Religion and Soul

Islam was founded in 610 when a Bedouin called Muhammad was visited by the Angel Gabriel whilst he was meditating in a cave. He was given the first revelation of the Koran and told that he was selected to the true prophet of God. The message given in the Torah to the Jews and the Gospel to Jesus, had apparently been corrupted and Allah was now putting all his faith in Muhammad.

He had to wait another two years until Gabriel had a day free in his diary to come visit – during which time Muhammad managed to convert his wife and close friends. Arabia at that time was awash with pagan gods and idols and Muhammad saw it as his holy mission to establish the one true faith.

Whilst Muhammad is supposed to be illiterate this description often meant someone who was unable to write – he may well have been able to read. In all likelihood he was familiar with the tenets of Judaism and also of the rather corrupt Christianity that had reached the area. As the Koran features most of the Judeo-Christian prophets some historians, including Richard Burton
, even saw Islam as a reformist Christian movement.

Sermons with lotus flowers weren’t exactly the Arabic way and so Mohammed spread Islam by the sword and united enough tribes to become a powerful military force. After his death the Muslim empire went from strength to strength in all directions of the compass. The whole of North Africa succumbed to the new faith and the Arabian armies stretched right up through Spain to the French border. To this day many words in Spanish are influenced by Arabic.

This period in Spain is held to be one of the greatest cultural eras of history where Jews
, Muslims and Christians lived side by side producing works of art and mathematics never before seen. Leave it to the Christians to spoil a party, however. The crusading armies charged down from the north and threw the Muslims over the water to Morocco.

In the East, Islam thundered through Turkey
, Iran and Pakistan where it gobbled up the crumbling Buddhism
. Then it came to India and the Turks, who were now wielding the sword, subjugated the sub-continent but could not change the way Indians felt. Hinduism was not a religion that Islam could tolerate and so they built mosques on top of important temples just as they had done with the Jews in Jerusalem
. In all such locations they planted the seeds of violence that are still being harvested today.

The rule in India eventually crumbled as nothing lasts very long in that country. But the Islamic wave spread further East washing over Bangladesh and gaining footholds in Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Twentieth century immigration means that even in the West the Muslim community is now quite numerous yet there seem to be substantial cultural obstacles to their integration with the local community. The polarities are increasing with the regime of terror run by Bush and it’s yet to be seen how Islam will continue to function in a world that’s changing too fast for the traditions to keep pace with.

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