Was taking a bus home with Kak Linah and we started to talk about religion.
I don't enjoy sharing my views on religion, because it is a very sensitive topic and many people are not receptive towards different views.
I was rather surprised she brought up the topic and was intrigued by her views on Islam & Catholicism.
I was impressed and respect her receptiveness. thus, decided to listen on.
It sparked off my curiosity to do a research on it.

Much has been written about the differences between Jews and Muslims: a lot less about the similarities between us.
Jews, Muslims and Christians have a lot more in common than we care to sometimes admit.

Both Christianity and Islam accept the existence of a personal Creator God.
Both also accept many of the same accounts and prophets mentioned in the Bible.

Meaning of the Christianity: Believer in Christ
Name of founder: Jesus
Jerusalem is the holy city.

Meaning of Islam: Submission to the will of Allah
Messnger: Prophet Mohammed
Jerusalem is the holy city.

According to Islamic holy texts, Mohammad preached that the pagan Arabs should abandon polytheism and accept Abrahamic monotheism, the belief in the one God.
The Qur'an states that Mohammad's teachings were the completion of revelations given to prophets throughout the ages.
Islam has taken many traits from Judaism (as well as Christianity), such as common prophets who are revered in both faiths such as Moses and Abraham.
Judaism, Christianity and Islam are known as "Abrahamic religions".
The firstborn son of Abraham, Ishmael, Muslims consider Father of the Arabs.
Abraham's second son Isaac is called Father of the Hebrews.
In the Jewish tradition Abraham is called Avraham Avinu or "Abraham, our Father".
For Muslims, he is a prophet of Islam and the ancestor of Mohammad through Ishmael. Islam affirms that Moses (Musa) was given a revelation, the Torah, which Muslims call Tawrat in Arabic, and believed to be the word of God (Allah).
However, they also believe that this original revelation was modified over time by certain scribes and preachers.
According to Islamic belief, the present Jewish scriptures were no longer the original divine revelations given to Moses.
Muslims believe the Qur'an is the final revelation from God and a completion of the previous revelations.

The Qu'ran has many passages concerning the Blessed Virgin.
First of all, the Koran believes in her Immaculate Conception and also in her Virgin Birth.
Mary, then, is for the Moslems the true Sayyida, or Lady."
1 More recently in a 1998 message to Islamic leaders, Pope John Paul II declared a unity of spirit already exists.
He said, "There remains a spiritual bond which unites us and which we must strive to recognize and develop."
At first glance, unity between Muslims and Catholics seems very unlikely but after a closer examination of the two religions we find much in common.

Like Islam, Roman Catholicism has also offered spiritual inducements to those who put Christians to death.
The Vatican offered plenary indulgences (the remission of punishment for sin) to those who killed "heretics."
Those who died in such battles were offered immediate entrance into heaven.

As I began my research, I chanced upon many websites that provide misinterpretations of religious teachings.
It is because of these, that people often build up the misconceptions and condemnations of other religions.
Every religion has its black sheep.
These people claimed to be serving God's orders.

As we all struggle to understand the terror and tragedy of September 11th, many are now asking questions about the religion of Islam.
Clearly, the evidence points to Islamic fundamentalists as the perpetrators of this horrifying attack on America.
Misinterpretations of the Qu'ran, a book Muslims believe to be the word of God, caused possible motivations for the suicide mission of the hijackers.

The Qu'ran does not call Muslims to participate in a holy war against the enemies of Islam.
Jihad does not mean 'Holy War', it means 'Struggle'.
Jihad against one's own desires, temptations, or when being oppressed by others, etc.

Those who die for the cause of Allah are the only Muslims who are guaranteed paradise.
The Muslims who crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were engaged in their so-called 'Holy War' against America.
They gave up their lives believing they were assured of paradise.


The Irish Republican Army or (IRA) is used to refer to two different, historically linked organisations; the Provisional IRA and the Official IRA.

The Provisional IRA, also known as the The Irish Republican Army, PIRA, Provos, or IRA is a republican terrorist organisation that fought against the British in Northern Ireland, claiming to represent the largely Catholic nationalist community in Northern Ireland.

3 decades of violence between elements of Northern Ireland's nationalist community (principally Roman Catholic) and unionist community (principally Protestant).
The conflict was the result of discrimination against Irish Catholics by the unionist majority, nationalist opposition to "British rule" and the question of Northern Ireland's status within the United Kingdom.

From 1608, British settlers, known as planters, were given land confiscated from the native Irish in the Plantation of Ulster. Coupled with Protestant immigration to “unplanted” areas of Ulster, particularly Antrim and Down, conflict arose between the native Catholics and the "planters". This would lead to two bloody ethno-religious conflicts between them, both resulting in Protestant victories.

The years 1970–1972 saw an explosion of political violence in Northern Ireland, peaking in 1972, when nearly 500 people lost their lives. There are several reasons why violence escalated in these years.
Unionists claim the main reason was the formation of the Provisional Irish Republican Army(Provisional IRA), a group formed when the IRA split into the Provisional and Official factions. While the older IRA had embraced non-violent civil agitation, the new Provisional IRA was determined to wage "armed struggle" against British rule in Northern Ireland.
The new IRA was willing to take on the role of "defenders of the Catholic community", rather than seeking working-class unity across both communities which had become the aim of the "Officials".
Nationalists argued that the upsurge in violence was caused by the disappointment of the hopes engendered by the civil rights movement and the repression subsequently directed at their community. They point to a number of events in these years to support this opinion.
One such incident was the Falls Curfew in July 1970, when 3,000 troops imposed a curfew on the nationalist Lower Falls area of Belfast, firing more than 1,500 rounds of ammunition in gun battles with the IRA and killing four people.
Another was the 1971 introduction of internment without trial--out of over 350 initial detainees, not a single one was a Protestant.
Moreover, due to poor intelligence, very few of those interned were actually republican activists, but some went on to become republicans as a result of their unfortunate experiences.
Between 1971 and 1975, 1,981 people were detained; 1,874 were Catholic/republican, while 107 were Protestant/loyalist.
There were widespread allegations from the nationalist community of abuse and even torture of detainees.
Most emotionally of all, nationalists also point to the fatal shootings of 14 unarmed nationalist civil rights demonstrators by the British Army in Derry in January 1972 on what became known as Bloody Sunday.

Many people claim to be doing God's will for their acts.
The greatest sin is to use religion as a medium to influence and wage war aginst others.
One thing we can't deny for sure is the amount of faith they have.
I believe all of us share the same God.
However, along the way, there were people who disagree with certain values and started creating their own.
A good example will be Christianity. Christians, Roman Catholics, Protestants, Methodist, Presbytarians, etc used to be from 1 Chirstian community.
Due to disagreements and individual choice of interpretations, we broke up into different denominations, which is very disappointing.
People from different religions often lack the knowledge of this segregation and often associate the 'wrong practice' to all denominations in general.
It gets really frustrating when people have the misconceptions that all Christians are the same and practise the same values, etc.
And there is little we can do when people chooses to misinterprete or create their own culture, using the name of religion.
For example, the crucifixions in Philipine every Easter.
These people claimed to be devout Catholics and renact the crucifixion, what they never realised was that God would never have allowed pain that is induced.

Almost all the time, people failed to see the extremist as a minority. Thus, leading to the condemnation of other religions.

Please...For God's sake,
'Do NOT use God's name in vain'. (Pun intended)