Judaism and Islam

Judaism-it is the first monotheistic religion (only worship one god)-main book/writings is the Old Testament (First half of the Christian bible). The Torah-first 5 books of Old Testament-follow the 10 commandments given to Moses-get to heaven by following Jewish teachings

-Israel has the largest concentration of Jews in the world-40% Jews live in U.S.-40% Jews live in Israel

-Jews eat kosher food-certain foods cannot be eaten such as pork, vegetables and fruit that have bugs in it, wine or grape juice (because it used to be used in idol worship)-other foods need to be prepared a certain way. Ex. A kosher butcher is going to chop up the animal and drain the blood a certain way in a certain amount of time

Islam

-primarily located in the Middle East/North Africa-established around 600 A.D.-a man named Mohammed believed he had a vision from God telling him to convert the arabic people -he did exactly that and the religion of Islam spread-Mohammed is greatly revered by Muslims and he is the main prophet of Islam-Muslim- person that practices Islam-Allah- god of Islam-Qur’an-the holy book-Mecca- the holiest city toMuslims-they believe you get to heavenby followings the teachings of Islam

-1- Faith- There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet (Muhammad is the founder of Islam)

-2-Prayer-pray 5 times a day facing Mecca(more specifically, they face the kaaba)

-5 Pillars of Islam are the main duties for Muslims that they must follow

5-Pilgrimage to Mecca-all Muslims expected to go there once in their life

3-Charity-help the poor4- Fasting- won’t eat or drink during holy month of Ramadan

Kaaba- believed to have been built by Abraham as a place of worship

-the two main branches or sects of Islam are Sunni and Shia (a Shiite is someone who practices the Shia branch of Islam-the creation of these two branches goes back hundreds of years and was over who should take over and rule the Muslim nation after Mohammed’s death

Sunni- believed the next leader should be elected from people who were capable of leading the nation (which is what happened)-majority of Muslims in the world are Sunni (about 85%)

Shia- believed someone from Mohammed’s family should take over-Iran and Iraq are primary shiite

-over the years more differences have grown such as interpreting the Qur’an differently