The Salient Issues In Understanding Islam And Christianity In The Essay

The Salient Issues In Understanding Islam And Christianity In The Twenty-First Century - Essay Example While in the past people used to turn to their religions to solve all their problems, today there is a mix of public attitudes towards religion. This difference in public attitudes is because very few presently properly understand the actual message conveyed by myriad religions. Majority is oblivious to what constitutes the bedrock of most important religions like Islam and Christianity. Some of the most salient reasons explaining what obstacles are encountered by people in thorough understanding of Islam and Christianity will be scrutinized in this essay. The purpose of the following discussion is to explore the major issues faced in the 21st century by both Muslims and Christians. Many misconceptions serve to extend the distance between Muslims and Christians due to which good understanding of these major religions is critically important. Understanding the true spirit of Islam is important. But, there is a variety of stereotypes associated with this religion which convey misleadin g information. These stereotypes need to be identified and corrected because they mislead both Muslims and Christians. The sacred book of Islam, the Qur’an, can help to solve many problems which are faced by Muslims today (Siddiqui 20). This is because many Muslims are religiously quite ignorant despite being highly literate in other areas. When they are approached by non-Muslims for clarification of disturbing and notorious ideas targeting Islam, they have no convincing explanation to offer. This reinforces the doubts and biases in the hearts of non-Muslims and contributes to uncertainty enveloping Islam. Unfortunately, the most influential media groups have decided to tarnish the reputation of Islam by glorifying a few incidents of terrorism and adamantly ignoring many peaceful efforts made by Islamic scholars. Muslims, at large, are portrayed as terrorists who pose potential threat to global peace. This lack of understanding has created many problems for millions of Muslim s living in the Western world. Muslim minorities living in the West are confronted with more disturbing issues compared to other Muslims living in Muslim countries. This is the kind of subject which has not become less grave over time, but continues to attract considerable attention throughout the world. It is worth mentioning here that Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in the world and the number of Muslims continues to drastically increase every year. A particularly high surge in the number of Muslims is noticed in the Western world presently. Still, Islam is one of the most poorly understood religions in the world. This is because the Western media has largely stuck to quite a prejudiced and controversial approach in portraying Muslims. This pattern proves to be very negative both for Islam and Muslims as it only serves to aggravate the already devastated conditions faced by giant masses of innocent Muslims living in the Western countries. In his book â€Å"Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World†, Carl Ernst offers explanation for many issues faced by people today in understanding Islam. He not only explores myriad man-made misconceptions plaguing Islam, but also discusses the forces active behind these misconceptions to explicate how they operate, tarnish the bond connecting over one billion of Muslims with the West, and harm global peace. It is stressed that every stereotypical image of Islam promoted to reinforce negative feelings about this religion has political approval too due to which it is maintained that â€Å"