Islam is a complex religion, which according to CAIR (Council on American-Islamic relations), has 1.200 billion followers from every race and every century in the world. It has survived persecutions, subjugation and defamation since its founding by the prophet Mohammed (pbuh) in 1440ad. Since its founding, different sects and ideologies have spread from the original peaceful teachings over 1,000 years ago.

One of the most media popular sects in Islam is the Shia's, they display their feelings of the Prophets brothers death by a ritual self-mutilation. This is expressed in ways such as taking sharp or bladed instruments and repetitively tapping their heads and/or body, even after they are bleeding. Though this display and personal expression of Islam may seem extreme but it is not any person's place to say how one should follow their religion. There is guidance and there is personal expression.

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Prepare an "Elevator Speech"
Near the first day of sales training your trainer will ask you to give "an elevator speech." It's called that because there's tremendous value in being able to explain your product or service in the time it takes to ride in an elevator. To do so, you have to cut all of your usual verbiage down to the bare essentials. Also, you must tell your story from the point of view of the listener, explaining things in terms of W-I-I-F-M ("What's in it for me?"). When those elevator doors open up and the person you've been talking to walks away, he or she should have a fairly good idea of what you offer and why it is worth the price.

Just the Essentials
Let me give you my "elevator speech" about Christianity. These are the essentials. Although God created us human beings to share in His nature and to have a close relationship with Him, every one of us has rebelled against Him, choosing instead to go our own way and suffer the consequences. Those consequences are bad, including purposelessness, a sense of worthlessness, isolation and animosity, suffering, and, yes, death.

But God was willing to do something about our predicament. What He did was to send us His Son, who became a human being, modeled for us what it means to be pure, to love God, and to lovingly serve our fellow humans. More than that, He took upon Himself our guilt and paid the debt we owed by dying on the cross. Arising from the dead, He demonstrated that He has the power and authority to offer us His forgiveness and His righteousness in trade in exchange for our sins and defilement.

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Individually Muslims may show splendid qualities. Many of them become brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen: all know how to die. But the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. In the world there is a retrograde large force. Far from being moribund, the cult of Mohammed is a faith that is militant and proselytizing... the modern European civilization could fall, as the civilization of ancient Rome has collapsed". (Winston Churchill)

A recent sociological thesis pointed out that raising of Jihad and birthing of a number of Islamic Associations across the world is, more or less, due to the desire to re-draw their lifestyle following the scriptures, which have been eliminated by the day-to-day political authority management.

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In Hinduism we do not call any teacher a Guru. We do not call preachers as Guru. We do not call mendicants and those who perform the rituals as Guru. Guru is supreme God according to the truth revealed by Hinduism thousands of years ago.

A Guru is God in all the senses. We believe that God comes in human form as guru to give salvation to his disciples. The definite text on Guru is Guru Geeta, which sings Guru's glory.

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The first anniversary of the London bombings has provided the Masters of the Universe with another platform from which to lecture us lesser, presumably thicker mortals about the evils of "Islamic terrorism" - and in the process to consciously, deliberately manufacture the "fear of the other" that permits them to strip us of the remaining human and democratic rights of which their "war on terror" has yet to rob us.

Television screens all over the global village inform us that the "Islamic terrorists will never defeat us". Images of London's Nazi-era "Dunkirk Spirit" are invoked, even as we are told that more of our rights are going to be taken from us. They don't of course put it that blatantly; they say they "will do everything necessary to defeat the jihadis." In the US, UK, Canada, EU countries and elsewhere more "anti-terror" legislation is in the pipeline.

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This is an imagined discussion between a Muslim and an atheist:

Muslim: I cannot deny the materialistic achievements of the Western Civilization: the computer, the CD, the plane, the car, the mobile...etc.But as regards the spiritual aspect of your life:
1- Millions of you do not believe in God and religion.
2- Millions of you follow Christianity and Judaism that were changed. We-Muslims- believe that Moses and the Christ are the Messengers of the God. They invited their followers to worship the One and the Only God and to follow Mohammad or Ahmed-may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him- when he appears.But Judaism and Christianity were changed. Now, christians worship three gods and they say that they worship one god. Jews and christians believe that some prophets committed adultery and killed innocent persons.
3- In western countries, you search for happiness and tranquility by alcohol, drugs, homosexuality....etc. But you didn't find happiness. Islam achieves the balance and harmony between the soul and the body and leads you to true happiness and tranquility.

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Often, we are puzzled by the curiosity of the man to know the unknown. Why should scientists bother to know how big is the universe? Does it really matter if it is 28 billion light years wide or may be just one light year? Why should we care if the universe is 14 billion years old or less when our own life is less than hundred years. Why should the scientists waste their time and public money on such quest of knowledge?

Similar is the quest of knowledge about God. Why must we bother about God? God is believed in virtually every society of the world. There are hundreds of religions and faiths and most have a different description of God. Which one should one believe? More than that why should one bothers to know God? After all can we not live without the knowledge of God? Many successful people in this world had no faith on God. Yet they achieved success and lead a happy and successful in life. There are people who do just the opposite of what is written in the scriptures yet lead a happy life. Why God does not punish them? Knowing the God seems as impossible for man as knowing the universe seems to be impossible for the scientists.

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As an ideal Christian person, it is our prime duty to spread god’s sayings in all over the world. On the other hand, it does not matter whether we are Christian or from other religion. As a human being, we must know the ultimate gist of all religions. In the revolutionary era of information-technology, the task has become quite easier. The website like nzchristianfoundation.org.nz is determined to provide a new dimension to such aesthetic spirituality.

We have heard the word ‘Evangelism’ and organization like ‘New Zealand Christian Foundation’ is ideally practicing it. In spite of so many contributions to the society, Christian faith is still countering good amount of opposition from communists, theological radicals, gays, and even there are some Christians who hate the Christian faith. Hence, the Christian society needs many foundations like New Zealand Christian Foundation.

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Hindus have an interest in theology and often a passion for it. Few works of art or literature are purely secular: the intellectual and aesthetic efforts of India, long, continuous and distinguished as they are, are monotonous inasmuch as they are almost all the expression of some religious phase. But the religion itself is extraordinarily full and varied. The love of discussion and speculation creates considerable variety in practice and almost unlimited variety in creed and theory. There are few dogmas known to the theologies of the world which are not held by some of India's multitudinous sects, and it is perhaps impossible to make a single general statement about Hinduism, to which some sects would not prove an exception.

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So I was reading an article by Daniel Pipes. He said an interesting about the ideology of Islamism, he said, "In particular, they seek to build an Islamic state in Turkey, replace Israel with an Islamic state and the U.S. constitution with the Koran."

While I won't speak on the politics of the Arab Middle East, or Turkey, it's the last part of that sentence I find interesting. Pipes makes the inference that anyone who prefers "Islamic Laws" for the country in which they live (in his articles case, radical Islamists) are people who advocate replacing Democratically instituted Constitutional Laws with Quranic Laws.

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