Islam= Monotheistic religion founded by Muhammad Adjective = Islamic

Muslim= Person who practices Islam

Arab= Person of an ethnicity native to the Arabian Peninsula and Southwest Asia Most Arabs are Muslim, but there are many Arab Jews, Christians, and polytheists as well.

Arabic= The language spoken by most people in the middle east.

Are all Muslims Arabs? Do all Muslims speak Arabic? No and no! There are Muslims all over the world, and of all ethnicities. In fact, the largest Muslim population in the world is in Indonesia, where the people are Southeast Asian/Pacific Islanders. While Islam was developed by Arabs and the Qu’ran was written in Arabic, people of many languages practice Islam. The most powerful Muslim nation in the world is Iran, where most people are of Persian ethnicity and speak the Persian language.

Isn’t Islam violent? Don’t Muslims want to hurt America? NO NO NO NO!!! As it was created, Islam promoted TOLERANCE and DIVERSITY. When the Muslim Armies conquered much of the world, they allowed people to keep their own religions and didn’t try to force their beliefs on anyone. Today, many countries in the Middle East are facing economic problems and bad governments, while the U.S. and other nations have a long history of causing problems in the countries there. That has made many people in these countries angry at the U.S. They have corrupted the Islamic religion to influence people to become violent as a way to become powerful. Most people in the Muslim world disagree with these violent people. It is wrong to think that all Muslims agree with these small, violent groups.

I’ve seen that Muslim women have to cover their faces I’ve seen that Muslim women have to cover their faces. Isn’t that unfair? There is A LOT of diversity in Islam. Some groups have some practices, while other groups follow others. Some Muslim communities believe that women should be modest and cover their bodies and faces. The majority do not. While this seems crazy if you didn’t grow up in the culture, others see our culture as unfair too. This is like in Christian cultures in the U.S., there are many different ways to practice, some of which seem strange or “wrong.”

What god do Muslims worship? According to the teachings of Muhammad, Muslims should submit to and worship “Allah,” which means “The God.” These teachings were based on the same beliefs of Jews and Christians in the Middle East. When a Jewish person prays to “Yahweh,” or when a Christian prays to “God the Father,” she is worshipping the exact same god that a Muslim does when she prays to “Allah.” Muslims just believe that people should worship that god in a different way. Muhammad believed many of the same things as Christians and Jews do, and he saw figures like Abraham, Moses, and Jesus as important parts of Islam. It is only because our cultures are so different today that the religion seems so far away from what Christians and Jews in the U.S. and Europe practice.