“If you didn’t convert to Islam they we shop you’re head off!!”

 

This is just the tip of the ice berg for me, so many people think of Islam as a violent and bloody religion and every single time they talk about Islam all that comes in people heads are the WTC towers and killing bombs and so on.

 

For those who only read about Islam from news sites and news papers I ask you to go and get some real books about Islam.

 

A couple of days ago I was reading some comments on digg.com about some Danish people drawing more cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed (May Peace Be Upon him) they say he is not a prophet and his is a killer, and so and so, most people don’t know that much about Muslims so I thought I should write this simple Q&A to answer some of your questions about Islam.

 

Just to let you all know I’m not from Al-Qeda or any extremist group I’m just a normal 24 guy who works as an administrator in a small company and would like to correct some of the wrong ideas about Islam.

 

1- “Who do Muslims believe in?”

 

Muslims believe in Allah (God) al mighty the creator of the universe and everything that existed.

 

Muslims also believe that Mohammed (peace be upon him) is the last prophet sent from god.

 

Muslims also believe in the second resurrection of Jesus.

 

2 - “What about Moses and the Jews?”

 

We also believe in Moses and Judaism and all other prophets that were sent from god.

 

3- Now let me talk about the Quran; just to make it clear the Quran was not written by the prophet Mohammed may peace be upon him, the Quran is the words of God sent to the prophet with Gabriel, and it wasn’t written until later after the prophet died.

 

Some people take verses from the Quran that talk about war and think that Muslims like WAR.

 

The truth is we only go to war if people attacked us 1^st (so it’s the basic nature of resistance) we don’t set around and say “Hey I’m bored let’s go to war” it’s just a stupid thing to think that we like to kill.

 

4- “Do you cut people head off if they don’t convert to Islam?”

 

Ahhhh.. NO why would we??

 

In the Quran there is a verse that talked about NOT to force people into Islam,if they want to convert they are free, if they don’t then it’s there choice.

 

5- “Why do you get mad when people make fun or “draw cartoons” of your Prophet?”

 

Because of respect, if you respect some one how can you make fun of? In fact it’s not only the Prophet Mohammed that we don’t like to make fun of, we Respect Jesus and Moses and Abraham and Suleiman every prophet that was sent from god (Allah) we respect and we don’t like to make fun of them.

 

If you make fun of someone then you really don’t respect them or the message they carry.

 

6- “What is Allah?”

 

Allah is god; but the word Allah is the Arabic word for God but some Muslims like to use the Arabic word but the truth is:

 

Allah = God

God = Allah

 

Simple math :)

 

7- “Is there freedom of speech in Islam?”

 

Yes there is, Islam in its nature is open to any argument we like to hear other people point of view and talk, but there is some extremist groups that think they are the only people who are right some times they even want to kill Muslims who don’t agree with them and that others opinion doesn’t matter, But then again there are extremist groups everywhere in this world.

 

Those extremist are the ones making Islam and any other religion they represent look bad.

 

8- “What’s with the Sona and Shia?”

 

To make it simple it’s like the protestants and orthodox they all Christians but with small differences.

 

Same goes for the Sona and Shia they both Muslims but with small differences (but you have to be a Muslim to know all about those differences).

 

Before the war of Iraq Sona and Shia terms wasn’t so much popular now they are using it to start an internal war between the two groups. (But I’m here to talk about Islam not the war of Iraq and the aftermath of it).

 

9- “How many Muslims are there?”

 

About 1.5 billion Muslim

 

10 - “Do Muslims hate Jews or Christians?”

 

No, we only hate Israel and what they are doing in Palestine (and it’s a loooong subject).

 

11 - “But Israel belongs to the Israelis?”

 

And America belongs to the Indians.

 

12 - “And what about other religions (Hindu, Buddhism...etc) do you hate them?”

 

No

 

13 - “What about women rights?”

 

Yes we have women rights but why do you mix between women rights and NAKED women, the west think that just because Muslim women don’t wear bikini and micro jeep and expose there beauty to all people then they have no rights.

 

I think women rights is about educating women and not make them take there cloth off! And thank god we have many great Muslim women who are doctors, engineers, poets etc etc.

 

14 - “Then why do you make your women hide there body and sometimes hide there faces? (It’s silly?!!)”

 

A woman is a valuable thing, and her beauty is also valuable, now if you had a treasure would you show it to everyone and anyone? Eventually some one would like to HAVE SOME.

 

Women can wear what they want in front of each other or husband or brothers sisters father uncles etc etc and so on, but they are not allowed to expose there beauty or be alone with a stranger (stranger in Islam is some a women can marry).

 

Islam wants women to be pure, but now days some people just want to make women some kind of a product like a painting or something which is wrong a women is so much more, it’s not a sexual object.

 

15 - “So can I have a girl friend in Islam?”

 

No

 

16 - “Why?”

 

I already said it:

 

Women are not allowed to expose there beauty or be alone with a stranger.

 

Sheesh can’t you read.

 

17 - “But can I still have a Muslim friend who is a girl?”

 

Basically yes but there are some rules.

 

18 - “I hear you guys still ride on camels?”

 

Yes I’m using my Camel everyday to go to my work, in fact I don’t have a computer I write on stone and eat sand and my house is made of wood and mud..

 

Come on this is the 21^st centaury we only have camels and horses in traditional festivals.

 

19 - “Some parts of the Quran talked about killing?”

 

Again we don’t kill non-Muslims.

 

If you fight us we fight back (its physics).

 

Some parts talked about events that happened in the days of the prophet and battles from the old days against Qorish (people who fought the Prophet) but some people take small parts “the ones that talks about war and tuff” and say “look the Quran say kill” if you want to read the Quran then you must fully read it not just take some parts, it’s all connected and parts of it talk about certain situations.

 

20 - “Ha...So your prophet fought against and killed people!!?”

 

Well if you declared war and wanted to kill me what to you want me to do? Stay!!!

 

The prophet wanted to spread the message of Islam in peace but Qorish didn’t allow him and then wanted to kill him and declared WAR on him.

 

21 - “Do you hate western people?”

 

No actually we don’t, but we do hate how your governments that want to interfere with our life and try to make us adopt your model of life.

 

22 – “Are all Muslims good people?”

 

No, yes Islam is a great religion but we do have people who only carry the name of Islam but don’t follow the teaching of Islam (people from other religions like Christians do the same too) and they do a lot of sins like drinking, adultery etc...Those are not good Muslims.

 

23 – “Are YOU a good Muslim?”

 

Well I leave that judgment to God.

 

“I’m DONE!!!”

“Wait I have more questions!!!”

 

Like I said I’m not an expert in everything I tried to answer some basic questions if you have any more questions you can go to:

 

http://www.islamonline.net/

 

They have a section for question about Islam for those who want to know more and more.

 

---- A little bit about me -------------------------------------

 

“What’s Yemen? Where is Yemen?”

 

Yemen is my country, our religion is Islam and we speak Arabic and we have a beautiful country feel free to visit us any time you want.

 

For more info about Yemen you can find it on wikipedia.org or try googling “Yemen”.

 

“Who are you?”

 

My name is Thamood Bader I’m computer science graduate and a Zend PHP certified engineer and currently studying for the Security+ exam and I’m 24 years old and kinda tall and skinny and love rap and I love to joke (with my mouth not my hands because I’m fragile looool).

 

“Do you like video games?”

 

I love them in fact I just bought me an Xbox 360

UPDATE 1: Gears of war is awesome and I can’t wait to get my hands on Halo3.

UPDATE 2: i got a second (actually my coz got me one) xbox360 coz i broke the 1st one. 

UPDATE 3: Halo 3 is gr8. 

UPDATE 4:  GTA IV is coming out soon :)

 

“Are you going to update this FAQ?”

 

Well yeah but I can’t promise anything.

 

Well I guess this is it, although I didn’t write everything about Islam but I talked about some major points and some wrong ideas that come from the media and news.

 

If you have any more questions go to:

 

http://www.Islamonline.net

 

They have a section for questions about Islam and they can really help you.

 

If there are any typos please forgive me.

 

Email: Thamood /‘at’\ gmail \’dot’/ com

Arabic Blog: http://Thamood.blogspot.com

English Blog: http://Arabia-one.blogspot.com

 

Take care

Byes

Salam (Arabic word that means peace)

Sai Yo Nara

Asta Lavista