ONE WORLD, THREE SECTS, ONE FAITH?
Uploaded by cap20014 on Feb 11, 2008
Parker Cyle
R. Mancastroppa
February 8th 2008
History of Judaism, Christianity, & Islam
Research Essay
ONE WORLD, THREE SECTS, ONE FAITH?
One can logically conclude that there are three dominate religions spanning across Earth’s oceans and many continents in the 21st century. Each of the three religions preaches tolerance towards one another as well as other religions in the sphere of humanity. However, these teachings are not always followed. While they all claim to be peaceful religions, each faith has fought wars in the name of their religion or their God. Scholars and students of the faiths find these battles interesting occurrences because essentially each of the religions prays to the same God. The relationship between the three: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, has been, at times, a strained one. There are several reasons for the variants prorogated by each faith; however the resonating fact is that each religion is interconnected by their teachings, practices and historical foundations.
LESSONS LEARNED
The Jewish people, although believing that a messiah will one day come, do not believe Jesus to be the chosen one. Christians, for whom Jesus is the son of God, are angered by this thus providing a platform from which Christian teachings have prorogated blamed the Jews for the murder of Jesus. The Christians are also upset with the fact that Muslims do not recognize Jesus as the son of God; they see him as a prophet just like Muhammad and Abraham. The Jewish people are also upset with the way Muslims view the prophets. The Qur'an states that "Abraham was not a Jew, nor yet a Christian; but he was an upright man who had surrendered (to Allah), and he was not of the idolaters." This angers the Jews who name Abraham as the father of Judaism.
The main problem with viewing tolerance with in these religions is that the religious extremists are the least tolerant in each religion, yet they are the most vocal. This gives each religion a bad name in the eyes of the others. The prime example of this today can be seen in the radical members of Al Qaeda. Their extremist views in no way represent the views of the common Muslim however; they give the appearance that all Muslims want to kill all Jews and Christians.
According to Patrick Comerford, “They were not always perfect or idyllic,...