Mccutcheon

It grew from a local, oppressed faith that was pioneered by Muhammad and his close family and friends, to a force that united nations under one of the largest empires that the world had ever seen. It would have never become what it was without the incorporation of whole populations into the faith, the unified network of trade it provided, and the scholarly developments it pioneered and renewed. Without the deliberate conquests of different nations, Islam would not have grown so rapidly. If Islam had not grown so large, so quickly, the entirety of Afro-Eurasian trade would not have been so standard and unified. Likewise, if there was no such established network of trade, the ideas and innovations of Muslim education would not have become so widespread. Therefore, it is evident that each of these effects of the Islamic faith and its empire needed the others. Without all of them, Islam would not have been so influential to the history of Afro-Eurasia and would have produced a very different outcome that would have affected the history of Islam up until

When students think of Islam—if they do at all—they might summon an image of Denzel Washington playing a stern and passionate Malcolm X in Spike Lee's 1992 film, or maybe they imagine Louis Farrakhan on the speaker's platform at the Million Man March in 1995. Some might have encountered Middle Eastern Muslims on the nightly news, mostly as "fundamentalists" and "terrorists." A few have met immigrant Muslims in their neighborhood. Muslim students might be among their classmates. But Muslims are more diverse than popular images allow, and American Muslim history is longer than most might think, extending back to the day that the first slave ship landed on Virginia's coast in 1619. It encorporates two groups—Muslims from other countries who migrated

Thesis: In his book, No god but God, Reza Aslan recounts the history and teachings of Islam in order to deconstruct the barriers within interreligious comprehension.

The religions discussed in this article where Catholicism, Judaism, and the Church of the Latter Day Saints, however the main religion focused on in this article is Islam. This article lacked the ability to effectively portray its information to readers that did not have an understanding of the Islamic faith. For example in the story of Sana Khan, and Yusuf Siddiquee, the author mentions the Koran which some readers may not know about. The author also fails to give any insight on why the teachings of the Islamic faith like arranged

Different methodologies are used between Carl Ernst and Fred Donner as one uses a non-fundamentalist view and textual evidence to describe a broad view of Islamic civilization, which speaks to non-Muslims and explains the concept of Islam better, while the other uses archeological and religious texts to explain a specific time period of the Believers’ movement and how it was solely a religious movement, regardless of what others may say. Fundamentalists are those who believe literally in religious text. Therefore, when Ernst says that he is going to use a non-fundamentalist view he means that he will not be biased while talking about the Muslims and the Islamic civilization. Donner is trying to cancel out the ideas of those who say the Believer’s movement was hardly a religious one. One thought is “the movement that grew into what we know as Islam ‘was produced almost without religious faith’” (Fred Donner, xi). Donner is trying to prove this statement by Ernest Renan wrong with his archeological evidence and religious texts. However, interpretations and materials available to them can all be used to form their arguments. Their interpretations and methodologies show how they portray things of the same topic using different bases to frame their arguments.

The message of liberation is addressed quite often the book Islam in Black America. Unlike the scholarly articles, this book goes into depth on the subject of viewing Islam in a broader sense. This allows Curtis to include the Nation of Islam in what Sunni Muslims would consider non-traditional. By doing so, it allows Curtis to portray the Nation of Islam in regards to developing a strategy of liberation for all Muslims around the world.

Subsequent to perusing substance of the book "Servants of Allah" by Diouf, clarifies and gets inside and out of the work of African American and religious history, there is very little thought about the historical backdrop of African American in Islam, however this book talks about the greatest effects that Islam and African American Muslims had on the Americans.

On occasion, authors approach cultural subjects as historians. However, Huston Smith limits the historical facts to stay focus on the values of the religions (Smith 10,12). Having an history filled book can cause readers to lose interests in his discussion. To keep the numbers down, Smith picks the religions that most people acknowledge and would share the most common themes in their life (11). He is passionate about his studies, and he wants the audience to find their own appreciation for religion. To accomplish this, Smith simply states that,”This is a book about values”(12). Some books describe a certain faith’s good and bad qualities and can sometimes put more emphasis on the bad if the

Because of the diversity amongst the university’s student population, some of the information obtained can be interpreted historically or religiously. For example, in the Introduction to Religious Studies and Theology class, students focus on strictly secular viewpoints of Judaism and Islam. According to William Portier, they learn about the groundbreaking events for each religion, such as “the Passover meal, the eucharist, [and] the pilgrimage to Mecca” (Portier 53). The text “What Do Our Neighbors Believe?” discusses the origins, significant events, and key people of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It discusses these religions from a historical viewpoint, such as the “major turning point [in] 1492 with the expulsion of Jews from Christian Spain” (Greenstein et al. 3) for Judaism and for Islam, when “a voice spoke to [Muhammad] and commanded ‘Recite!’” (Greenstein et al. 5). Document can provide a historical illustration of the world while certain religions were emerging. William Portier discusses Ninian Smart’s tactic for studying

Islam, as practiced by Blacks in the West, has redeemed and prepared more souls for political liberation, than any other religion- and this I so highly commend. But I’m sure its followers and selfless leadership do not expect and require its adherence for cleansing of the spirit and morality, our pursuit for self perfection, and for their unification and mobilization with our people here. There is only One universal Supreme Intelligence, and we have varying interpretations and names for it in our different religions and languages. Following are excerpts from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in his powerful Message to the Black Man in America. Some may question much of its religious and scientific anthropological perspectives, The Messenger’s self assessment, and interpretations of hypocrisy- but its liberation

In summary, there are many benefits and drawback to the academic study of religion from the outsider’s point of view. Benefits can include factors such as gaining a new understanding of a religion or being able to gain an unbiased perspective. Drawbacks, however, include factors such as an ethnocentric point of view of an individual or simply missing minute details in a belief of religion. When everything has been said and done, I do believe that the outsider’s perspective on the study of religion is very important and something that should always be

As of today, the world’s two largest religions Christianity and Islam share an estimated 3.6 billion members, more than half of the world’s population. On the surface, they appear to have almost nothing in common, however, as one goes beyond the surface and examines the other factors such as the rituals, beliefs, ethics, founders, and convictions, the two religions share many similarities. However, in order to truly see and understand these similarities and differences, one must date back to the rise and birth of Christianity and Islam.

According to the writings of Espisito (2005) there are four schools of thought in the Islamic faith or four attitudes that can be distinguished: (1) secularist; (2) conservative; (3) neotraditonalist; and (4) reformist. (p.228-32) An examination of the primary

Over the years there have been numerous biographies written about The Prophet Muhammad which have been open to questions, scrutiny and debates. This is due to different approaches and perspectives held by different people. The main two approaches are Emic (insider’s points of view) and Etic (outsider’s point of view), where Emic is ‘faith sensitive’ and Etic is a ‘critical approach’ as described by Clinton Bennett. In this essay, I will discuss Bennett’s theory of the faith sensitive and critical approach when studying religion. Thereafter I am going to explore the debates set out by Emic and Etic sources and what they say about the biographies written about The Prophet Muhammad. The key aim is to concentrate on two critical areas set out

The final theme I found both interesting and learned a lot about was the way of life through Islam. I have talked about my previous judgments of Muslims and how Mortenson’s book has changed or eliminated almost all of these opinions through examples. I now believe that the root of Islam is peace, not terror. I saw this exemplified repeatedly through Mortenson’s book. One passage that stands out to me is when Mortenson is in Pakistan shortly after the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001. A