Islam
The religion of Islam was founded in the 600's CE by a man named Muhammad. Muhammad was meditating in a cave when he claims to have received a visitation from the angel Gabriel telling him that instead of the belief of the Jews that it was Isaac who was sacrficed upon Mount Moriah, it was actually Ishmael. Muhammad at first thought he had had an encounter with demons when this was told to him, but his wife convinced him that he was too good of a person to have an encounter with demons. Muhammad started up a movement and developed a following mainly from the Arab peoples. He made attempts to expand the faith by giving it an appeal to other religions. Muhammad's preaching frightened the Meccans who threatened to kill him. Because of this Muhammad feld to Madina where a group of people helped him. Eight years later Muhammad returned to Mecca and conquered the city. . After Muhammad died in 632, Abu bakr succeeded him as claiph, or ruler of the Muslim people. The first several hundred years of Muslim history were filled with violence. Muslims threatened to kill people if they did not convert, and that is how they gained their following. After Muhammad's death, several of his companions preserved his revealtions and wrote them down in the work that is now the peimary source of authority and doctrine for the Muslims- the Koran. The Koran resembles the Bible in a lot of ways but it treats Jesus as simply a prophet and calls Muhammad the last and greatest of all the prophets. The principles are basically the same for Muslims. In order to convert to the Islamic faith one must meet five requirements.
1) They must pray five times daily facing Mecca
2) they must give alms
3) They must fast during the whole ninth month on the Islamic calendar, which is Ramadan
4) they must make a pelgirmage to Mecca at least once during their lifetime.
5) And they must recite the Muslim statement of faith that "there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet.
The mosque is the central place of worship and Quranic recitation for the Muslims. There are three major sects within Islam- the Sunnis, the Shiites, and the Sufis. Sunnis believe that leadership after Muhammad was passed down to the caliphs, while Shiites believed leadership stayed within his family line. Shiites are the militant Islamic group. Sufis are a combination of the Hindu believe in reincarnation combined with the traditional Islamic elements.
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