Islam

Islam is a monotheistic religion based upon the teachings of Muhammad, a 7th century Arab religious and political figure. It is the second-largest religion in the world. Linguistically, "Islam" means to submit, and refers to the submission or total surrender of one's self to God. Thus, a Muslim is "one who submits to God".

Muslims believe that God revealed the Qur'an to Muhammad and that Muhammad is God's final prophet. Muslims consider the Qur'an and the traditions of Muhammad in the Sunnah to be the fundamental sources of Islam. Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam is an Abrahamic religion. Islam has historically recognized the Abrahamic roots all three religions share and protected Jews and Christians living within their countries, however, several Muslim countries have had increases in anti-Semitism due to in part the existence of Israel. Christian-Islamic relations have also suffered due in part to Christian blame of 9/11 on Islam.

Islam in "Black Tulip"
Islam unified Afghani resistence to the Soviet forces that invaded in the 1980s.

Islam in Gunpowder Empire
In an alternate known to Crosstime Traffic as Agrippan Rome, Islam never existed as Muhammad had never been born.

Islam in In High Places
In an alternate where the Great Black Deaths killed 4 in 5 Europeans, Islam was able to quickly dominate the underpopulated south, including Spain, Portugal, Italy and southern France.

Christians in Muslim kingdoms were allowed to quietly practice their religion, but public displays were prevented. Moreover, Christians were taxed by their governments. Thus, the Christian population of Islamic kingdoms continued to decline as many saw converting to Islam as the easiest course.

Islam was disdainful of the practice of Christianity that had arisen in Northern Europe, which held that a religious leader named Henri was the Second Son of God. A central tenet of Islam held that Muhammad was God's last prophet. While Muslims accepted Jesus as a great prophet (although not as the Son of God), they rejected Henri as a creature of Satan.

Muslims frequently traveled in Christian kingdoms to trade. While Christian kingdoms were suspicious of Muslims, they did not persecute them, knowing that they were not strong enough to stand against the Muslim kingdoms. For this reason, the Jewish Klein family disguised themselves as Muslim Arabs while traveling in the Kingdom of Versailles--Jews were actively persecuted by both Christians and Muslims.

Islam in "The Last Article"
Islam was the second largest religion in India when World War II broke out. However, it shared a history of conflict with Hinduism. In 1947, when Field Marshal Walther Model's troops invaded the country, many Muslims willingly sided with the Germans. Mohandas Gandhi was turned over to the Germans by a Muslim.

Islam in "Next Year in Jerusalem"
Islam finally succeeded in destroying the State of Israel in the twenty-first century.

Islam in Worldwar
The entire Islamic world (with the exception of Indonesia) was conquered by the Race, but adherents of Islam, including Ruhollah Khomeini, tended to be militantly opposed to the Race's presence on Earth, especially when Atvar attempted to impose the cult of emperor-worshipon his Tosevite subjects. In Arab countries, Islam proved a stronger and more effective ideology uniting people against the Race than Arab Nationalism, which was the dominant ideology previous to the Race's landing. For their part, members of the Race (erroneously) perceived Islam as Tosevites believing one of their own number to be a deity, which seemed an utterly ridiculous idea.