TOP TEN MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT ISLAM This is the biggest misconception in Islam,
no doubt resulting from
the constant stereotyping and bashing the
media gives Islam. When a
gunman attacks a mosque in the name of
Judaism, a Catholic IRA guerrilla sets off a bomb in an urban area,
or Serbian Orthodox
militiamen rape and kill innocent Muslim
civilians, these acts are not
used to stereotype an entire faith. Never
are these acts attributed to the religion of the perpetrators. Yet how
many times have we heard
the words 'Islamic, Muslim fundamentalist.
etc.' linked with violence. Islam literally
means 'submission to God'
and is derived from a root word meaning
'peace'. Islam may seem exotic or even extreme in
the modern world. Perhaps
this is because religion doesn't dominate
everyday life in the West,
whereas Islam is considered a 'way of life'
for Muslims. Like
Christianity, Islam permits fighting in self-
defense, in defense of
religion, or on the part of those who have
been expelled forcibly from their homes. It lays down strict rules
of combat which include
prohibitions against harming civilians and
against destroying crops,
trees and livestock.

NO WHERE DOES ISLAM ENJOIN THE KILLING
OF INNOCENTS.. The Quran says:
"Fight in the cause of God against those
who fight you, but do not
transgress limits. God does not love
transgressors." (Quran 2:190) "If they seek peace, then seek you peace.
And trust in God for He is
the One that heareth and knoweth all
things." (Quran 8:61) War,
therefore, is the last resort, and is subject
to the rigorous conditions laid down by the sacred law. The
term 'jihad' literally
means 'struggle'. Muslims believe that
there are two kinds of jihad.
The other 'jihad' is the inner struggle of the
soul which everyone wages against egotistic desires for the
sake of attaining inner
peace. MISCONCEPTION #2:
Islam oppresses women. The image of the typical Muslim woman
wearing the veil and forced to
stay home and forbidden to drive is all too
common in most peoples
thoughts. Although some Muslim countries
may have laws that oppress women, this should not be seen as coming
from Islam. Many of these
countries do not rule by any kind of
Shari'ah (Islamic law) and
introduce their own cultural standpoints on
the issue of gender equity. Islam on the other hand gives men and
women different roles and equity
between the two is laid down in the Quran
and the example of the
Prophet (peace be upon him). Islam sees a
woman, whether single or married, as an individual in her own right,
with the right to own and
dispose of her property and earnings. A
marriage gift is given by
the groom to the bride for her own
personal use, and she keeps her own family name rather than taking her
husband's. Both men and women
are expected to dress in a way that is
modest and dignified. The
Messenger of God (peace be upon him)
said: "The most perfect in faith amongst believers is he who is best in
manner and kindest to his
wife." Violence of any kind towards women and
forcing them against their
will for anything is not allowed. A Muslim
marriage is a simple, legal
agreement in which either partner is free
to include conditions. Marriage customs thus vary widely from
country to country. Divorce is
not common, although it is acceptable as a
last resort. According to
Islam, a Muslim girl cannot be forced to
marry against her will: her parents simply suggest young men they
think may be suitable. MISCONCEPTION #3:
Muslims worship a different God. Allah is simply the Arabic word for God.
Allah for Muslims is the
greatest and most inclusive of the Names
of God, it is an Arabic word
of rich meaning, denoting the one and only
God and ascribing no partners to Him. It is exactly the same
word which the Jews, in
Hebrew, use for God (eloh), the word which
Jesus Christ used in
Aramaic when he prayed to God. God has
an identical name in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; Allah is the same
God worshiped by Muslims,
Christians and Jews. Muslims believe that
Allah's sovereignty is to
be acknowledged in worship and in the
pledge to obey His teaching and commandments, conveyed through His
messengers and prophets who were
sent at various times and in many places
throughout history.
However, it should be noted that God in
Islam is One and Only. He, the Exalted, does not get tired, does not
have a son ie Jesus or
have associates, nor does He have human-
like attributions as found in
other faiths. MISCONCEPTION #4:
Islam was spread by the sword and
intolerant of other faiths. Many social studies textbooks for students
show the image of an Arab
horseman carrying a sword in one hand
and the Quran in the other
conquering and forcibly converting. This,
though, is not a correct portrayal of history. Islam has always given
respect and freedom of
religion to all faiths. The Quran says: "God
forbids you not, with
regards to those who fight you not for
[your] faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and
justly with them; for God
loveth those who are just. 60: Freedom of religion is laid down in the
Quran itself: "There is no
compulsion (or coercion) in the religion
(Islam). The right
direction is distinctly clear from error".
(2:256) Christian missionary, T.W. Arnold had this opinion on
his study of the question
of the spread of Islam: ".. of any organized
attempt to force the
acceptance of Islam on the non-Muslim
population, or of any systematic persecution intended to stamp
out the Christian religion,
we hear nothing. Had the caliphs chosen to
adopt either course of
action, they might have swept away
Christianity as easily as Ferdinand and Isabella drove Islam out of
Spain, or Louis XIV made
Protestanism ..." It is a function of Islamic law to protect the
privileged status of
minorities, and this is why non-Muslim
places of worship have
flourished all over the Islamic world.
History provides many examples of Muslim tolerance towards
other faiths: when the caliph
Omar entered Jerusalem in the year 634,
Islam granted freedom of
worship to all religious communities in the
city. Proclaiming to the inhabitants that their lives, and property
were safe, and that their
places of worship would never be taken
from them, he asked the
Christian patriarch Sophronius to
accompany him on a visit to all the holy places. Islamic law also permits non-
Muslim minorities to set up
their own courts, which implement family
laws drawn up by the
minorities themselves. The life and
property of all citizens in an Islamic state are considered sacred
whether the person is Muslim or
not. Racism is not a part of Islam, the Quran
speaks only of human equality
and how all peoples are equal in the sight
of God. "O mankind! We
created you from a single soul, male and
female, and made you into nations and tribes, so that you may come to
know one another. Truly,
the most honored of you in God's sight is
the greatest of you in
piety. God is All-Knowing, All- Aware.
(49:13) MISCONCEPTION #5:
All Muslims are Arabs The Muslim population of the world is
around 1.2 billion. 1 out of 5
people in the world is a Muslim. They are a
vast range of races,
nationalities, and cultures from around the
globe--from the Phillipines to Nigeria--they are united by
their common Islamic faith.
Only about 18% live in the Arab world and
the largest Muslim
community is in Indonesia. Most Muslims
live east of Pakistan. 30% of Muslims live in the Indian subcontinent,
20% in Sub-Saharan Africa,
17% in Southeast Asia, 18% in the Arab
world, and 10% in the Soviet
Union and China. Turkey, Iran and
Afghanistan make up 10% of the non-Arab Middle East. Although there are
Muslim minorities in almost
every area, including Latin America and
Australia, they are most
numerous in Russia and its newly
independent states, India and central Africa. There are about 6 million
Muslims in the United
States MISCONCEPTION #6:
The Nation of Islam is a Muslim group. Islam and the so called "Nation of Islam'"
are two different
religions. NOI is more of a political
organization since its members
are not limited to a single faith. Muslims
consider this group to be just one of many cults using the name of
Islam for their own gain.
The only thing common between them is
the jargon, the language used
by both. "The Nation of Islam" is a
misnomer; this religion should be called Farrakhanism, after the name of its
propogator, Louis Farrakhan. Islam and Farakhanism differ in many
fundamental ways. For example,
Farakhan followers believe in racism and
that the 'black man' was the
original man and therefore superior, while
in Islam there is no racism and everyone is considered equal in
the sight of God, the only
difference being in one's piety. There are
many other theological
examples that show the 'Nation's
teachings have little to do with true Islam. There are many groups in
America who claim to represent
Islam and call their adherents Muslims. Any serious student of Islam has a duty to
investigate and find the
true Islam. The only two authentic sources
which bind every Muslim
are 1. the Quran and 2. authentic or sound
Hadith. Any teachings under the label of "Islam" which contradict or at
variance with the direct
understanding of fundamental beliefs and
practices of Islam form the
Quran and authentic Hadith should be
rejected and such a religion should be considered a Pseudo-Islamic Cult.
In America there are many
pseudo-Islamic cults, Farrakhanism being
one of them. An honest
attitude on the part of such cults should be
not to call themselves Muslims and their religion Islam. such an
example of honesty is
Bahaism which is an off-shoot of Islam but
Bahais do not call
themselves Muslims nor their religion,
Islam. In fact Bahaism is not Islam just as Farrakhanism is not Islam. MISCONCEPTION #7:
All Muslim men marry four wives. The religion of Islam was revealed for all
societies and all times and
so accommodates widely differing social
requirements. Circumstances
may warrant the taking of another wife
but the right is granted, according to the Quran, only on condition
that the husband is
scrupulously fair. No woman can be forced
into this kind of marriage
if they do not wish it, and they also have
the right to exclude it in their marriage contract. Polygamy is neither mandatory, nor
encouraged, but merely permitted.
Images of "sheikhs with harems" are not
consistent with Islam, as a
man is only allowed at most four wives only
if he can fulfill the stringent conditions of treating each fairly
and providing each with
separate housing etc. Permission to
practice polygamy is not
associated with mere satisfaction of
passion. It is rather associated with compassion toward
widows and orphans. It was the
Quran that limited and put conditions on
the practice of polygamy
among the Arabs, who had as many as ten
or more wives and considered them "property". It is both honest and accurate to say that it
is Islam that regulated
this practice, limited it, made it more
humane, and instituted equal
rights and status for all wives. What the
Qur'anic decrees amount to, taken together is discouragement of
polygamy unless necessity for it
exists. It is also evident that the general
rule in Islam is monogamy
and not polygamy. It is a very tiny
percentage of Muslims that practice it over the world. However,
permission to practice limited
polygamy is only consistent with Islam's
realistic view of the nature
of man and woman and of various social
needs, problems and cultural variations. The question is, however far more than the
inherent flexibility of
Islam; it also is the frank and
straightforward approach of Islam in
dealing with practical problems. Rather
than requiring hypocritical and superficial compliance, Islam delves
deeper into the problems of
individuals and societies, and provides for
legitimate and clean
solutions which are far more beneficial
than would be the case if they were ignored. There is no doubt that the
second wife legally married
and treated kindly is better off than a
mistress without any legal
rights or expermanence. MISCONCEPTION #8:
Muslims are a barbaric, backward people. Among the reasons for the rapid and
peaceful spread of Islam was the
simplicity of its doctrine-Islam calls for
faith in only one God
worthy of worship. It also repeatedly
instructs man to use his powers of intelligence and observation.
Within a few years, great
civilizations and universities were
flourishing, for according to the
Prophet (pbuh), 'seeking knowledge is an
obligation for every Muslim man and woman'. The synthesis of Eastern and Western ideas
and of new thought with
old, brought about great advances in
medicine, mathematics, physics,
astronomy, geography, architecture, art,
literature, and history. Many crucial systems such as algebra, the
Arabic numerals, and also
the concept of the zero (vital to the
advancement of mathematics),
were transmitted to medieval Europe from
Islam. Sophisticated instruments which were to make possible
the European voyages of
discovery were developed, including the
astrolabe, the quadrant and
good navigational maps. MISCONCEPTION #9:
Muhammad was the founder of Islam and
Muslims worship him. Muhammad(pbuh) was born in Mecca in the
year 570. Since his father
died before his birth, and his mother
shortly afterwards, he was
raised by his uncle from the respected tribe
of Quraysh. As he grew up, he became known for his truthfulness,
generosity and sincerity, so
that he was sought after for his ability to
arbitrate in disputes.
The historians describe him as calm and
meditative. Muhammad (pbuh) was of a deeply religious nature, and had
long detested the decadence
of his society. It became his habit to meditate from time
to time in the Cave of Hira
near Mecca. At the age of 40, while
engaged in a meditative retreat,
Muhammad(pbuh) received his first
revelation from God through the Angel Gabriel. This revelation, which
continued for 23 years is
known as the Quran. As soon as he began
to recite the words he heard
from Gabriel, and to preach the truth which
God had revealed to him, he and his small group of followers
suffered bitter persecution,
which grew so fierce that in the year 622
God gave them the command to
emigrate. This event, the Hijra 'migration', in which
they left Mecca for the
city of Medina, marks the beginning of the
Muslim calendar. After
several years, the Prophet and his followers
were able to return to Mecca, where they forgave their enemies
and established Islam
definitively. Before the Prophet saw dies at
the age of 63, the
greater part of Arabia was Muslim, and
within a century of his death Islam had spread to Spain in the West and
as far East as China. He
died with less than 5 possessions to his
name. While Muhammad (pbuh) was chosen to
deliver the message, he is not
considered the "founder" of Islam, since
Muslims consider Islam to be
the same divine guidance sent to all
peoples before. Muslims believe all the prophets from Adam, Noah, Moses,
Jesus etc. were all sent
with divine guidance for their peoples.
Every prophet was sent to his
own people, but Muhammad(pbuh) was
sent to all of mankind. Muhammad is the last and final messenger sent to
deliver the message of Islam.
Muslims revere and honor him (pbuh) for all
he went through and his
dedication, but they do not worship him. "O
Prophet, verily We have sent you as a witness and a bearer of glad
tidings and a warner and
as one who invites unto God by His leave
and as an illuminating
lamp."(33:45-6) MISCONCEPTION #10:
Muslims don't believe in Jesus or any other
prophets. Muslims respect and revere Jesus, upon him
be peace, and await his
Second Coming. They consider him one of
the greatest of God's
messengers to mankind. A Muslim never
refers to him simply as 'Jesus', but always adds the phrase 'upon
him be peace' (abbreviated
as (u) here). The Quran confirms his virgin
birth (a chapter of the
Quran is entitled 'Mary'), and Mary is
considered the purest woman in all creation. The Quran describes the
Annunciation as follows: "Behold!" the Angel said, "God has chosen
you, and purified you, and
chosen you above the women of all nations.
O Mary, God gives you
good news of a word from Him whose
name shall be the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, honored in this world and the
Hereafter, and one of those
brought near to God. He shall speak to the
people from his cradle and
in maturity, and shall be of the righteous."
She said: "O my Lord! How shall I have a son when no man has
touched me?" He said: "Even
so; God creates what He will. When He
decrees a thing, He says to it,
"Be!" and it is" (Quran 3:42-47) Jesus (u) was born miraculously through
the same power, which had
brought Adam (u) into being without a
father: "Truly, the likeness of
Jesus with God is as the likeness of Adam.
He created him of dust, and then said to him, 'Be!' and he
was." (3:59) During his prophetic
mission Jesus (u) performed many
miracles. The Quran tells us that he
said: " I have come to you with a sign from
your Lord: I make for you out of clay, as it were, the figure of a bird,
and breath into it
and it becomes a bird by God's leave. And I
heal the blind, and the
lepers, and I raise the dead by God's
leave." (3:49) Neither Muhammad (pbuh) not Jesus (u) came to change the
basic doctrine of the brief in
One God brought by earlier prophets, but to
confirm and renew it. In the Quran Jesus (u) is reported as saying
that he came: "To attest
the law which was before me. And to make
lawful to you part of what
was forbidden you; I have come to you with
a sign from your Lord, so fear God and obey Me. (3:50) The Prophet
Muhammad (pbuh) said:
"Whoever believes there is no god but God,
alone without partner,
that Muhammad (pbuh) is His messenger,
that Jesus is the servant and messenger of God, His word breathed into
Mary and a spirit emanating
from Him, and that Paradise and Hell are
true, shall be received by
God into Heaven. "(Hadith related by
Bukhari).

^^^ I will say SHOVE YOUR LIST of 10 misconbabbles. . . Stop telling us what to believe of Islam. . .SHOW US for Pete's sake!!!

^^^^^^^^^ the deference is we use Christianity and the bible to rate Christians (not their actions) and you judge Islam based on the action of some Muslims and not what the religion and the Qur'an teaches

Actions speak louder than words

summary pls??

andromida: Actions speak louder than words

Ok, no problem. Let us use actions to judge
Reverend King (in Nigeria) set members of his church on fire for adultery

Christian Europe held a meeting in Berlin to divide up Africa among themselves
How did they plan to make Africans succumb to their imperialism - by annointing oil and prayer?

The first country to use a nuclear bomb (on cities wiping out civilians - children, women, foetuses) was the US - its presidents take oath by swearing by the Bible and the currency has the inscription "In God We Trust"
Same Christian America launched a research in Guatemala with people being injected with psyphilis

andromida: Actions speak louder than words

Christian have initiated major wars
WW1 & WW1 are actions of the christians
Christian Germany put 6million jews (the aged, children and women included)to death in the process
The terrorist organisation (IRA) has a religious agenda

The queen is the head of the Church of England
Yet this head of the church have been living off the resources of others and naming them after themselves
Lake Victoria, Victoria Falls, Victoria Island

There are numerous Nigerian muslims forced to bear foreign names without which they would not have been able to go to school