REPORT ON LUTHERANS RELIGIOUS FIELD RESEARCH Essay

REPORT ON LUTHERANS RELIGIOUS FIELD RESEARCH - Essay Example There are many misunderstandings concerning religion in general. The beliefs and practices of Islam have been misconnected and people have posed various misunderstandings on what they believe in about Islam (Waines, 1995). There is much flawed information that floats around concerning the faith of Islam: I personally had a misconception that Muslims worship a black stone or moon god; that Islam looks down upon women; that Muslims are terrorists among other misconceptions. However, the paper seeks to analyze how my prior misconceptions have changed following the truth and alterations of the conceptions through encounter. The paper hence aims to bust the misunderstood myths and expose the truth about Islam. The first misconception is that Muslims worship a moon god; some of the non Muslims have mistakenly believed that Allah is a moon god or some idol. After a wide consultation and encounter, this has been altered. Allah is the name of One True God, in the language of Arabic. The Musli ms have a fundamental belief that there is only one God, the Sustainer, the Creator; known in Arabic as Allah. This hence means that Muslims do not worship a moon god, but God the Almighty. Another misconception is that Muslims do not believe in Jesus; the life and teachings of Christ Jesus is documented in the stories of Qur’an. ... out Islam is that majority of Muslims are Arabs; although Islam has been mainly associated with Arabs, they only make up 15% of the population of Muslims in the whole world. The country with the most number of Muslim populations is Indonesia. The large numbers of Muslims are found in Asia followed by Africa, then Europe (Hodgson, 1974). Before my encounter with the truth about Islam, I also had the misconception that Islam oppress women, however, most of the mistreatment that is received by women in the world of Muslim is based on traditions and culture, without any foundations in the faith of Islam. Practically, forces such as spousal abuse, forced marriage, and restricted movement contradict directly the laws of Islam that govern personal freedom and family behavior. The misconception that women have no rights in Muslim world is untrue. The images of women who wear a veil covering them, and that women are not allowed to drive, are common in Islam. This is not Muslim law even though many Muslim countries implement such harsh treatments against women. Many of such countries demonstrate differences in culture that are against Islam teachings. It should hence be noted that in the pre-Islam period, Arabia women were only used for fornication with no independence. In fact the birth of female beings was considered humiliating. The practice of infanticide of female was uncontrolled. It is a fact also that a Muslim woman is permitted to accept and reject any suitor as well as seek divorce. Hence, there is nothing in the Islam law that forbids women from driving and house. It is also considered a sin if a woman refuses to seek knowledge (Hitti, 1970). I also had a misconception that Muslims are extremists and violent terrorists. Terrorism is, at all, not justifies under any