ISLAM

Islam-The Religion from a Christian's Perspective

Islam-The Religion from a Christian's Perspective

Introduction

Everyone in the world knows the feeling of being hurt when someone misunderstands you. It is more painful when it is related to national, cultural or religious levels extending the hurt to millions. However, in today's ever changing world, we have the opportunity to overcome such misconceptions in order to minimize the boundaries between countries and religions.

It has been observed that people living in the west part of the world have various misconceptions about Muslims and Islam, and so did I use to have some misconceptions that were overcome after conducting this research. The most common problem is that the western world is believed to be more advanced, enlightened and liberated, while Islam is just the opposite. The key to understand Islam and Muslims is to resist stereotypes and examine each situation according to Islamic teachings, and not as actions by Muslims (Siebers 1993).

Discussion

Question 1

The misconception, which I used to have about Islam was a common and biggest misconception that the world has, about Islam. Islam is portrayed as a terrorist and when any Muslim fights against the other party regardless of whether they fight justly or unjustly, he is considered to be a terrorist.

Question 2

Through this research, I was able to find the answer to my question that whether Islam encourages terrorism or not? The answer is certainly not because the teachings of Islam totally forbids and condemns the misguided acts of vigilantes, which target innocent civilians. However, Muslims do not remain and should not remain silent while facing oppression, injustice and humiliation because a religion or a culture cannot survive if it is not able to protect itself. Therefore, it is necessary to take appropriate measures to protect men, women and children (Pratt 2006).

Question 3

Some other misconceptions, which I observed during my research related to Islam are discussed below:

Man as the head of the household:

It is incredible that well inside the 21 century women are treated like second class citizen in most of the Muslim world. Most people accept as true that Saudi Arabia is a modern country with no Muslim fundamentalists or crazy laws. We also think that in Saudi Arabia women have more rights than in Afghanistan, Iran, or Iraq. We are very wrong, in Saudi Arabia women are not permitted to drive, to walk outside her home without veil, to choose husband, or to travel without male custodian. Besides, women are regularly and randomly searched by the religious police. The religious police look for makeup, dress code, or any sign of individuality to punish women. Other Islamic countries have worst laws, for example, (Bardachi, Ann) "In 1990, Iraq issued a decree allowing a man to kill the adulterous wife, daughter, sister. In Pakistan, the current criminal law adulteress stoned to death. Women who claim they are often guilty of rape, adultery were imprisonment, extra-marital sex. in order to prove rape cases, women must produce four male witnesses under the ...