Understanding Islam

What is the difference between radical Islam and Peace loving Muslims?

I currently Teach Philosophy and Religion at a University. I have been studying Islam for 28 years. In order to answer this question, let us look at the origin of Islam. In the book of Genesis, Abraham has a child with his Egyptian concubine and bears a son Ishmael. Ishmael has twelve sons which begins the twelve tribes of the Arab nations. These tribes move into the Arabian desert and begin to multiply. They develop a pantheon of gods, with the top god being the god of the morning star, Alah. Mohamed’s family were the guardians of the black rock, the Kaaba, with the top god being Alah. 

In 586 B.C., the Babylonians destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem and took the Children of Israel into captivity for 70 years. During this time, Judaism began to splinter into several different groups that were manifested when they returned to Jerusalem. One of the groups were the Sadducees who were the descendants of the Levitical Priest. The second group. were the teachers of the Law and the Rabbinical synagogue leaders.  These were the Pharisees. The third group were the Zealots who wanted to restore the earlier glory of Israel and throw off the bonds of the Roman government. The next group were the Essenes who moved to the dead sea and began to await the arrival of the Messiah. The last group were the Kabbalist. This group studied Zoroastrianism and the Magic of Persia and Babylon. 

Now we go to the time of Christ. We must remember that the early Church was not really seen as a separate religion of Christianity, but another Jewish sect, that had accepted their Rabbi Jesus as the Messiah.  We now know that some Pharisees, Sadducees, and Zealots joined the early Church. Further, we have evidence that John the Baptist was a leader of the Essenes, and one reason they suddenly disappeared from history, is that they became the majority of the Early Christians. 

In the New Testament book of Acts, we see the story of Simon Magnus, and Paul and Barnabus split up. A background to the story is that the early church had a great struggle of keeping the acetic teachings of strict Judaism, or living with spiritual freedom through Christ. According to Tertullian, Simon was an ascetic, mystical, kabbalistic. He and Barnabas began a movement where the strict practices of the Old Testament were upheld, mysticism, and a view of Christ that He was spiritual only, and only appeared to die on the cross and ascended back to heaven. This group moved South into Egypt and Saudi Arabia. 

Fast forward five hundred years,,, Mohammed married the daughter of a wealthy caravan trader, who traded along the routes from Jerusalem to Mecca. He encountered these teachings. Mohammed also met some Nestorians, who were some of the early Christians that had moved into the Eastern trading routes. Mohammed desired to unite the divided Arab tribes. They spoke Arabic, which was similar to the language of the Early Christians-Jews, Aramaic. He realized that as long as the Arabic tribes followed polytheism, they would be divided. So then, he discovered that if he moved toward monotheism, he could unite the tribes. 

Mohammed adopted the traditional Arab teachings of Abraham. Then he took in the Kabbalistic, Ascetic, Gnostic teachings and began to integrate a new faith. Most Christians are surprised that Muslims believe in Abraham, Moses, the Prophets, and Jesus, just as we do. 

As Mohammed worked with the Gnostics, Jews, Nestorians, and fellow Arabs, he gained wealth and power and secured trade along these important trade routes. Under Arabic culture, tribes were united by Tribal rule only. Mohammed worked to unite people through faith. His family had traditionally been the custodians of the Kaaba in Mecca. Mohammed was impressed by Jewish monotheism, and abolished the Idols, except for the top god Allah. 

This moved the  Elders of Mecca to reject Mohammed and he and his followers moved to Medina. Medina had a large Jewish and Gnostic community. Ironically, Mohammed began by attempting to be inclusive of these communities. However, two aspects began to transform this community. One, the Jews and Gnostics did follow Mohammed. Secondly, the Arab tribes continued to raid the early Muslim community. As a result, Mohammed began to engage in Jihad, eventually returning to Mecca and taking over the city. In the sixth and seventh century, Turkey was the capital of the Byzantine Empire, the Christian Empire of Constantine. Jewish and Christian communities spread throughout Egypt, Syria and the rest of the middle east. Now, however, we see the rise of Islam. 

After the death of Mohammed,  the successors splintered into leaders, or Caliphs. These Caliphs began to spread their rule through war and conquest.  These divisions brought us the various sects within Islam. 

In theology, the term eschatology means the study of the end times. In Christian eschatology, there is a basic shared belief that Jesus died, rose again, and ascended to heaven. During this time, we are to spread the love of God through the world. There will be wars and famine. Then, Jesus will appear, and rapture the Church. After seven years of the rule of the AntiChrist, Jesus will return, destroy the enemies of God, and set up a one thousand year reign on earth. 

In Islamic eschatology, Jesus was a spiritual being only. He only appeared to die on the cross, but ascended back to heaven. It is the responsibility of Islam to force sharia law on the earth through jihad war, and Caliphate violence. In the midst of this chaos, Jesus and the Mahdi will return. 

Christians believe that the AntiChrist will force the world to take the mark of the beast. If not, they will be martyred. 

Muslims believe that the Mahdi will force everyone to have the mark of the Bismillah or be killed. 

Personally, I have many Muslim friends that are good people, and do not want to harm anyone. What then, is the difference between radicalized and non radicalized?

We forget that the middle east was once the center of Judaism, Christianity, and other faiths. The Islamic empires forced Islam upon these people groups. After generations, many innocently follow Islam. However, many also believe that Jihad and Caliphate is necessary to their faith in order to bring about the return of the Mahdi. The innocent live in fear of their leaders and will not speak out against them. 

How quickly do we forget history? Nazism was a religion. They had their own believes, mysticism, temple, priests, and conducted marriages. However, this religion spread fear and hatred and was dangerous. How then should one view Islam? This comes to our paradigm. 

We are currently confused about the difference between discrimination and evaluation. Discrimination is a lower order thought process where things are seen in a concrete fashion of either or. A higher order thought process would be that of taxonomy. A taxonomy has the ability to evaluate different things according to merit, value, and critique. Is it true that the ultimate goal of Islam is world domination? Yes. However, we must evaluate that many Muslims have internalized their faith and do not wish to harm anyone. Also, there are many who have externalized their beliefs and want Caliphate. 

In conclusion, it is not my desire to tell someone what to believe. It is only my desire to bring about clarity to a dense and multi factorial subject and allow individuals to think for themselves. 

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http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/profilesmuhammed.html