Spread of Christianity and Islam Essay

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At first like the Christians, those who practiced Islam (i.e., the Muslims) were persecuted for their beliefs which resulted in Islam failing to spread much beyond the city of Mecca, but as Muhammad gained many converts, Islam began to spread to other regions of the Middle East, mostly due to the teachings in the Holy Quran which taught that all men are equal in the eyes of Allah and are brothers in God.

The spread of Christianity and Islam was also due to a number of factors related to socio-economic and political conditions within the Middle East. For example, when Christian churches were established in some of the major cities within and outside of what is now Israel circa the 4th century a.D., many of the believers were very poor and poverty-stricken and were searching for ways to relieve their suffering, and once these believers decided to move into the countryside, Christian beliefs and principles followed with them and their families, thus bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ into the lives of non-believers, most of whom were also poor and were seen by many as social outcasts. In this respect, during the first two centuries following the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the spread of Christianity "was essentially an urban phenomenon" but soon evolved into a rural religion. In addition, many Christians were persecuted for their political beliefs, meaning that they did not condone the actions of the official Romanized/Latin church which quickly led to the development of Eastern Orthodoxy in Central Europe (Nosotro, Internet).

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In contrast, since Arabia did not have many urban cities because of its arid and desert-like environment, Islam "spread mostly through villages and rural areas" through the teachings found in the Holy Quran and like their Christian counterparts, those who helped to spread Islam were destitute social outcasts and were far removed from the political circles of Mecca and Medina. However, unlike Christians who "relied upon missionaries, preaching and leading godly lives" to spread the Gospel, Muslims "did not rely solely on preaching," for they "turned also to the sword" and forced non-believers to accept the tenets of Islam (Nosotro, Internet). Thus,

Christianity and Islam, although sharing many similarities related to belief systems and faith, diverged long before the beginning of the modern era with Christianity following the path laid out by Jesus Christ and Islam following that of great violence and bloodshed.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Corbett, Julia Mitchell. Religion in America. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall

Publishers, 2003.

Nosotro, Rit. "The Spread of Christianity and Islam." 2009. Hyperhistory. Internet. Retrieved April15, 2009 from http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/comp / cw11christislamexpand.htm......

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