Reno Omokri: My Understanding of Islam
By Reno Omokri
The Arabic word علم, or Ilm (Arabic for knowledge), is the most used term in the Quran, other than the word for God. The first word revealed to prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam) was Iqra. This gives you an insight into pure and historical Islam, a faith that encompasses spirituality and intellectuality.
Even the word Jihad does not strictly mean war. The word Jihad (known as Greater Jihad) refers to your individual struggle for self-development through study and reflection to better yourself and become an enlightened person.
It is a significant distortion of history to think Islam is conducive to ignorance or cannot coexist with Christianity and Judaism. The Quran even promises rewards from God to Muslims, Christians and Sabians in Quran 2:62.
And there was more freedom for Christians and Jews when Muslim Ottomans governed Jerusalem than when European Christians ruled the Holy Land.
In particular, Christian Crusaders were spectacularly bloodthirsty, and it was the Crusades themselves that made the Muslim Ummah shift from the Greater Jihad (self-conquest and self-growth) to the Lesser Jihad (war).
And whereas the Crusaders killed the Muslim residents of Jerusalem when they conquered the city, Saladin, when he reconquered Jerusalem, did not kill Christians, but allowed them to be ransomed. May God bless Saladin.
I study Islam, and it has not affected my faith in God through the teachings of Yeshua Hamasiach. However, it has given me an understanding and admiration of Muslims and Islam that I would never have had were it not for those studies.
And this is why I repeat my call for educational authorities to make the study of Islamic Religious Knowledge necessary for Christian pupils and make the learning of Christian Religious Knowledge compulsory for Muslim students, and for children of both faiths to learn the basics of African Traditional Religions.
This will help us create a new generation of adults who may disagree with each other’s faiths, but who understand them. Because conflict is more likely when we do not understand each other, and less likely when we understand ourselves, even though we do not agree with each other.
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Reno is an author, politician and a Christian Scholar
