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Transcript
Islam and Christianity are the two largest religions in the world. Although they seem very different, they share many similarities in their origin and teachings. 33% of the world population believes in Christianity, and 21% in Islam. Although they are the religions that emphasize one God and love and peace, the believers in these religions fought each other a number of times over the history. Christianity was started based on Jesus, while Islam was started by Muhammad. Christianity and Islam are similar in many aspects. Both Muhammad and Jesus taught their people “God is one and only, the greatest.” Also they both taught to repent because God who punished the sinners. At the times of both men’s lives, many people believed in polytheistic religion, but they emphasized to have faith in only one god. Many followers devoted their lives to Muhammad and Jesus, but as those men’s power and influence grew large, both men faced opposition. Both religions had the holy books containing the teachings of Jesus and Muhammad, which were the Bible and Qur’an. Qur’an has the messages of Muhammad, who was a “man” who played a role as the messenger of the god. On the other hand, Bible contains the teachings of Jesus, the God. The followers of Muhammad, called Muslims, expanded their territory, conquering a lot of cities including the holy city of Jerusalem. At that time the holy city was a part of the Byzantine Empire, which believed in Christianity. Although Muslims treated their conquered territory with generosity and religious freedom, Muslims built a new building for their religion, Dome of the Rock, which meant a big threat to Christianity. In response, the Pope called for help to fight against Muslims. That was the beginning of Crusades. A number of Christians gathered to fight for Muslims, believing that they were fighting for the God. When the first crusades attacked the Islamic world, they were described as “real surprise” since Muslims didn’t know who they were. And since then, there were even 9 times of Crusades and a lot of people died in order to defend their religion. Muslims believed that Muhammad is the messenger of God. In the time of Muhammad, people lived in desert by tribes, which were basically large families. Without tribal protection, it was hard to survive in desert and each tribe had its own gods. Different from this tradition, Muhammad offered the idea of one God, and the followers of Muhammad made their own tribe without any family relationship. Muslims respected other religions such as Christianity and Judaism. They led a life of “simple devotion” and rituals. They believed there would be the “Day of Judgment.” And Qur’an, which Muhammad wrote down, is the center source of their belief. It is said that Qur’an has “no easy description of God” because one “cannot project God in human terms.” Therefore, Muslims celebrate “beauty of Qur’an itself.” Christianity and Islam were both started by a strong leader, have a book of teachings, and are monotheistic religion. Muslims, which means the followers Muhammad, believe in the message of Muhammad, the total submission to God. And they showed generosity and peace to the people they vanquished. However, by political reasons, they have been fighting against each other, starting with the first crusade. The wars between them resulted in serious damage to Christian and Islamic civilization.