We Are Not That Different - My Second Letter to the Editor in a Month!

I guess I have had a lot to say lately. This is the letter that I wrote to the editor of the Peace Arch News that was printed this past Friday. I'm sticking in this paragraph as kind of a disclaimer. I have never considered one religion to be better than another, and this is certainly not what I've done here. This letter did not come from me "the Muslim" but from me "the human being". I have a hard time swallowing anybody's theory that one religion is better than another and I feel that even suggesting such a thing goes against my personal beliefs of what a religion is. My philosophy? Live and let live.
It does bother me, though, that there still is such a deficiency of knowledge when it comes to Islam in the Western world. The first time I tried to publicly speak out about this was in gr. 7 when the Gulf War broke out. I put my hand up in class when the teacher was coming down really hard on "the Iraqis" and tried to explain why I thought his comments were unfair. Kind of difficult when you're twelve.
So, when I read someone's letter to the editor making an inaccurate (and extremely derogatory) distinction between Christianity and Islam, I felt a little excited I'll admit. Kind of like, hey, here's my chance to state some facts that I now understand a lot better. This person was making it sound like comparing Christianity and Islam is like comparing apples to oranges...when really, talking about these two religions is literally like talking about the same darn apple that tempted Adam!
Without further ado, here's my letter. Thanks, in advance, for reading it.

I would like to thank L. Wright for his/her comment (“Christianity is very different from Islam, because nowhere in any part of the Bible does God or Jesus Christ idealize avenging, killing, or causing harm to our fellow humans...”) as it gives me the opportunity to share some facts regarding the similarities between Christianity and Islam, and Islam in general.
• Christians and Muslims share the prophets Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus. In fact, to be considered a true Muslim, one needs to believe in these revered men.
• Islam is known as one of the three Abrahamic traditions (the other 2 being Judaism and Christianity). The original Torah and the original Bible are both accepted in Islam.
• The stories of Genesis, Exodus, and Levictus are described in the Bible and the Koran. For very detailed and thorough examples of this fact, please refer to the chart found at http://muslim-canada.org/islam_christianity.html. Of particular note, I would like to draw attention to the moral code section in which it states that according to both religions, “humans have rights (thus the prohibitions on murder, theft, lying, violence” which directly addresses L. Wright’s comment.

The following facts were selected from the website http://www.meccacentric.com/30_facts.html
• The word Islam means “peace through the submission to God”.
• Terrorism is not acceptable in Islam. People who claim that their terrorist acts are justifiable in Islam are not representative of true Muslims, just as people like Timothy McVeigh, David Koresh or members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) are not representative of true Christians.
• Islam does not oppress women. The Prophet Muhammad emphasized in many of his teachings that women have equal rights to education, financial independence etc. Where you see in the media Muslim women being forced to wear certain dress, it is important to know that many times this is a political situation and arises from ignorance and power. It is equally important to know that some Muslim women choose to keep themselves covered as they feel this how they can be modest and righteous. Depictions of holy women in history such as the Virgin Mary portray this type of dress.
• Not all Muslims are Arab (and not all Arabs are Muslims – they are also Jews and Christians). This is another fact that is overlooked because of the media’s focus on political tension in the Middle East. In fact, Arabic Muslims account for around 20% of the Muslim population. The majority of Muslims live in Indonesia.

It is important to research an area before claiming to have an understanding of it. I have read some books and I have spoken with regular, ordinary people who practice different religions. I highly recommend doing especially the latter for an enlightening lesson in humanity: we are not that different from one another.