Hello, I need help with this assignment. The Homework has two parts Part A: is asking to write 400 words a summery of what we have learned in the class. Part B: is to choose 5 topics from the followin

ISLAM: FACT & FICTION

1. ALLAH IS A MOON GOD. FICTION: There was a pre-Islamic moon god Hubal who was worshipped at the Kaaba before Muhammad cleansed the place. And the crescent moon is a symbol of Islam.

2. MOST ARAB AMERICANS ARE MUSLIM. FICTION: 75% are Christian. (10% of the Arab world is Christian, e.g. in Lebanon and the Copts in Egypt.) So the majority of US Muslims are not Arab—only 25% are. And world- wide only 15% of the world’s Muslims are Arab.

3. ISLAMIC VIEWS ON WOMEN ARE PREJUDICIAL & BACKWARD. FICTION: Islam was ahead of the West on women’s rights when the religion began. Women maintain property rights after marriage and have full control over them and any subsequent wage earnings. They also have inheritance rights but at a level that is half that of male heirs. Female circumcision/FGC is not condoned. Abuse of women is a cultural phenomenon, e.g., honor killings in Pakistan.

4. ISLAM CONDONES SUICIDE TERROR. FICTION: Most Muslim scholars, e.g., Dr. M. Siddiqi (head of Islamic Society of OC), condemn suicide of all types. A minority does not, especially in connection with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Afghan war, & ISIS

5. ISLAM IS A MILITARISTIC RELIGION. FICTION WITH QUALIFICATIONS: Surah 9: 5—“But when the forbidden months are past, kill idolaters wherever you find them, and capture them and blockade them, and watch for them at every lookout.” The context is that such killing was a last resort. Jews & Christians are not “idolaters.” Also Jihad is primarily spiritual struggle, not military struggle or “holy war.”

6. ISLAM IS A FANATICAL RELIGION. FICTION WITH QUALIFICATIONS: There is clearly a fanatical type of Islam today that sees the West as the “great Satan,” and wants to destroy western democracies, esp. the USA (& Israel, “little Satan”) They have succeeded in harassing and trying to intimidate many moderate Muslims: Kalid Duran, Khaled Abou El-fadl, Cairo U. professor Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd (declared an apostate). They justify terror, suicide attacks, etc. in the name of Islam. Yet the vast majority of Muslims reject this madness. This fanatical and puritanical kind of Islam is aided and abetted by the Saudi Arabian version of Islam—Wahhabism (after El Wahhab) or Salafism.

7. ISLAM IS AN ANTI-JEWISH RELIGION. FICTION MIXED WITH FACT: Most Arabian Jews rejected Muhammad’s message after showing some initial interest. So some Qur’anic verses reflect this (5: 64, but see 5:65-66). But, as with Christian anti-Semitism in the Middle Ages, the negative verses are emphasized, especially in light of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Iraq war: “The Crusaders and the Jews.” Anti-Semitism is widespread in the Muslim world, though they call it “anti-Zionism.”

8. MUSLIMS REVERE JESUS AS SECOND ONLY TO MUHAMMAD, BUT DENY HE WAS CRUCFIED. FACTS: Jesus is highly respected, but was not crucified