Journal #9: Organized Religion

There are literally thousand different types of organized religion. There is Judaism, Hinduism, Islam (Like Muslims), Buddhism, Shinto, Bahaism, Confucianism, and Christianity, and those are just some of the most recognizable religions. Christianity is the biggest religion with over 2 billion followers, including Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, and Protestants. A lot of people are intolerant of some religions, but I definitely am not.

I practice both Catholicism and Methodism, but I still think that everyone has the right to choose which religion they want to practice. And I know that a lot of people have a problem with Muslims and think that all Muslims are terrorists, and I couldn't disagree more. While I am not a Muslim, I actually have an understanding of the religion. When I was growing up, my babysitter was Muslim, and so were the rest of the members of her family. She never schooled us on religion and never really brought it up, but I remember seeing her wearing a hijab and taking an hour every day to pray when I was little.

I also remember when 9/11 happened, and I was so confused as to why people thought all Muslims were terrorists, because when I think of Muslims, I think of the women that took care of me everyday for the first several years of my life and who would never hurt a fly. I knew that she was Muslim, and that was it.

And I never thought anything of it. I just knew that was what she believed, and I didn't care one way or the other. In recent years, I've still visited her and asked questions to get a better understanding of her religion. Basically, Muslims believe in God, and believe in Jesus. A big difference is that the Muslim religion also believes in prophets, and believe that Jesus was simply another prophet like Moses or Abraham.

Unfortunately, there are also groups of Muslims that are very extreme, and those are the groups that are usually associated with terrorism.