The Teaching of Islam and Its Interpretation in Different Parts of the World

Subject: Religion
Pages: 3
Words: 585
Reading time:
3 min
Study level: College

Introduction

More than one and a half billion people around the world are zealous followers of Islam (Almonds 2010). This religion is also considered to be the fastest-growing major religion nowadays. There exist numerous interpretations of the Muslim religion around the world. Basically, Muslims are divided into three major denominations (Sunni, Shia, Sufism) and an abundance of minor ones with significant differences in teachings. The most zealous ones are Shia Muslims who inhabit such countries as Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and more. They are considered to be troublemakers, and they are guilty of a bad image that Muslim people, in general, have in different countries. On the whole, Muslims believe they are superior to all others and want special treatment.

Main body

Let us consider the peculiarities of Islam’s interpretations in different countries. In Britain and America, religion is quite widespread due to numerous immigrants. In general, these people embrace the so-called Civilian Islam (Robinson 2011). This Islam interpretation is affected by beliefs commonly accepted in the western world. However, it does not help Muslim people to be very much welcomed in the society especially on the reason of Islamists’ bad glory of terroristic acts and aggressive behavior. Thus, in Britain and America Muslims face a lot of discrimination. According to Casciani, “some Arabs in the UK said they had suffered subtle discrimination at school or the workplace, others had suffered physical or verbal abuse on public transport. A number of children were also recorded as having been attacked because of their faith” (2004). According to Connor: “The unemployment rate among British Muslim men is around 13 percent, which is approximately three times higher than the rate among men belonging to other faiths” (2010).

In the Middle East Islam is a major religion. Children receive their religious beliefs as a cherished gift from their forefathers. There is a similar situation in India and Pakistan. In these countries, Islam is also one of the major religions. Islam followers there are very zealous which often causes the severest conflicts among Muslims and non-Muslims living in the area. In other countries around the world including Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Dagestan, Burma, Serbia the situation is quite similar: the zealous position of Muslims causes serious conflicts and exhausting wars.

Speaking about the major differences between Christianity, Judaism and Islam, it should be stated that they are not too many as the religions have some very common original truths; however, they are very delicate. In contrast to Christianity, Islam rejects the Bible as the book which used to contain God’s message to people; however, through a row of events, it was stolen from it and defiled by human wisdom. In contrast to Judaism, the Muslim religion strives to prove that it is the one from God as he rejected the descendants of Moses on the reason of their betrayal.

There exists a strong misunderstanding between people following the Islamic religion and the others. It is very difficult for the world society to understand why Muslims are so zealous about their faith, why they proclaim religious war to non-Muslims, why they keep on telling that their religion is the only true one, why they disregard the other Holy Scriptures as the Bible for example, etc. Another troublesome thing is Muslims’ depreciatory attitude toward women. Religious incompatibleness also causes cultural one as people can’t understand the culture of Muslims. Arabs’ culture also forms in the particular attitudes and their bad behavior: Muslims act as if they are superior to all other people.

References

Almonds, R. (2010). Major Religions of the World Ranked by Number of Adherents. Adherents.com. Web.

Casciani, D. (2004). ‘Rise’ in Muslim discrimination.

Connor, S. (2010). Employers discriminate against Muslims, study finds.

Robinson, B. (2011). Islam: The second largest world religion…and growing. World Religions.