Whereas Christianity incorporates the idea of the “trinity,” Islam believes in one all-powerful, infinite God. John Adams called the Prophet one of the world’s “sober inquirers after truth,” and Benjamin Franklin cited him as a model of compassion for the world. Under President Soekarno it was one of the state religions. A state may have legitimate reasons to divest power to other institutions, but it is not clear why transfer of such power over individuals from state to group, including religious groups, constitutes a right of the group. This was challenged by the mostly Christian northern people of Abyssinia, including Amhara, Tigray and north western Oromo. Lebanon and Iran, as well as the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria have established confessionalist political systems which guarantee set levels of representation in government to specific religious groups in the country. For many of the conflicts and challenges across the Muslim world, the Trump administration and politicians around the country should not be working to promote further conflict between Christianity and Islam through the frame of a civilizational war. But these political conflicts do not negate this rich history and theology. There have been many problems and conflicts that have unfortunately existed between Christians and Muslims over the centuries, and will continue to exist, as the close relationship and theological bonds were forgotten under the pressures and priorities of contemporary politics.

Islam is a very family-oriented religion, practiced by over 1.6 billion people worldwide. Muslims believe that God revealed revelations and message to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus that over time were altered or misinterpreted. How could Islamic law, designed for a pre-modern era, remain relevant in a time where subjects became citizens and when religious allegiances were to be replaced with national loyalties? This is also the approximate time when the Islamic calendar began. The League presses began printing anti-royalist tracts under a variety of pseudonyms, while the Sorbonne proclaimed on 7 January 1589 that it was just and necessary to depose Henry III, and that any private citizen was morally free to commit regicide. The Islam religion began in approximately AD 622 following Muhammad’s flight from Mecca. Mohammed, the founder of Islam, based many of his beliefs on the practices of local Jewish population in his native Mecca. Most of the populations of these regions were converted only after the repeated rebellion of native populations that did not want to accept Christianity even after initial forced conversion; in Old Prussia, the tactics employed in the initial conquest and subsequent conversion of the territory resulted in the death of most of the native population, whose language consequently became extinct.

Thus, illustration of him was a common practice, particularly in the eastern regions of the Islamic world (see also Frequently Asked Questions). Far from a civilizational war, we see a situation in which two religions have much in common, but this commonality is too often lost in the turmoil and din of antagonistic voices who push a politics of fear and division. There are many people today who argue Islam and Christianity are locked in a civilizational war, a view that has become a rationale for a number of the Trump administration’s policies. First of all, as elaborated on in the introduction to Judaism and the Koran, and as elaborated on in Chapters 3 and 4, in Jews and Arabs, it’s as clear as can be that the Muslim “prophet” named Mohammed (570-632 C.E.), who in essence started Islam, had enormous exposure to Jews and many of their teachings. There is a chapter in the Quran about Mary and, within the Quran, Jesus is the only person who can perform miracles. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter. All religions are equal as they all tend to lead us to ALMIGHTY GOD, just like a river which has many riverbanks but you will find the same river water in each of them.

Clearly, not all roses are equal in tone or message. Maimonides states that the popularity of Christianity and Islam are part of God’s plan to spread the ideals of Torah throughout the world. There were few foreign embassies in Tashkent as of 2016, with only 44 in all: 29 from countries not part of the former Soviet Union and seven from the West. Islam is part of the same Abrahamic tradition as Christianity. Today, looking toward the future, we must again create the same kind of intellectual atmosphere, until it is common for Islamic theologians to read Buber and Levinas, and for Jewish scholars to study the works of Sha’rawi and Ashmawi. Within Islam, Christians and Jewish people are therefore treated as “People of the Book” whose rights and religious traditions were to be fully protected as monotheistic faiths with revelations understood to be earlier versions of the same revelation to the Prophet of Islam. The Qur’an, the original Arabic text (like the Bible in other faiths), has not been altered since its revelation. They should, rather, focus on what is held in common between these two great world faiths in order to work together to solve any seemingly insurmountable issues.