Introduction to Islam

I will be travelling on Friday. Since I don't have a carrying case for my laptop, I won't be posting any new messages. So I will be doing the Divinity school postings today.

Islam is the world's second largest religion, the first being Christianity. The number of Muslims in the world ranges from .7 to 1.2 billion followers worldwide 1.1 to 7 million of these followers live in the United States. About 21% of all the world's people follow Islam.

Richard Bulliet once said "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 typifing Islam". Islam is not a religion of terrorism. Most Muslims are not terrorists, and most terrorists are not Muslim.

I myself am not a Muslim, but I am tolerant of those who are. I follow a syncretistic religion blending both Christianity and Wicca. I am also part Jewish, or at least in this life. My great-grandmother on my maternal grandmother's side was a Jew. I don't know her name, all I know is that she lived in Kanerado, Kansas and that she died in childbirth. She married a Lutheran and converted to Christianity. My grandmother is deceased, her name was Helen Schmidt, she married a Catholic. I was Catholic for a short period of time, I hated it.

An English version of the Koran states that those who believe in the Koran, and those who follow Jewish scripture, and those who follow the teachings of Christ and all of those who believe in God and the last day and work righteousness, shall have their reward with the Lord. (paraphrased, The Koran 2:62) The Koran states that salvation is open to all who believe in Allah, which is the Arabic word for God.