Islam: At A Crossroads

Islam: A Religion Going in Two Directions 

Islam is the second largest religion in the world at 1.5 Billion people its catching up with Christianity in terms of population and status and Islam is a religion that has brought a lot of good to the world and knowledge of science and culture. Islam reemphasized Monotheism and to bring it back to the world is the one true path. 

The Prophet Mohammed spoke of the people of the book as fellow Monotheists, i.e. Christians and Jews as people to be protected and looked after in Muslim lands but it hasn't been the case after the Prophet's death in 632 CE in the Arabian Peninsula, Islam became divided into two sects or branches Sunnis and Shias, Sunni Muslims believe that after the death of the Prophet there was not going to be any successor for the Ummah (Body of Believers) and Shias believed that Mohammed appointed his cousin Ali and son in law as successor to the faith. 

The Arabs were united by Mohammed by religion and culture and with it they spread and conquered the middle east and building a empire that stretched from Spain in Europe to Indonesia in Asia and for 800 years it ruled over Spain and brought a golden age in where the only time in history where all three religions, Christianity, Islam and Judaism lived side by side in peace and prosperity. 

After 1492 the Spanish Crown under the Queen Isabella reconquered Spain and pushed the Muslims out of Spain and after the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottoman Turks and the creation of the Ottoman Empire, the Turks replaced the Arabs as the Caliphate of the Muslim world and they began to spread into Europe, Africa and the Middle East and Caucasus forming the largest and longest surviving empire that lasted five centuries until the end of World War I. 

There is been a break between Reformers that want to bring Islam into the 21st century and modernized the faith while you have the extremists that want to bring Islam back to the 7th century where it was a primitive and tribal society. 

Islam as with Christianity has done many acts of evil and violence towards Christians and Jews and people of other faiths and especially towards women in countries like Saudi Arabia where women are not allowed to drive or leave the home without their husband or male relative. with 9/11 and the creation of ISIS, Muslims need to evaluate themselves and need to discuss about denouncing the extremist elements from within and to bring Islam into the modern world so there may be peace and stability in the world.