World Religions
Darlene Lovely
Hum/130
August 3, 2011
Charles Hall

World Religions

Islam is one the largest and fastest growing religions in the world, second only to Christianity. The Islamic faith believes that there is only one God, who is named Allah. The Qur’an is the holy scriptures of Islam, believed by Muslims to be the words of God revealed to the great prophet Muhammad for the purpose of educating Muslims on how to live spiritually, mentally, and physically pure lives.

An interview on the religion of Islam was conducted with Lonna al’ Moctar, a thirty-nine-year-old administrative assistant at The Muslim Community Center of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky. The Muslim Community Center of Louisville is the newest mosque in Louisville and is the “boldest architectural expression of Islam to date in Louisville” (Smith, 2010, para. 2). The Muslim Community Center of Louisville is a mosque “intended as a place of interaction for all faiths” to learn about Islam, and is also home to an adjacent school, the Islamic School of Louisville, for pre-school, elementary, and middle school students (Smith, 2010, para. 7).

Not unlike the construction of other mosques across the nation, The Muslim Community Center of Louisville had its share of opposition; however, its neighbors never complained about the construction of the mosque itself. Shortly after approval of the building plans, mosque leaders did have to revise the design of the mosque. Eventually an agreement was reached between mosque leaders and the neighboring residents on a scaled-back design. The neighbors insisted that their only issue was related to zoning, and never with the mosque itself. According to Smith (2010), one neighbor stated she wanted only to “retain the agricultural appearance of this area as much as possible” (para. 11).

The interview with al’ Moctar was conducted for the purposes of gaining insight into the religion of Islam. The interview began with al’ Moctar giving a brief background on herself, including her academic and religious credentials that she believes gave her the authority and knowledge to be interviewed on the topic of Islam.

Al’ Moctar is a married mother of two small children and an American Muslim convert. She attended school at the University of Louisville, majoring in Middle Eastern Studies. She was graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree and soon after married her husband of 11 years, who is Muslim-born from the country of Turkey. Al’ Moctar has studied and practiced Islam for more than 15 years and has been employed by The Muslim Community Center of Louisville for two years (L. al’ Moctar, personal communication, July 20, 2011).

Al’ Moctar began by answering the question of what are the important holidays and traditions of Islam. She stated that there are two very important holidays, or Eids, for Islam. One holiday takes place at the end of Ramadan, which is the holy month of fasting. During the month of Ramadan, no water, food, or smoking is allowed. “And,” says al’ Moctar, “probably the hardest part is no arguing” (personal communication, July 20, 2011). So at the end of the Ramadan, there is a three-day celebration, called Eid al-Fitr, which begins August 30, 2011.

The second important holiday is Eid al-Adha. This holiday celebrates when Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son Ishmael, which he was willing to do because he trusted Allah. Allah ultimately gave Abraham a ram to sacrifice instead. Al’ Moctar further explained the difference and significance in the sacrifice of a ram versus a goat. She explained that a ram “is an uncircumcised male sheep and a goat can be a male or a female sheep. The ram is thought to be “cleaner” than the goat (personal communication, July 20, 2011). Thus, the celebrations on Eid al-Adha commemorate Abraham’s willingness to obey Allah and will be celebrated during the second week of November 2011.

The major traditions are fasting during the month of Ramadan, and the first day after Ramadan the family gathers to eat, pray, and slaughter a lamb or cow, in that order. The tradition for Eid al-Adha is that “we don’t eat until we slaughter a lamb, and then we eat the lamb that we slaughter” (L. al’ Moctar, personal communication, July 20, 2011).

Al’ Moctar stated that “during Eids, it is also tradition to give gifts to family” (personal communication, July 20, 2011), which lead to the question of whether it is permissible to give and accept gifts from non-Muslim friends and family on their religious holidays. She explained that it is definitely permissible to give gifts to non-Muslim friends, and, in fact, it is encouraged to give gifts to friends and family, Muslim and non-Muslim, because “we are supposed to give gifts of good will often.” However, al’ Moctar says, “since gift giving is encouraged at all times, it probably doesn’t happen often that a Muslim will give gifts to friends on non-Muslim holidays just to avoid any misinterpretation” (personal communication, July 20, 2011).

On the topic of what is permissible, the discussion turned to whether Islam allows the younger generation to introduce new ideas that may be more applicable to issues in current society. To this, al’ Moctar says “the religion is not as strict as many people believe, and if people would follow the religion as it is presented in the Qur’an and our prophet Muhammad this would not be an issue” (personal communication, July 20, 2011). She further explained that many people confuse the religion with Muslim culture. For example, “in Saudi where women are not allowed to drive and women must wear the face veil and must wear black” is not because of the Islamic faith, but is the culture of that country. Also, “a Muslim typically does not question the religion and simply follows the tradition” (L. al’ Moctar, personal communication, July 20, 2011). Al’ Moctar commented that as an American born convert, she has special appreciation for the question of whether traditions can be challenged or questioned. From a young age, Americans are taught that it is alright to question things, including religion, but most Muslims do not question and just know that tradition must be followed (L. al’ Moctar, personal communication, July 20, 2011). Having said that, al’ Moctar wanted to note again that the religion is not as strict as many people think. She used herself as an example, stating that her attire of a head scarf and loose fitting dress follows the religion’s tradition of a woman’s hair and physical shape remaining covered while in public, and while it may be considered a new idea, she was still following the religion’s tradition. In contrast, “some women may only wear the abaya, or long dress,” but this is a cultural preference or requirement and not a religious tradition (L. al’ Moctar, personal communication, July 20, 2011).

Many people also believe that Islam places women as subservient to men and that women are restricted in what they are allowed to do outside of the home. To the question of how Islam views women in leadership positions, al’ Moctar says that this is a huge misconception and that Islam in no way prohibits women from being in leadership roles. In fact, according to al’ Moctar, “Muhammad’s first wife owned one of the largest businesses in Mecca, and another wife was a seamstress who sold clothes in the market” (personal communication, July 20, 2011).

Concerning business and employment, the next question was whether the current economy and high rate of unemployment has made it difficult for Muslims to adhere to tradition. The concern was whether Muslims have been forced to consider jobs that may not otherwise be considered to support their families. To this question, al’ Moctar says that the economy absolutely has affected the Muslim community as it has everyone. She used a family friend as an example, who was laid off from his job and ultimately had to accept a job at a gas station that sold alcohol, which he normally would not have done (L. al’ Moctar, personal communication, July 20, 2011).

The next topic concerned the challenges of practicing Islam, if any. al’ Moctar believes that Muslims in America have it fairly easy and are not often challenged concerning their religion. Of course, she is aware of the isolated groups of people who oppose Muslim traditions being practiced in certain areas, but she feels that this is mainly because of their lack of knowledge about the religion. Otherwise, al’ Moctar says “in America, we are allowed to go to the mosque and pray, we are allowed to fast, there is nothing that limits us from practicing our religion” (personal communication, July 20, 2011).

Wrapping up the interview with al’ Moctar, the final question was how the Islamic religion has shaped her life. She thought this was a great question because as a convert, she and others could see distinct differences in her character before and after becoming Muslim. Al’ Moctar said, “my father says all the time how being Muslim has made me a better person” (personal communication, July 20, 2011). Al’ Moctar discusses how she was never very close to her family growing up, but Islam teaches that one should have close ties to their family. She also mentioned how Islam has freed her from caring about material things, such as the newest clothes or the current popular items that everyone else may have. “Islam has brought me a peace that I had never known” says al’ Moctar, “and with Allah I know that I am never alone” (personal communication, July 20, 2011).

Islam has many similarities with Christianity. One major difference is the contrast between the Qur’an and the Holy Bible. While many of the same prophets and beliefs are shared by both religions, the Qur’an is written as God speaking to Muhammad, and the Bible is written by many prophets about God, and in some instances, God is speaking to other various people (Miller, n.d.). However, for both Islam and Christianity, God is the only One, the Creator. Both religions also believe that Adam, Moses, Abraham, John, Mark, Matthew, Luke, and others were all prophets. Additionally, while both religions believe in the virgin birth of Jesus, Islam and Christianity have different views of the role that Jesus played in the history of each religion. Islam believes Jesus was not the Son of God as Christianity believes, but was the true prophet of God before Muhammad. However, Islam believes the message to Jesus was corrupted because Muslims do not believe Jesus died and rose from the dead three days later. Islam believes Jesus “ascended into heaven and a disciple died in his place” (Types of Religion – Major Religions of the World, 2011, para. 4).

Another major difference between Islam and Christianity is that Islam does not have the hierarchical order of leadership as Christianity does. In Islam, leaders are called Imams and are relatively equal to each other. Christian leadership includes the Pope, Bishops, Deacons, and other positions that do not all have equal status (Types of Religion – Major Religions of the World, 2011). Other differences between Islam and Christianity are their religious holidays or holy days and their religious practices or rituals (Miller, n.d.).

Similarities between Islam and Christianity, aside from the belief in God, are that they are the two largest religions in the world, and they both believe in angels, demons, and the afterlife Muslims and Christians also believe in prayer, albeit Christianity does not practice a daily ritual as with Islam. The Qur’an and the Bible both state that the world was created by God in six days; however, the Bible states that God rested on the seventh day, making it a holy day. The Qur’an does not mention the seventh day. Islam and Christianity have similar moral codes, with each believing in punishment for disobedience or disrespect to God, respect for one’s parents, respect for observing the laws of society, alcohol and suicide are forbidden, and adultery, fornication, and homosexuality are forbidden by both religions (Miller, n.d.).

As the second largest religion in the world next to Christianity, and one seeing steady growth, Islam cannot help but to have an impact on society. Some people take issue with the religion and question the right to Muslim religious freedoms, but many of those people have the vaguest idea of what the religion and culture actually are. The only real knowledge and association many non-Muslims have with the religion is the negative publicity that it receives because of the few Muslims who misinterpret the Qur’an (Abd-Allah, 2010).

If one were to take the time to learn about the true religion of Islam, it would be clear that the Islamic message and teachings promote how to live with others in harmony and peace. In fact, the meanings of many Muslim words exemplify these standards. “Salaam” is a word routinely included in the Muslim greeting and means “peace”. “Islam” is an Arabic word that means “surrender,” and the meaning of “Muslim” is “one who submits” (Ad-Allah, 2010, para. 2). This knowledge would surely give most people a new perspective and opinion of Islam, and may even have an impact on one’s way of living. Islam certainly seems to have an impact on the lives of Muslims.

Throughout the interview with al’ Moctar, it was evident that Islam is a religion whose primary goal is to teach people how to be calm, self-respecting individuals possessing inner peace, respect for others, and love for God the Creator. Islam will likely continue to be a guiding force and pillar of strength for millions of people, securing its place as one of the largest and fastest growing religions in the world.

References
Abd-Allah, U. F. (2010, June). Islam and the Cultural Imperative. Cross Currents, 56(3), 357-375,433. Retrieved August 3, 2011, from ProQuest database.
Miller, G. (n.d.). The Difference between the Bible and the Quran. Islam101. Retrieved August 3, 2011, from http://www.islam101.com/religions/christianity/diffBQ.htm
Smith, P. (2010, September 8). New mosque in Kentucky an oasis of calm. USATODAY. Retrieved August 2, 2011, from http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2010-09-08-mosque-louisville_N.htm
The Muslim Community Center of Louisville. (2009). [Photograph of The Muslim Community Center of Louisville shortly after completion of construction] The Muslim Community Center of Louisville. Retrieved August 2, 2011, from http://www.mccofl.org/
Types of Religion – Major Religions of the World. (2011). Islam. Retrieved August 1, 2011, from http://www.typesofreligion.com/islam