Eric Wilson
Before this class, I was not aware of many of the similarities between Islam and Christianity. Other than both of them being monotheistic religions, I believed that their ideologies were inherently different. However, this is not the case.
One of the shocking similarities to me was the role Jesus Christ played in both religions. In Christianity, Jesus is seen as God himself. He came to Earth and died for human beings’ sins before ascending back to Heaven. In Islam, Jesus, also known as Isa, was a prophet of God. Rather than being God himself, Isa was sent by Allah, born of the Virgin Mary, but was not divine (Quran 5:17). The key difference is that he was not God himself. Before learning and researching about this, I didn’t think Jesus played a role in Islam’s foundation of faith at all.
Another similarity is the concept of the Holy Spirit. In Christianity, the Holy Spirit is “the third person of the Trinity and is truly divine.” The Holy Spirit plays a crucial part in how Christians view the concept of God and the divine. In Islam, the concept of the Holy Spirit is “identical with the Angel Gabriel, who appeared to the Prophet Mohammed [when] giving him the Quranic text.” I thought it was an interesting fact that Islam featured any type of idea of a “Holy Spirit.” While these concepts may not be identical, they carry similar parallels in how the foundations of each religion were started.
Islam and Christianity are also similar in the aspect of prayer and guidelines. In Christianity, specifically Catholicism, followers are taught that there are seven sacraments that are to be strived for. These sacraments are blessings from God administered through the church. It is a blessing to receive these sacraments and each Catholic should strive to receive them. In Islam, there are five important rituals as well, also known as the pillars of Islam. These include a profession of faith, prayer five times daily, alms giving, fasting, and a pilgrimage. I thought it was interesting that both of these religions contained a specific set of sacraments, or rituals, that are required of their followers.
I believe that these two religions are much more closely aligned than we are sometimes taught to believe, specifically in America. The foundations of both of these religions are closely aligned and even carry the same type of practices. As discussed in class, all religions can be portrayed as the “right” or “wrong” one by narrow-mindedly looking at specific parts of text within a religion’s Holy Scripture. In America, we generally think with a Christian mindset and many Americans carry the stereotype that Islam is inherently bad because if its scripture passages regarding extreme forms of jihad. What many don’t realize are some of the egregious verses in the Bible. One quote from St. Paul provides advice on whether women should be allowed to teach men in church: “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent” (1 Timothy 2:12). This is a perfect example of how either religion could be portrayed poorly in the eyes of the other. Rather, I like to look at the philosophies and views on humanity from both religions’ perspectives. I believe they both carry great lessons that could benefit all people and are a lot more similar than many may think.
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The West in the Pre-Modern World 
I also chose to write about this topic because I was in the same boat you were. I did not believe that there were any similarities between the two religions and so when I saw the topic, it peaked my interest to do research. Similar to your first point, I did not know that the Islam religion had a Jesus. I would argue, not against you, but as to why not many Christians know about these similarities is due primarily to the problems we are having today with Islamic extremists. We experience this with almost everything there is a stereotype about today. A few bad apples can ruin the tree even though there may be some amazing apples in the tree. We see what these extremists are doing and how they act and it shapes our entire view on the Islamic religion. Although many people are unbiased enough to see past this and know that Islam does not teach these terrible acts some people are committing, I believe it still has an effect on their view of the religion and attempting to stop and mentioning of Christianity and Islam being similar. Christians do not want their religion to be tied to the religion that has caused extremists to commit treacherous acts against innocent men and women of their own religion and also against Christians.
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