Why Islam is closer to Judaism, not Christianity

There are three religions that worship the same God. These are called Abrahamic religions, because they stem from Abraham/Ibrahim, and they include Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Politics between Israel and the Arab World has had many negative effects, not least of which are misconceptions of Judaism throughout the Muslim World.

Islam is a religion of orthopraxy, meaning “right practice.” This is why Islam has Five Pillars of Faith, mandated daily prayers, and regulations on lifestyle. Judaism is also a religion of orthopraxy. Just as Muslims have dietary laws that require food to be halal, Jews have very similar dietary laws that require food to be kashrut, or kosher. For these two religions, a follower demonstrates his or her piety through behavior, i.e. following the roadmap for life as per the word of God.

Unlike Judaism and Islam, Christianity is a religion of orthodoxy, meaning “right belief.” Piety is determined less by one’s adherence to a lifestyle mandated by scripture, and more by a follower’s belief that Jesus/Isis represents the Holy Trinity, or Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Judaism and Islam believe that all recognized Prophets are equal, beginning with Abraham/Ibrahim. The Prophet Muhammad is the Seal of the Prophets, or the final Prophet, for Muslims, but he does not have greater significance to Islam than any of the other Prophets, for example Jesus/Isis or Abraham/Ibrahim. This belief in the equality of the Prophets is the same in Judaism. Similarly, both religions respect the Prophets and God by refraining from idolatry, which is why artistic traditions in Islam and Judaism are adamantly focused on symbolism.

For Christians, Jesus/Isis is the most important figure; He is the Son of God, not a Prophet. Furthermore, idolatry is encouraged. The face of Jesus adorns everything from Church ceilings to road-side billboards and clothing While all three Abrahamic faiths stem from the particular monotheistic themes introduced by the Prophet Abraham/Ibrahim, and all three worship the same God, when it comes to demonstration of one’s piety per the mandates of scripture, Islam and Judaism are structurally dissimilar from Christianity.

Lastly, for the sake of a wider dialogue, we should also acknowledge the influence of Zoroastrianism on Christianity (and Islam and Judaism). Zoroastrianism is a Persian faith that predates Judaism, and thus all the Abrahamic faiths, by at least 500 years. It comes from the teachings of Zoroaster, or Zardosht, who saw the world as being divided between forces of Good and Evil, Light and Dark. And while it never quite became a monotheistic faith, it was very close. Christians will remember the story of the three wise men who brought gifts to baby Jesus the night of his birth. These wise men were called Maji. The name for Zoroastrian priests is . . .  Maji. The same. Some other influences are that the holiest day of the year in Zoroastrianism is December 25th, and there is also a prophet who is born to a virgin mother.

This article was not meant to be comprehensive. It was, however, meant to start a respectful dialogue.

*I would also like to declare that my bias toward Religious Studies reflects an Academic approach, which does not always align with a Religious approach. I am interested in all religions and spiritual belief systems, and I don’t prioritize any one over the others.*

 

About the author

Ethan Lazuk

Born in Montana in 1989, I attended high school in Phoenix, Arizona, and college at Northern Arizona University and The University of Connecticut, before finally coming to The University of Montana, from which I recently earned a Bachelor's degree in Central and Southwest Asian Studies. I currently live in Washington D.C.


Although American English is my first language, I also have an intermediate/advanced knowledge of Modern Standard Arabic, with some Lebanese and Gulf vocabulary, as well as a basic knowledge of Farsi-Persian. My academic areas of interest include Cultural Anthropology, Islamic Studies, and Environmental and Human Geography. While my research interests include pre-Islamic religions and socio-political structures from the Middle Eastern and Central Asian regions; the formative years of Islam and the subsequent developments of alternative interpretations, or madhabs; intra-communal and inter-religious relationships in a pre-colonial context; the effects of colonial encounters on indigenous community structures and socio-religious ideologies; Orientalist versus indigenous historical narratives and interpretations; and political Islam and modern-day social movements, especially in response to Western foreign policy. In 2010, I was a summer intern with the Department of Defense, working on Ft. McNair Army Base in the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, and I have traveled in Istanbul, Turkey and lived for three months in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia.


I am a third-generation American of Polish descent. My great-grandparents fled Eastern Europe during the Bolshevik Revolution and entered the United States through Ellis Island. Today, my parents and sister live in Colorado, where they are surrounded by the beautiful Rocky Mountains. I am also happily married to the love of my life named Dania. Originally from al-Madinah, Saudi Arabia, she came to the United States two years ago as an exchange student. She is a practicing Muslim. But I am a searcher who finds beauty in all religions, and therefore I do not belong to any one religion in particular. But her and I having different religious beliefs has not negatively affected our marriage. In fact, it has brought us closer together. We respectfully embrace our differences, while cherishing our infinite similarities. If being in an inter-faith marriage has taught me one thing, it is that religious differences are not a cause for division, but for collaboration.

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