An important difference

Submitted by Kepha Hor (United States), Dec 1, 2010 at 17:32

Judaism and Islam are both religions of law...

But, this Christian observer would like to note some important differences.

The foundational texts of Judaism recognize that the Chosen People can go wrong. It's a major theme of both the Torah and the Prophets. Indeed, the whole of the earlier prophets is a chronicle of how the Chosen People went wrong--and brought on themselves the national death and dispersion that God had decreed against the Canaanites.

Also, Judaism recognizes a yetzer r'a (evil impulse) in man, where as Islam--if I hear the da'wa people correctly--tell me that man is basically good and that there is nothing like the Christian doctrine of original sin. Perhaps on this latter point I am mistaken, and that the Muslim denial of original sin is just a hook on which to catch dissatisfied (and doctrinally ill-informed) Christians, and would welcome correction.

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