The crescent and star symbol is often used to represent Islam. The color green is strongly associated with Islam.
Islam is the world's second largest religion. Like Christianity, Islam was influenced by Judaism. Followers of Islam are called Muslims. Islam is the youngest of the three main Abrahamic religions, being founded centuries after Judaism and Christianity.
Judaism and Islam have many similarities. Islam, like Judaism, is a strictly monotheistic religion. All of the prophets of Judaism are considered prophets in Islam too. The Qur'an, the Muslim holy book, contains versions of the stories of Adam and Eve, Noah, Joseph, Moses and Abraham, although the details of those stories sometimes differ significantly from the accounts in the Tanakh. Both Jews and Muslims believe that Abraham was their spiritual forefather, Muslim Arabs, like Jews, consider Abraham to have been their literal ancestor. Abraham's son Isaac is traditionally considered to be the ancestor of Jews and his other son Ishmael to be the ancestor of Arabs. Whereas Jews and Christians believe that Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac to G-d on Mount Moriah, Muslims believe that Ishmael was the one who was about to be sacrificed.
When Islam was created by Muhammad, who had been fascinated by Judaism for many years, he ordered that Muslims should pray towards Jerusalem the holy city of the Jews. Only later was it changed to Mecca.
External links
- Wikipedia's article on Islam
- Islam Wiki