Parallels Between Islam and Christianity

I will admit that I knew very little about the Islam religion before arriving at Wheaton College. My parents tried their best to raise me as a Catholic: I attended Sunday School for eleven years, and went to Mass weekly. While I ultimately chose not to accept Catholicism as my religion, I gained a firm understanding of its principles. Throughout my research of Islam, I found many parallels between Catholicism (and Christianity in general) and Islam, similarities that brought me to wonder about the intense strife that historically exists between these two religions. Both religions are monotheistic and indeed worship the same God (Allah in Arabic). Muslims and Christians alike are not expected to visualize God but rather worship him; they do not expect to ever comprehend God’s mysterious ways. The first of the Five Pillars of Islam states that “there is none worthy of worship except God,” just as one of the Ten Commandments mandates that “You shall have no other god before me.” Moreover, and perhaps most integral to this discussion, is the fact that both religions advocate modest dress. For Muslim women, the hijab promotes modesty and prevents men from lusting after women. (I shall discuss this topic in a further post.) The hijab is a valuable aid in promoting gender equality: by concealing their figures, women and men can work as equals without the constant reminder of their physical differences (another topic I shall discuss later). Christian women are also expected to dress modestly. As it is written in the Bible, “I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting; in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but which is proper for women professing godliness with good works” (I TIMOTHY 2:8-10). Ultimately, I have found that the modest dress promoted by both religions is intended to reduce the emphasis on differences in gender between males and females, and to prevent lustful urges. Before researching for this project, I never knew of the extensive similarities between Islam and Christianity. I had always been raised to believe that Catholicism was the “correct” religion, and while I never accepted this belief, I did not know the teachings of other religions. Now, since I have been researching the hijab, I am finding that the strong parallels between these two major religions lead to more questions. If two separate groups of people both follow the same course of social conduct, what does that tell anthropologists about the development of their societies? In some way, this connection between Christianity and Islam justifies this practice of modesty.