Portions of chapter 11 in Karen Armstrong's book covers the early stages of the 3rd of the world's three largest religion's development: Islam. But one interesting notion that I want to dissect comes at the beginning of the chapter, at the end of the first paragraph. It reveals some interesting things that we should take into account today: "It was widely believed that Allah, the high g-d of the Arabian pantheon whose name simply means 'God,' was in fact the deity who was worshipped by the Jew and the Christians. Yet those Jews and Christians with whom they came in contact often taunted the Arabs because G-d had sent them no revelation or prophet of their own"(Armstrong 215).
I feel this quote is important to ruminate upon because it reveals something interesting about society and world conflicts today. Today, many of the conflicts of the world, especially Israel and Jerusalem, revolve around religious differences. Whether it be disagreements between Israelis and Palestinians or an American not seeing a Muslim with a keen eye, all of such incidences have their roots in religion. But the funny thing is that all of this is quite ironic because this quote shows us the belief (not saying whether I agree or disagree, because I don't have enough knowledge on this subject and it's something debated about amongst PHD's) that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all worship the same G-d, but through different means, i.e. prophets, religious texts, traditions, holy cites, etc.. This shows that these three groups, who often quarrel with one another over their differing beliefs, really aren't all that different.
They all stem from Abraham and this reveals that their roots aren't all hat different. I feel if more people within these groups that have harsh feelings towards the other would be able to somewhat reconcile their differences if more of them realized this. Once, again, i just feel it's really interesting to see how over time, things transform, but the ways in which people act don't. I think people need to focus on the close ties these religions have in hopes that doing so could bring them closer together.
I understand where you're coming from. It seems so ridiculous that these groups are so similar yet fight so much. It is just hard for me to imagine that all worship the same God but use different methods to reach him.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I feel like a reason the arguments become so heated is because they are all so similar. One friend of mine talked about the conflicts between these three religions as sort of like siblings. In general, the people that you fight the 'best' with, or really know how to push one's buttons, are your siblings. The people you are related to. My friend noted that because they are so related, that they can both get along very well, but also know exactly what ticks the other(s) off. I thought this was an interesting way to picture the relationships between the three religions.
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