The main principle for Muslims is that God is superior to anything else. They do not believe in the Christian doctrine because Christians believe on the existence of a Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The place of worship of the Muslims is the mosque. Muslims consider that the other books written before the Quran have been distorted, and that the Quran is the finest representation of the word of God. The Quran was written by Mohammed from the revelations that the archangel Gabriel provided him with. Besides Mohammed, Islam considers Moses and Jesus prophets of Islam because they also transmitted the word of God.
The five pillars of Islam are as followed: Testimony, Fasting, Alms giving, Pilgrimage, and Prayer. Testimony refers to a statement that Muslims recite: "I testify there are no deities other than God alone and I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of God." This statement is central to all Islamic believes. Fasting occurs in the month of Ramadan, which is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, when Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, and having sex during daylight hours. Alms giving is an obligation of all Muslims in good economical standing to donate to the poverty. Pilgrimage to Mecca, the city of composition of Quran, is required for all Muslims once in a lifetime. Finally, Muslims pray five times a day, and wherever they happen to be they try to face the direction of Mecca, the holiest city of Islam. Do you see anything wrong in these believes? Can you identify any violent statement? Do you think the religion justifies the behavior of the extremists? I certainly do not see anything wrong with Islamic faith. To me, terrorists have just misunderstood the word of Allah. What do you think?
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| Muslims Praying |
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| Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey |
