Compare and Contrast Islam and Christianity

Christianity and Islam

The Middle East is a significant historical region where it served as the birthplace for many cultures and religions such as Christianity and Islam. As they expanded from this region, both of these religions had substantial impact on the course of history. However, Christianity and Islam have their similarities in religious beliefs and their differences in expansion between the two religions. The Arabs like the Christians and the Jews, believed in unseen spirits such as gods, desert spirits, demons, and so forth. The Christians and Islam each believed that there is only one true God that sends down a messenger to observe the people. The Christians believed that Jesus was the messenger that God sent down and the Islam believed that Muhammad was inspired by an unseen spirit when they questioned if the spirit was the one true God. The people between the two religions believed that if they do good deeds then they would go to Heaven (the Christian's belief) or Paradise (the Islam's belief). And the sinful one will go to hell. Both religions have their own book that they believe are the words of God. The bible is the book that the Christians believe are the words of God and the Qur'an, or the Recitation, was a book established in 650 that the Islamic regards as the unalterable word of God. The differences between Christianity and the Islamic are the expansions between the two religions. The Christians established new churches in cities and this made the spread of Christianity during the first two centuries an essentially urban phenomenon. Since the Arabia had very few cities Islam was spread mostly through villages and rural areas. There was a major difference between the expansion of Christianity and Islam and that between the methods used to spread their messages. During the first two centuries, Christians did not force their religion on others but relied on missionaries, preaching, and leading godly lives to draw people to the one true God. However, the Muslims conquered vast areas of land in the Middle East and North Africa and when they attacked or occupied a new territory, they gave the people three options: convert to Islam, pay a special tax, or die. Under those circumstances many chose to pay the tax or convert to Islam. Clearly, the Islamic method of expansion did not match the loving approach of Christianity. Christianity and Islam went about spreading their messages in different ways. The Christians reliance on missionaries, using the Roman roads, spread primarily through the Roman Empire while the Islam engulfed most of the Middle East and North Africa. Christianity and Islam are both very important religions that came from the Middle East. Even though they both came from the Middle East they had their differences in the way they expanded throughout the years such as the methods that they use to spread their messages and the direction that they headed towards to spread their messages. Despite the differences they did have their similarities in religious beliefs. They both believe that there is only one true God and there are books in which they believe are the words of God. Their belief that there is only one true God allow Christianity and Islam to still exist in the modern world today.