Oral presentation: Islam in Afghanistan

Islam is the official religion of Afghanistan, with 99% of its population being Muslims, and the second largest religion in the world. Muhammad was its founder, and is considered one of the prophets of God by all Muslims, to whom the Qur'an - central religious text for Islam - was revealed to.

Monotheistic religion: Islam accepts and worships only one god. “Allah”, being the standard Arabic translation for the word “god”, became how the Islamic god is known as throughout the world.

Abrahamic religion: any religion that can be traced back to Abraham. This includes Christianity and Judaism, referred in the Qur'an as the “people of the book”. Muslims respect these religions because they believe that they all worship the same god, and that the different religious leaders are all prophets to this same god.

The same religion has He established for you as that which He enjoined on Noah - the which We have sent by inspiration to thee - and that which We enjoined on Abraham, Moses, and Jesus: Namely, that ye should remain steadfast in religion, and make no divisions therein: to those who worship other things than Allah, hard is the (way) to which thou callest them. Allah chooses to Himself those whom He pleases, and guides to Himself those who turn to Him.
Qur'an. 42:13

Although Islam is a very rich religion in terms of tradition, the most basic laws and rules are all very similar to those of Christianity and Judaism. For example in what concerns God, afterlife, family, sexuality, social status, social issues, diet, etc.

Despite all of these similarities, Islam still clashes with these (Christianity and Judaism) and other religions because like all other religious groups, Muslims believe that their religion is the true religion.

Now then, for that reason, call them to the Faith, and stand steadfast as thou art commanded, nor follow thou their vain desires; but say: "I believe in the Book which Allah has sent down; and I am commanded to judge justly between you. Allah is our Lord and your Lord: for us is the responsibility for our deeds, and for you for your deeds. There is no contention between us and you. Allah will bring us together, and to Him is our Final Goal.
Qur'an. 42:14-16.

Tension and conflicts are inevitable.
Certain laws for freedom of religion have been created since the invasion led by the US in 2001. Now, in the Constitution of Afghanistan, while it says that “Afghanistan shall be an Islamic Republic”, it also says that, “Followers of other faiths shall be free within the bounds of law in the exercise and performance of their religious rights”.

Oral presentaion about Islam in Afghanistan together with other religions - some bibliography

I thought it'd be nice to put up some of the most general resources we used to make our oral presentation. So here you go.

CIA, The World Factbook - List of several different facts on Afghanistan, which includes religion.

Search Quran - Online Quran, where you can either read the different books or search for specific topics.

Religion Facts - One of my personal favorites. This website has pretty much everything you may need or want to know about any religion covered, and all presented in a very objective way too. You have a list of religions organized alphabetically, a few of the most controversial and discussed topics, comparisons between religions, etc.

Islamic Web - Filled with useful information and resources.

IslamiCity.com - "IslamiCity’s mission is to share with the world an understanding of Islam and Muslims and promote peace, justice and harmony for all people. [...] It provides a non-sectarian, comprehensive and holistic view of Islam and Muslims to a global audience." An interesting site about Islam. It's clearly very biased, but it also gives you a nice look into the culture and mentality that goes on behind Islam.



By Dr. Zakir Naik, a series of 24 videos (I admit I didn't watch all of them) about general misconceptions people have on Islam, together with some general notions of the religion. Again, somewhat biased, but to be honest, a lot more factual and reasonable than I first thought it'd be. Worth to watch.

Oral Plan - Draft

This is our initial plan for the oral presentation we'll be giving on the 25th. Since the oral is supposed to be a background research on The Kite Runner, we've decided to study religion in Afghanistan.

Like I said, this is only a draft, and it may be altered until the actual presentation.

Person 1 * Islam as the official religion in Afghanistan, with 99% of the population being Muslims. + Definition
Person 5 * From these 99% of Muslims, the Sunni Muslim and the Shi'a Muslim were created + Definitions, Reasons to why the division happened
Person 2 * From the other religions that exist in Afghanistan (1%), one is Christianity.
Person 3 * Judaism.
Person 4 * Hinduism.
Person 5 * Sikhism.

Always considering how each religion could clash with the others and how even inside the same religion (in the case of the Sunni and Shi'a Muslims) conflicts happen.

I think that should cover the 20 minutes.

See you tomorrow.


EDIT
As shown in the order above:

Person 1 will be Ana (me),
Person 5 Saul,
Person 2 Miguel,
Person 3 Diogo,
Person 4 Ana.

Hello world!

Welcome to our group blog.

We've been having a few problems getting organized, but everything should be sorted out soon.

Enjoy. *waves*