Jesus and Christianity vs. Mohammand and Islam

Jazmine Willard

His 101-03

September 26, 2011

Christianity vs. Islam

Christianity and Islam are two of the largest religions in the world. Christians as well as Islamic people have come along away in history as they continued to shine a positive light on both Christianity and Islam. They are both religions that are still being practiced today and yet despite their many differences, have just as many similarities as well.

            In my opinion, being a strong believer in Jesus as well as the beliefs of Christianity, and knowing what I do know about the Islamic religion, I didn’t agree with the statement above, that Christianity and Islam have aspects in common. But after researching both religions I found that they both actually do share a mutual ground. According to an article by reilignionfacts.com, “Both Christianity and Islam inherited from Judaism a belief in one God who created the world and cares about the behavior and beliefs of human beings.” However, even though both religions show faith in one God, their faith is shown in very different ways. For example Islamic people believe in a God by the name of Allah and study the holy book of Koran. While Christians address their God as Jesus, who is also known as Jesus of Nazareth, and study the Bible. Both are very diverse books that are looked upon differently in both cultures. Islamic people also have the Five Pillars, in which they practice every day. I have known Christians to fast at the beginning of New Years as a way of showing gratefulness for living to see a new year. But for the Islamic people fasting is a ritual, with last during the month of Ramadan. Christians also have rules they abide by such as the Ten Commandments, even though it is believed that Jesus only spoke of one commandment, which was simply to love.

Church’s as well as people have a lot to do with how Christians and Muslims create religious differences not only among each other, but within that particular religion as well. Even today there are so many standard names for types of religions that are consider to be Christians, such as Baptist, Holiness, Jehovah Witness, Primmest Baptist, and Apostolic. Though surprisingly, when it comes to the controversial matters between the two it really has nothing to do with religion at all. “In recent centuries, mutual distrust between Christians and the Islamic people has continued to grow on the account of tensions and divergent cultural worldviews rather than religion.” So regardless of the religious differences that we all may have, it’s our own personal beliefs that matter. And who knows maybe one day Christians and the Islamic people will find a common ground as well as respect for the differences among worldview.

Work Cited

http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/charts/christianity_islam.htm