh)
• Jesus' (pbuh) sinlessness

Amazon.com provides these books on Islam:

If you see a generic Amazon.com ad here, click on your browser's refresh button to get a book list.

Important resources on the Internet:

• GuidedWays has a number of translations of the Qur'an available for free:
  • For an English translation, go to http://www.guidedways.com/. Click on the "Quran" button underneath the graphic; select "translation;" select "English" (or any of eight other languages), and select from one of up to four translations. You can select any of the chapters and display the translation.
    
    
  • A Qur'an reader for Java-enabled mobile phones is available at: http://www.guidedways.com/
    
    
  • For a Qur'an reciter in many languages, see: http://www.guidedways.com/
    
    
• Frederic A. Moritz has written a web guide for journalists and others titled: "Islam under a human rights spotlight," at: http://www.worldlymind.org/
  
  
• Abid Qureshi has written an essay: "Islam’s View on War and Terrorism: A Survey of the Qur’an and Prophetic Traditions." It is available on his blog at: http://abidnyc.wordpress.com
  
  
• Ramadan Times published timetables for the next Ramadan at: http://www.ramadantimes.co.uk/

References used:

The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.

1. Yahya bin Sharaf Ul-Deen An-Nawawi , "Al-Nawawi's Forty Hadiths." This is a compilation of 43 sayings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). See: http://www.dartmouth.edu/
2. Richard Bulliet, "The case for Islamo-Christian civilization," Columbia University Press, (2004). Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
3. The estimate of 1.1 million Muslim in the U.S. was derived from the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) of 2001. It was based on a telephone survey. See: http://www.gc.cuny.edu/The seven million estimate was obtained from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) website. It was based on the number of immigrants from Islamic countries. See: http://www.cair-net.org/
4. Map courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin. The original is at: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/
5. We discuss the theme of scapegoating in the Bible in a separate section of this web site.

Not a sponsored link

		Beliefnet Free Newsletters
		Receive a daily dose of wisdom, humor, inspiration and more. Beliefnet is a multifaith e-community designed to help you meet your own religious and spiritual needs -- in an interesting, captivating and engaging way. They are independent and are not affiliated with a particular religion or spiritual movement. You can choose from among: Ten newsletters that deal with "tools for living." Eight dealing with "religious wisdom" from a variety of faiths. Five dealing with "Inspiration."

Site navigation:

Home page >  here

Home page > World Religions > here

Copyright © 1995 to 2012 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Last update: 2012-NOV-29
Author: B. A. Robinson

Sponsored link

Go to the previous page, or to the Home page, or to the "World Religions" menu, or to the "Truth in religion" menu, or choose:

Web ReligiousTolerance.org

Page Translator: This page translator works on Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and Safari browsers only After translating, click on the "show original" button at the top of this page to restore page to English.