Religion – Islam
America has gone through many changes and religious demographics in the United States have been changing since before the nation was even founded. In 1765, before the Revolutionary War, Congregationalists dominated the religious landscape. In the next 100 years, however, the largest religious group in America would change three times: first to Baptists, then to Methodists, and finally to Catholics. Each shift was precipitated by different factors, from the geographic expansion of the United States to questions of theology of immigration. The religious freedom of the United States allowed these remarkably fast shifts in religion that could not have occurred in nations without separation of church and state.
Religion can be defined as a set of beliefs and practices which are often centered upon specific supernatural and moral claims about reality. The cosmos and the human nature and are often codified as prayer, ritual or religious law. Religion also encompasses ancestral or cultural traditions. When the term “religion” comes to mind, it refers to both the personal practices related to communal faith and also to group rituals. In our society today, there are so many different religions such as Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Shinto, Jainism, Taoism, Vodun (Voodoo) and Confucianism just to name a few. Given all these various religions, I have chosen to write my paper on Islam. This paper would be covering the origin of Islam, the Quran, and the followers of Islam, Mecca, and the Prophet Muhammad, their practices, the Islamic holy days, the five pillars of Islam and lastly my experience on a visit to the ...