Islam: The Misconceptions Of 9/11 Muslim

After the horrific 9/11 terrorist attacks the topic of Islam has sparked a great deal of media coverage, some good but most of which has led to uninformed and misguided representation towards the faith as being violent and barbaric. With all this media indoctrination many people tend to forget that the 1.57 billion Muslims [1] around the world are humans and instead see them as a group eager on the destruction of the world. There are three main misconceptions about Islam: Jihad, Sharia and Allah. If one learns and understands these three topics they can see overtime that Muslims are simply their brothers and sisters in humanity. We can look at each misconception on a case by case basis evaluating how the misinterpretation came to be and how

If we look at the word Sharia from its root of Arabic it means a “pathway to be followed” this definition alone leaves a concerning question, what is the pathway we need to follow? Well in essence the path way is the five obligatory pillars of Islam those being the decoration of Faith (Shahada), in other words stating that there is only one God and the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was his last prophet. The second pillar is Prayer (Salat), which basically relates to the five daily prayers Muslims must complete on the daily basis, each with its own respective timings throughout the day. The third pillar is Alms-Giving (Zakat), this pillar stresses on the notion that Muslims must give out a bare minimum of 2.5% of their wealth to the poor, really stressing on the collective idea of unity in a socialistic economic point of view. The fourth pillar is Fasting (Sawm). Fasting plays a vital role in Islam as Muslims fast for a whole month during Ramadan on a yearly basis. Its main objective is for Muslims to understand what their fellow humans who go through hunger and live without basic necessities feel like on the daily basis. The last pillar of Islam is Pilgrimage (Hajj). The Hajj is when a Muslim who is able to, preforms a religious and spiritual journey to Mecca where all Muslims gather side by side regardless of ethnic and social backgrounds to perform

Allah the word in a linguistic sense derives from Arabic, it is the Arabic word for God. Historically Aramaic a language which was vastly spoken by the Middle Eastern region and is the language which the Prophet Jesus (A.S.) spoke in, they would note their God as “Ala”, Arabic being derived from Aramaic and has adopted a version of the word which emphasizes an –AH ending, thus deriving the word Allah meaning God. Many people of various faiths having an Arab background state God as Allah, let that be a Christian or a Jew. In South Asia in countries like Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Muslims have adopted the word “Khuda” which also meaning God in Farsi (Persian). There have been many names for God throughout the world, Allah is the most common one used by Muslims and especially by those who speak the Arabic