Things I Didn't Know About Muslims and the Qur'an

• You can spell it "Koran" if you want to. But then you'll probably pronounce it wrong and sound like a Yankee.


• Jesus is a hugely influential prophet in Islam, and the scale, scope and message of his teachings are all preserved intact in the Qur'an.


• Muslims do not worship Muhammed, and they do not see him as divine. They feel pretty much the same way about him as we do about Moses or David: amazing men after God's heart that are worthy of respect, but that are really fairly ordinary human beings that responded to a higher calling.


• When we say Jesus is the "Son of God", our Muslim friends think we're implying that God and Mary...you know. To them, this is a repulsive and disrespectful view of God. God would never lust after a woman. So once we explain that we really mean that God simply willed the child to be inside Mary, this concept makes a lot more sense to them.


• Abraham, Isaac and Jacob's stories are all in the Qur'an. Good Samaritan? Check. Prodigal son? Check.


• Muslims are directed by the Qur'an to read both the Gospels and the Torah and to beleive in their teachings, and Islam does not see itself as replacing either Christianity or Judaism but rather adding to them both.


• The overall message of the Qur'an is one of peace, kindness, mercy, gentleness - the same as the Bible. Certain verses may be taken to mean things that are violent and bloodthirsty - same as the Bible.


• Muslims hate their fundamentalist sterotypes the same way we Christians hate ours.


• There are secular Muslims just as there are secular Christians.


• There are feminist and pro-woman Muslims, and in countries where we associate Islam with the opression of women, the culprit is often more cultural than religious. (For example, in Saudi Arabia women must wear the headscarf and must not drive cars, but this is a cultural norm, not a religious one. The headscarf does not necessarily mean that the wearer is a Muslim).


• Muslims believe that Christians and Jews (known as "People of the Book") will share the same heaven that Muslims are in. Muslims are commanded not to disrespect either of these other two monotheistic religions.


• Let's all take a moment of silence while we contemplate the ocean of things I still don't know. =)