If you've ever taken a comparative religion class in college, you know that great care is required in describing religions that aren't your own. Indeed, your own religion may be so complex and divided that any description of it will almost certainly be given in broad brush strokes and miss some nuances.
The first thing you will notice (spoiler alert) if you click on that graphic link is that it uses a depiction of both Jesus and the Prophet Muhammad. Although there is some disagreement among Muslims about whether depictions of Muhammad are permitted, most Sunni (the majority of followers of Islam) Muslims believe it's wrong to use such depictions.
So it seems odd -- and even offensive, even if inadvertently so -- for a graphic about the differences between Islam and Christianity to use a depiction of Muhammad.
(Besides, the comparison is not Jesus to Muhammad. The true comparison is Jesus to the Qur'an in that each faith considers one or the other the living word of God. But perhaps that's for another time to discuss.)
There are a few other questionable items in the graphic, but none so glaring as the flat-out statement that the god whom Christians worship is not the same as the god Muslims worship. As the chart puts it: "The 'god' in both religions, God and Allah, are not identical."
One thing such a broad statement ignores is that Allah is simply the Arabic word for God.
But beyond that, there is quite a persuasive case to be made that Jews, Christians and Muslims all worship the same god, even if each has different ways of describing and understanding God. There is, for instance, nothing about the doctrine of the Holy Trinity that makes Christians polytheists.
The Yale scholar Miroslav Volf argues convincingly in his book Allah: A Christian Response that indeed Christians and Muslims worship the same deity, although even Volf acknowledges that "No simple yes or no is possible in answering the question of whether Muslims and Christians worship the same God. Some do and some don't. . . .But there is a robust and very important yes to be said as well." (It's that kind of important nuance that this graphic lacks.)
I highly recommend Volf's book and particularly his careful discussion of this question (and his brilliant discussion of the Holy Trinity). It's certainly to be preferred to this comparative chart's simplistic and misleading declaration that God and Allah "are not identical."
But that's the danger of reducing complicated world religions to simple charts and graphics. They may be helpful in some ways, as this one tries to be, but a good rule of thumb is to be distrustful of them.
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LET'S ALL BOW OUR HEADS
New research suggests people lie when asked about how often they pray. I was going to have a clever comment about this but I don't have time. I'm too busy praying.
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P.S.: As you may recall, I went to Israel two years ago. I was helping to lead a Jewish-Christian study tour. If you missed that chance you now have another, though without me going with you. But you'll be led by my two friends who helped to lead the 2012 tour, Father Gar Demo, rector of St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church in suburban Kansas City, and Rabbi Jacques Cukierkorn, co-author of my previous book and spiritual leader of Temple Israel of Greater Kansas City. They have scheduled a trip for this November. For the itinerary, pricing and other details, see this pdf: Download Cukierkorn Rabbi Jacques NOV 2014 FLY