Islam vs. Radical Islam
...me God worshiped by Jews and Christians. Islam’s central teaching is that there is only one all-powerful, all-knowing God, and this God created the universe. This rigorous monotheism, as well as the Islamic teaching that all Muslims are equal before God, provides the basis for a collective sense of loyalty to God that transcends class, race, nationality, and even differences in religious practice. Thus, all Muslims belong to one community, the umma, irrespective of their ethnic or national background. The Muslim community comprises about 1 billion followers on all five continents, and Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world. (“Islam”) Now that we have a fundamental knowledge of Islam and the Muslims, we can further evaluate the similarities and differences between Islam and the radical Islamic movement. To begin with, the beliefs of Islam and Islamic radicals are one in the same in almost every aspect. The Differences mostly stem from the Qur’an, the ancient book that Islamic beliefs are based off of. The problem being, that the modern day radicals interpretation of the book is often times taken for literal meaning. This creates serious issues since the book was written in ancient times, when great battles were being waged in the region all in the name of Allah and Mohammed. The ancient world, over the centuries, has since stabilized to a point of maintained peace. Another significant difference is that Islam itself was once known for its learning, science, openness and toleration. This is a reputation that has long since been soiled because of Islamic radicals who are known to have no tolerance for anyone but themselves; and by a tyrannical form of oppression, keep their people powerless and very uneducated. In recent times, Islamic radicals have been taking an active role in disrupting world peace by the use of terrorism. According to David F. Forte, professor of law at Cleveland-Marshall College in Cleveland, such radical movements as the one on September 11th, “ threaten to destabilize the once war torn region of the middle-east, thus unraveling centuries of progress stabilizing the region. In turn, these modern day Islamic radicals do not only threaten the west and our way of life, but also threaten Islam itself and many of its modern day principles” (Forte). Although Islamic radicals may be radical in their beliefs and actions they are still part of Islam, so many of their beliefs are widely held by much of Islam. One significant problem is the fact that in most of the Muslim countries government and religion are of...