Yes, Islam is Also an Abrahamic Religion

One of the misconceptions of Islam promoted by much of the Right and some media is that it is not one of the Abrahamic religions. After all if one is pushing for a war between Islam and the West, the more different we see Islam, the easier it is to demonize and fight its believers. First, I want again to say that I am not an expert on Islam nor am I a particularly devout Muslim though I know enough about it to recognize an intentional misrepresentation or just an innocent misunderstanding of Islam. I am not much of a reader, though I have a general interest in religions and philosophy. When I worked on my half hour ride to and from work, I would listen to lectures on religion and philosophy along with a few on economics, science, and history bought from The Teaching Company. These were university level, and in the case of religion non-theological lectures. Each course typically consisted of about 20 to 30 lectures each lasting between 30 to 45 minutes each, on cassettes (in the dark ages) and more recently on CDs and DVDs. I bought courses on each major religion, included Judaism, Christianity, Islam (given by John Esposito of the American University in Washington), Hinduism, Buddhism and Daoism. I also listened to courses such as Augustine: Philosopher and Saint, The World Religions: Beliefs, Practices and Histories, Ancient Mediterranean Religions, Ancient Religions of the Americas, Religions of Sub Saharan Africa, History of the Bible, the Story of the Bible, Philosophy of Religion. Again, though I don’t consider myself and expert, I have had more than a passing interest in all religions and a familiarity with the history and faith of Islam. A while ago I watched a program on PBS “World” entitled “Three Faiths, One God”. Its main thrust was to point out the common history of the three Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam and highlight the similarities in beliefs and differences in culture. There was a diversity of speakers including a couple of Rabbis and Imams, a Catholic priest and several ministers. I find it interesting (though I was pretty much aware of most of what they spoke off) that much of the media, when speaking of Western religions, speaks of “Judeo/Christian religions”, exclude Islam, thus suggesting it is something else. We have a bookstore in a town next to ours where the exclusion shows up in spades. A few years ago, as my wife was shopping for a book, I happened to wonder into the religion and philosophy section where there were many Books and scriptures of all common religions and a few not so common ones. One could read about Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism and Zaroastroism but not a single one on Islam. When I asked a clerk where I could find anything on Islam, she said Islam is in the political section since it is not considered a religion. Recently I went into the same shop and noticed that there were no books on Islam even in the political section. Again I asked a clerk whether I could get a book on Islam, she said they do carry one but it was sold out at the moment but she could get it for me. I was a book on Islam by Glen Beck. The book store is olocated about 30 miles outside of Boston and not in the rural South. A few decades ago, my wife and I were on vacation in Tangier, Morocco. Traveling through the markets you are approached by a barrage of mostly boys and young men looking to be hired as guides. Finally we decided for the sake of peace and quiet to hire an older gentleman (he turned out to indeed be a gentleman). As we walked through various streets of Tangier whenever we ran across a printed piece of paper on the street, he would pick it up and drop it at the next trash can. After a while I asked him why he did this. He said that most printed papers have a name of a person on it and since most names have a prophet’s name as their origin, stepping on them would be disrespectful. He explained that all prophets, not only of the Koran, but also the Old Testament, are revered by Muslims and recognized as prophets of the one God. So prophets like Jesus (recognized as a most important prophet but not divine as nether was Mohamed), John, Jacob, Abraham, Moses even more obscure ones like Jeremiah and Jedidiah are revered. In fact the Name Isa, Arabic for Jesus and Musa, Arabic for Moses are not uncommon in the Arab world. A few years ago an Irish American couple, friends of ours, went to Turkey on vacation. One of the places their guide took them was a shrine to the Virgin Mary on top of a hill. Most Westerners do not realize that Islam recognizes the virgin birth of Jesus and considers Mary as a very important and saintly person in her own right. She is probably more revered by Islam than any Christian faith except Catholicism. One of the reasons for much of the misrepresentation is the fact that, unlike the Bible, the Koran is written in a poetic form and poetry requires interpretation. Meanings in poetry are not limited to words but also rely on rhyme and cadence. For this reason, a Koran written in Arabic, the language of the original, is the only recognized holly book. Most of the English translations of the Koran were written by people unsympathetic to Islam who wanted to put it into a bad light. Unfortunately, even well intended readers, depending on which translation they read, would come away with different impressions.