Top 10 Misconceptions about Islam
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Victors often are the ones to write history. And is often the case, the person writing the history will put their own spin on things. There is no better example of this than with the western perspective of Islam. In fact, many in the west don’t know the history of Islam very well. This can be attributed to societal prejudices caused by historical events, greed, and many other things all leading to many misconceptions about Islam. In many cases, we just see what the tv tells shows us and hear what our politicians tell us. Below reveal some of the top 10 misconceptions about Islam in order to help you better understand them.
#10: 72 ‘Virgins’ for martyrs
Many Islamic terrorist organizations, such as ISIS or Al-Qaeda, take advantage of young, impressionable people in order to further their own personal gain. The worst of these is the common misconceptions about Islam and its idea of martyrdom and the rewards that come from it. Spiritual rewards include things such as forgiveness of sins and entry into heaven. While material rewards include things such as financial support to the family of the martyr and respect from the community. However, the most infamous of these is the idea that for those who commit jihad, they will be rewarded 72 virgins.[1]72 Virgins in Heaven: Fact or Fiction? However, the support for this belief comes not from the Quran but from an unreliable and unconformable hadith (something that the prophet Mohammad said) mentioning 80,000 servants and 72 wives. Most, Muslim scholars do not give this hadith any weight.
#9: Muslims are Arabs
Many people have the misconception about Islam thinking that most Muslims are from the Middle East, wear turbans, and must be Arabic. However, this is far from the truth. A Pew research study conducted in 2010 found that there are around 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. However, out of that around 62% of those people did not live in the Middle East, but lived in the Asia-Pacific region. The Pew Research Center took it one step further by saying, “more Muslims live in India and Pakistan (344 million combine) than in the entire Middle East-North Africa region (317 million).”[2]Pew Research Center – World’s Muslim population more widespread than you might think Furthermore, the most populous Muslim country is also in Asia. Indonesia boasts a Muslim population of around 227 million people dwarfing the 31.9 million Muslims in Saudi Arabia.
#8: Religious Intolerance
Many people see Islam as a religion of intolerance. Simplifying it by saying, you must be Muslim otherwise you must die. However, this is false. In order to understand the true history of Islam and its belief of tolerance to other religions, one must look back to the very beginning is Islam and the prophet Muhammad.
When Muhammad was spreading Islam, the Arabian Peninsula was divided in terms of religion between Muslims, Jews, Christians, polytheists, people of no religion, and many others. Therefore, when the prophet Muhammad shifted his role from not only being a religious leader but a political leader of the new Islamic state, he needed to take this into account.
In order to sow peace and harmony, he decried, using Islamic law as his guide, that everyone should be treated equally and allowed to have their own religion. Muhammad explained this further by saying, “To the Jews who follow us belong help and equity. He shall not be harmed nor his enemies be aided.”[3]The Religion of ISLAM – THE TOLERANCE OF THE PROPHET TOWARDS OTHER RELIGIONS (PART 1 OF 2): TO EACH THEIR OWN RELIGION Thus, any religious intolerances that may be found in Islamic countries do not come from the region itself, but either the twisted interpretation of the religion or the political ideologies of the country.
#7: Muslims Hate Jesus
It seems like Islam and Christianity have been on opposite sides since their beginnings. As such it would only make sense that Muslims must hate Jesus. However, that is far from the truth. In fact, the Quran favorably mentions Jesus 25 times. The main difference is how Muslims see Jesus compared to Christians. While they acknowledge that Jesus was born from the Virgin Mary, they do not see him as the Son of God, but just as a prophet, servant, teacher, and lover of the Word of God.[4]U.S. Catholic – What do Muslims think of Jesus? To the Islamic faith, one of his main goals was to prophesize the coming of Muhammad. In fact, in many cases, Muslims will say to model and live your life in the way that Jesus did, much like many Christians will say WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?).
#6: Allah is a different god
Many people in the west and Christians specifically think that Allah is in fact a different god. However, this is not the case. Allah is just the Arabic word for god. In fact, it is not the personal name for a god, but just the generic word for god instead of using the generic term of God in the Bible (Elohim).[5]Arabic Bible Outreach Ministry – The word Allah and Islam To further prove this point many Arabic Christians use the world Allah to describe the Christian God too. However, may western Christian theologians, in order to try and distance Christianity and Islam, try and say that Allah is the god of Islam.
#5: Jihad means Holy War
People often associate the word jihad with “holy war”. However, this is one of the common misconceptions about Islam. In the literal sense, it actually means struggling or striving.[6]The Islamic Supreme Council of America – What Jihad is In fact, the Arabic word for war is “al-harb”.
According to the prophet Muhammad, this struggle can mean many things. It can be an internal struggle to be a better Muslim. It can also be an external struggle in spreading the faith. In fact, even in the military sense of the word jihad, fighting is only a last resort. Muslims only use it when all other diplomatic avenues have been exhausted. In addition, even if fighting had to be used, it had to be a fair and honest. A honorable fight is one where no innocent people, such as women and children, are hurt. In today’s society, many groups have taken the word jihad and distorted its original meaning in order to further their own agendas.
#4: Islam and Marriage: All Muslim men marry four wives
There is are common misconceptions about Islam, Muslim marriage and Muslim dating stating that all Muslim men have multiple wives. However, Islam neither encourages nor discourages polygamy, but merely allows it.[7]IslamCan – Why does the Qur’an allow Muslim men to have four wives? Furthermore, Islam has several rules linked to polygamous marriages. For example, unlike many other polygamous religions, Islam caps the number of wives at four. Furthermore, marriage in Islam is seen as a very important duty for the man.
A Muslim man can have more than one wife only if he can equally support his additional wives. Lastly, forget about orgies between his four wives, as Islam strictly prohibits this. In fact, the Muslim man must house each of his wives separately and spend equal but separate time among them. Muhammad originally started the idea for polygamous marriages so that in cases where there were more women than men (such as after a war), that woman could still marry.
#3: The crescent moon is a universal symbol of Islam
One of the common misconceptions about Islam comes in to play with the symbol of the moon. Many people think that Allah is related to the pagan moon god. However, in Islam, it is blasphemous to depict Allah. People used the moon symbol for thousands of years before Islam. Furthermore, the moon usually references to the lunar Muslim calendar. Islam didn’t use it as a main symbol until the period of the Ottoman Empire. Muhammad founded Islam at the start of the 7th century. The Ottoman empire started in 1299, nearly 700 years later. The Ottoman empire started using it as a symbol on their flags.[8]Bismika Allahuma – What Is The Significance Of The Crescent Moon In Islam? Before this, most Muslim armies simply used single color flags as banners. In fact, many other religions, such as Judaism also uses a lunar calendar.
#2: Muslim women must cover up
There are common misconceptions about Islam stating that all women need to cover up completely. However, this is not completely true. Islam does require women to dress modestly. However, the way that they decide to do it is up to them. This ranges from a simple scarf to cover their heads (hijab) to full on robes that cover a majority of their body.[9]Why do Muslim women have to cover their heads? Many times this also depends on the traditional customs of the local area. Many of the ideas, such as women being completely covered, do not come directly from the teachings of Islam. Unfortunately, they come from highly patriarchal societies, such as in Saudi Arabia, that tend to repress women. Therefore, in many cases, people from the west misconstrue the Islamic religion with the societal repression of certain regions.
#1: Islam promotes honor killings
In the west, there are many misconceptions about Islam and honor killings.In fact, for many, Islam and honor killings goes hand in hand. However, to truly understand this horrific crime, we need to go to the truth behind the religion and the politics of Muslim countries. On the political side, it is true that many Muslim countries such as Egypt, Morocco, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, and Pakistan have extremely lax laws with regards to the males in honor killings. However, many of these countries have copied the laws that used to exist in the west.
The Ottoman Empire controlled a lot of the previously mentioned countries. In addition, they literally copied the French Criminal Code of 1832 (in order to try and mimic its European neighbors). The code was lax laws regarding punishing men in killings of honor. However, in Islamic law and hadiths from the prophet Mohammad talk about this. They clearly state that “a husband who kills his wife and/or her lover has committed homicide like any other case, even if the husband caught the two in the act.”[10]Yaqeen – Islam is not the Cause of Honor Killings. It’s Part of the Solution Therefore, there in Islamic law there is no justification for honor killings.
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