Islam is the second largest religion in the world, behind Christianity.1 Billion followers of Islam, and more than half of these Muslims live in South and South East Asia, even though the religion began in Arabia. Several million Muslims live here in the United States of America (Vincent J Cornell, 2001).
The Holy Book of Islam is called the Qur"an. The Qur"an is said to be the very word of Allah (Ismail K. Poonawala, 2001). The word Allah is Arabic for God and the word Qur"an means recitation.
Islam recognizes earlier prophets, e.g. Jesus, Moses, Abraham and David. This means that Muslims accept the teachings of both the Jewish Torah and the Christian Gospels. Muslims believe Muhammad is the "seal of the prophecy", by which they mean he is the last in the series of prophets sent by God to mankind (PBS, 2001).
The Five Pillars of Islam are formal acts of worship that Muslims follow. The five pillars are:.
1. Shahada (an Arabic word meaning an act of bearing witness). It consists of two statements. The first, "I bear witness that there is no God but Allah", and the second, "I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah".
2. Prayer. Muslims are required to pray five times a day, at set times. They are also required to wash in a ritualistic manner.
3. Almsgiving. This is a required way of assisting the poor, it is achieved by a tax and some Muslims volunteer also.
4. Fasting. Every Muslim must fast in the month of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar.
5. Pilgrimage. The Qur"an commands Muslims to make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime if they are physically and financially able to make the journey.
(Vincent J. Cornell, 2001).
In order to address the question, "Does Islam promote violence?" It is first necessary to define violence (Seyyed Hossein Vasr, 2001). The New Oxford Dictionary of English (2001) defines violence as:.
Noun [MASS NOUN] behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage or kill someone or something.