Post date: Oct 24, 2016 12:45:49 AM
As a person who has attended Catholic school their whole life, I am always greatly interested in other religions since I have rarely been exposed to them. In reading excerpts from Life of Muhammad, I could not help but compare what the author was talking about to my own experience. I really enjoy the concept of Muhammad being just a man and how some authors will even include unflattering stories of him since we do not know the truth. That is something I wish the Catholic church did more of. There are almost no stories of Jesus as a child or teenager and then when he is older be is incapable of making a mistake since he is also divine. There is a level of relatability with Muhammad that we do not have in Christianity. It could be argued that saints are our equivalent of Muhammad but even in those situations their standards seem unattainable and there is little room for contrasting opinions. In the instance of Muhammad going up to heaven and seeing Abraham and Jesus, I felt more of a human tone to him as Jesus was depicted more divinely. From this reading, I was able to get a sense of why people would choose Islam over Christianity.
In going through No god but God, I was struck with the opinion of how middle eastern countries would view Christianity. With all the fear surrounding 9/11, Americans fear the Muslim religion. However, I did not know the extent of colonialism in the middle east and why those countries would come to resent Christianity. I also enjoyed Aslan bringing in the historical context of the reformations going on in the middle east over religion currently. Last year we looked into the Christian reformations and needless to say there were not smooth breaks. I think now we glance over that time and only think of the present. Islam is going through that same transformation now so we are aware of it and effected by it. There are so many similarities between the two religions that I do not see the reason for all the fear. Aslan made the point that because there religions are so similar, that is why they are prone to clashing. There is so much shared history with Noah and Abraham and Sarah that people feel the need to possess it and be seen as right. Aslan made the point that it not the stories themselves that are important but the interpretations of them. To me, Islam and Christianity have a lot of the same moral interpretations. However, it is people's fears coupled with lack of education that keeps the two religions in conflict.