10 Dangerous Myths About Islam and Muslims

In preparation for tomorrow's free web event, Why Do You Fear Me?, I took this from Carl Medearis' site to give some more insight to Islam. I can't stress enough how much you should, at least, sign up for the event so you can watch it either live, or afterwards. You don't need to agree with everything, as I am sure I won't, but it is going to be a great event that will hopefully help break down some barriers between us and the Muslim world. To register, click here. I also put up a video of Medearis explaining the event...I have put this up before. To get an idea of some topics that will be discussed, you can vote on their facebook page on questions that people want answered. Click here to get to that page.

10 Dangerous Myths About Islam and Muslims

1. Islam is a religion of violence. By definition, if you’re a Muslim, then the natural and obvious working out of your religion is to be violent.

Islam as a religious system has not been any more violent than Christianity or Judaism. In the name of these three religions, much harm has been done. No one would accuse “Christianity” as being violent because of the actions of the KKK, yet they call themselves “Christian.” So we cannot blame the actions of less than 1% on the whole of Islam.

2. Muslims are backward in general. They don’t have a complex or high culture.

Some of the greatest contributions to society, even Western society, has come from Islamic countries. Most historians acknowledge that the Western Renaissance which began in Italy in the 1400’s had it’s roots in the early Arab Renaissance headquartered in Baghdad. Science, math and literature have deep roots in the Arab Muslim world of the Middle Ages.

3. Muslims are Arabs. Or…Arabs are Muslims.

Of the 1.4 Billion Muslims, only about 280 million speak Arabic as their first language. The largest Muslims countries are Indonesia, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is true that the Arab world still holds the greatest influence on the rest of Islam since the Qur’an is in Arabic and the holiest sites are all found in the Arab Middle East.

4. Muslims believe in Allah, a false God and they follow Muhammad.

No Muslim would say they “follow Muhammad.” And the only word for “God” in Arabic is Allah. All Arab Christians worship “Allah.” So it’s a silly argument based on semantics. For more on this, read my book “Muslims, Christians and Jesus.”

5. Islam teaches Muslims to kill Christians and Jews.

There is not a single command in the Qur’an for Muslims to go out and kill Christians or Jews. In fact quite the opposite. Read the Qur’an for yourself. The best version and easiest to read in English is the one published by Oxford Press.

6. Muslims cannot integrate into Western societies because Islam is incompatible with Democracy.

There is no reason to think Islam and Democracy are incompatible. Many Muslims countries have a form of Democracy. There are some political and social realities that make good Democracy difficult, but it doesn’t have to do with Islam.

7. Islam is a cult, not a true mono-theistic religion like Judaism or Christianity.

Islam, Christianity and Judaism have always been called the three great Monotheistic religions.

8. Muslims go along with their teachers and don’t think for themselves.

Islam is incredibly complex with many “versions” like Christianity. Muslims are no more inclined to “go along” with what their teachers say then western Christians are.

9. Islam is against Jesus. They don’t believe in Him.

Ask any Muslim “Do you believe in Jesus” and they are likely to burst into a smile and start telling you how much they love him. We agree, that there are points of misunderstanding, some of which are significant, but that doesn’t mean they don’t “like him.”

10. Muslims resist modernization.

If Muslims resist modernization, they do so only because they see the evils of the west and don’t want them. Things like gangs, pornography, divorce and such are seen as “Western Values” and those are incompatible with Islam.