silky, with all due respect, this view of Christianity and Islam are common but incorrect. I am going to paste something written by a converted Muslim, it is long (844 words) so I hope it goes through. One thing we must always keep in mind is that there are moderate Muslims who recognize the Western way of life is the best way to go. These people need to be recognized and protected because they are regarded exactly as we are and are targets of extremists.
Political Islam, radical Islam, moderate Islam, peaceful Islam, mystical Islam, - all of these titles lead us to our major error in looking at Islam through non-Islamic filters and thus we fail to interpret it subjectively.
This is a dangerous view of Islam because as Islam advances in a society it seeks to overcome challenges to its eventual dominance.
The current Western view is that the term Islam means peace. It does not, it means "submission" or "surrender" anything but peace.
There is much politically correct pressure to focus on similarities when it comes to evaluating Islam, but a prudent and intelligent person also looks at the differences. Islam is not a religion in the Western sense of the word, nor is it a faith. Muslim scholars state that Islam is an all encompassing system, a sociopolitical, religious, economic, educational, legislative, judicial and military system that controls every aspect of the lives of Muslims, their relationship among themselves and their relationship with non-Muslims.
The Quran and the Sunnah in some countries comprise the equivalent of a national constitution. In all Muslim majority countries family law for Muslim communities is based on Sharia law which is derived from those components, even the national constitutions of Iraq and Afghanistan that we Americans helped write. Regardless of the legal issue, the only acceptable jurisprudence is what the two books state as interpreted by the mosque.
The Quran was given to Mohammad over a period of 23 years by the angel Gabriel, mostly through recitation (Quran means recitation) - Mohammad was illiterate. Unlike the Bible, the Quran has no historically authentic document that can prove its literary reliability or historical authenticity. the Quran has no coherent message, is often unclear, historically inaccurate and inconsistent within itself.
Although Muslims claim that Allah and God are the same, stark contrasts exist between the character of the two. Unlike the covenant making God of the Bible, Allah does not make covenants for to do so would diminish his absolute authority. Allah is a master of deception contradicting himself and justifying it by calling it abrogation, meaning replacing out of date revelations with more reliable and recent stuff.
All non-Muslims are Allah's enemies, with special emphasis on Jews and Christians. They are to be considered profane and the shedding of their blood is legitimate. There are no absolutes with Allah, he can be capricious, vengeful and extremely unpredictable. There are no guarantees of an afterlife for Muslims, however, for those who make it, there is an abundance of sexual pleasures, specially created young girls (or boys if one prefers) who will never grow old, but remain always young and fresh.
In Islam the highest sacrifice is not that of self-denial for the good of others but of self-sacrifice for the sake of Allah in killing his enemies. Therefore the ultimate test of true believers is not in their ability to love their enemies but in how much they can hate the enemies of Allah, even if they are family members.
Muslims fear the Bible and have gone to great lengths to re-interpret its teachings, for example: Jesus proclaimed the coming of Mohammad, all Biblical prophets were Muslims, and all mankind is created Muslim. This last point is interesting, when people become Muslim, they don't convert, they revert and are welcomed home with great rejoicing.
Here we start to have a problem, because if all mankind is actually Muslim, then every effort must be made to bring them back by whatever means is necessary. Thus, the world is divided into two sides, the land of Islam and the land of war which must be subdued by every means possible. The doctrine of Jihad or holy war is what is used to subjegate the land of war. However, jihad can also occur in the land of Islam if it is needed to remove the enemies of Allah, and because enemies of Allah don't have it tattooed on their foreheads, anyone can be fair game.
The crime of conversion away from Islam is considered to be a crime of treason and is punishable by death.
In Islam the concept of choice is anathema and is regarded as an anti-Islamic concept. Freedom of choice does not exist. Religion is not a private matter. All decisions have already been made by Allah, so Muslims have no choice but to follow the divine revelations.
The Doctrine of Takkiya or cover up literally means caution, fear or disguise. It makes it permissible to lie to or deceive anyone to further the cause of Allah and can be displayed in words, actions or deeds. Here Westerners make a big mistake because most of us believe that at least some degree of truth is necessary for society to exist, but quite literally you cannot believe a Muslim because he thinks it is honorable to lie through his teeth.
To regard Islam as just another benign well-meaning religion makes one a fool at best and dead at the very worst. Understand that Islam regards life as "I can't win if you don't lose."
