User:Zaphanehe/sandbox

Overview:

Hinduism differs from Christianity and other monotheistic religions in that it does not have:

a single founder, a specific theological system, a single concept of deity, a single holy text, a single system of morality, a central religious authority, the concept of a prophet.

Islam: The second largest world religion...and growing.

Quotations: bullet 	"The messenger of Allah said: "Islam is to testify that there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, to perform the prayers, to pay the zakat, to fast in Ramadan, and to make the pilgrimage to the House if you are able to do so." He said: " You have spoken rightly", Jebreel (Gabriel) from Number 2 of "Al-Nawawi's Forty Hadiths." 1 bullet	"If anyone harms (others), God will harm him, and if anyone shows hostility to others, God will show hostility to him." Sunan of Abu-Dawood, Hadith 1625. bullet 	"Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians...and (all) who believe in God and the last day and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve." The Qur'an, 2:62 bullet	"Jim Jones, David Koresh and Meir Kahane do not typify Christianity and Judaism in the eyes of the civilized West, but those same eyes are prone to see Osama bin Laden and Mullah Muhammad Omar as typifying Islam," Richard Bulliet 2

Webmaster's note about attributing guilt and responsibility:

One of the themes running through some holy books is that of "scapegoating." 5 This is the concept that guilt and punishment can be transferred from those responsible for an evil act, to others who are innocent of that act. This theme is rarely -- if ever -- discussed in religious homilies or sermons. Yet it seems fundamentally unjust and evil according to every moral code that I have seen. By not holding perpretrators directly responsibility for their actions, innocent people become marginalized and denigrated.

For example:

When some Muslims think of Christianity in America, they think of Pastor Terry Jones of Dove World Outreach Center in Florida as a typical Christian. He burned a copy of the Qur'an.

When some Christians think of Islam in the Middle East, they think of Bin Laden or Musab al-Zarqawi, leaders of Al-Qaeda, as typical Muslims.

They confuse the beliefs or practices of an individual or a small minority of believers for the entire religion. As one example, in the minds of many Americans, responsibility for 9/11 terrorist attack has spread from 19 radical, violent, fundamentalist Muslims and their Al-Qaida handlers to all 1.6 billion followers of Islam.

We ask our visitors to consider two items when reading this section of our website -- and for that matter all of the other 6,000 essays:

The irrationality of blaming innocent persons for the sins of a tiny minority within their group. One of this web site's mottos is: "When some people deviate from reality, others are often hurt."

When one refers to any religion or faith group/tradition/denomination within a religion, we are generally referring to more than the beliefs and teachings of its founder. The culture in which the religion developed has generally had a major impact as well. So, for example, the four main versions of Sharia law are all based on the Qur'an -- and to a lesser degree on the Hadith. However, they have been profoundly influenced by the cultures in which Islam grew.

horizontal rule About Islam:

Estimates of the total number of Muslims range from 0.7 to 1.8 billion worldwide and 1.1 to 7 million in the U.S. 3 We accept the best estimate as 1.57 billion, concluded by the Pew Forums. About 23% of all people on Earth follow Islam. The religion is currently in a period of rapid growth.

Christianity is currently the largest religion in the world. It is followed by about 33% of all people -- a percentage that has remained stable for decades. If current trends continue, Islam will become the most popular world religion sometime in the mid-21st century.Hinduism is generally regarded as the world's oldest organized religion. It consists of "thousands of different religious groups that have evolved in India since 1500 BCE." 1 Because of the wide variety of Hindu traditions, freedom of belief and practice are notable features of Hinduism.

Most forms of Hinduism are henotheistic religions. They recognize a single deity, and view other Gods and Goddesses as manifestations or aspects of that supreme God. Henotheistic and polytheistic religions have traditionally been among the world's most religiously tolerant faiths. As a result, India has traditionally been one of the most religiously tolerant in the world.

However in 1998, a Hindu nationalistic political party the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) controlled the government of India. The linkage of religion, the national government, and nationalism led to a degeneration of the separation of church and state in India and a decrease in the level of religious tolerance in that country. An escalation of anti-Christian violence was one manifestation of this linkage. With the subsequent change in government, the level of violence has diminished, and India is once more a country of relative religious tolerance and peace.

Hinduism has grown to become the world's third largest religion, after Christianity and Islam. It claims about 950 million followers -- about 14% of the world's population. 2 It is the dominant religion in India, Nepal, and among the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Estimates of the number of Hindus in the U.S. vary greatly:

Our estimate, for mid-2010, is 1.5 million. According to the "Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches," there were about 1.1 million Hindus in the U.S. during 1999. 3   The "American Religious Identification Survey" is believed to under-estimate the numbers of Hindus because of communications problems with non-English speaking households. 4 They estimated: 766,000 Hindus in 2001 and 1.2 million in 2008.