Is Islam a denomination of Christianity?

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A while ago, I was reading about the Crusades. Apparently, European Christian leaders at the time saw Islam as a heresy of Christianity, rather than a separate religion. Of course, they told the illiterate masses that Islam was a pagan religion of goat worship. This is where Islamophobia comes from.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_in_Islam
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_in_Islam

I think that it's time for medieval prejudices to end. Don't you?

They are very closely related.

The existence of the Prophet Muhammad precludes the possibility that it is merely a sect of Christianity.

Jesus is shunted into the background with the status of Isaiah and other such “major prophets” with no divinity.

I read somewhere that some Muslims criticize Jews for not recognizing Jesus as a saint or prophet or whatever the official Muslim view is. BTW Isaiah is a major prophet in Judaism, Jesus really has no standing at all however some Jews apparently view him as a "minor prophet" — it would be a big deal for Jews to rank him alongside Isaiah. Plus so many Jews have been killed in Jesus' name (I realize this is a gross simplification but hopefully you get the idea) that it's no wonder many aren't attracted to him, unless they actually convert. No disrespect mean to Jews who have in fact converted.

Much of modern day Judaism developed around the same time as Jesus' ministry. I think a big difference is that the rabbis who set forth Jewish canon at that time left written testaments, but Jesus did not. I mean no disrespect to Christians when I say that Jesus was clearly out of the Jewish mainstream. Of course I believe Christians admire him for that.

I don't know how widespread this opinion among Muslims. Despite being anti-Zionist, it seems many Muslims in the US are not all that prejudiced against Jews per se. In fact, a fairly religious Muslim I know (he has been to Mecca more than once) told me that he prefers dealing with Russian Jews over non-Jewish Russian immigrants. I suspect this is less true in Europe or the Middle East.

BTW to my mind Islam and Judaism have very similar world views. Much more alike to each other than either is to Christianity (especially American Evangelical Christianity) despite the fact that Islam does recognize Jesus to some extent.

Many early Christians believed that Jesus was fully human, rather than being one with God. This is understandable if you read the New Testament. The New Testament is frustratingly vague about the exact nature of Jesus.

For example, Jesus is supposed to be the son of God ... but don't Christians believe that we are all descendants of God? Isn't that what the phrases "Father God" and "children of God" imply? It's pretty confusing.

In another part of the New Testament, Jesus describes himself as "the son of man". I'm still not entirely sure of what this means. Perhaps he is clarifying that God isn't a women.

For all of these reasons, the early Christian church eventually had to establish the true nature of Jesus. They established that he was both fully God and fully human.

Those who disagreed with this were persecuted. Many of them fled to the Middle East in order to avoid persecution. Muhammad spent some time with these rebel Christians during his youth. This probably isn't a coincidence.

What I meant: Jesus is considered a major prophet in Islam, with no divinity. I said nothing about Jews.

The very definition of Christianity is a belief in Jesus Christ as being divine in some way.

That is basically true.

When Christianity first began to spread in Roman times it split into various versions, later branded as "heresies", and some of the early Christianities were even farther removed theologically from modern Christianity than modern Islam is removed from modern Christianity.

And when Islam first began to spread beyond what is now Saudi Arabia in the Eighth Century it was regarded by the Churches of both Rome and Byzantium as being just another form of Arianism - one of the many already existing heresies that the then now established Christian orthodoxy condemned. Arianism was non-Trinitarian Christianity. Christ was a prophet of God, but not himself divine. Islam also accepts Christ as a prophet (like Moses before him, and like Mohammed after him), but Islam does not regard Christ, nor any of the other prophets as actually being divine.

However Islam also tacked on an extra book to the Canon. Modern Christians don't accept the Mormons as real fellow Christians because the Mormons concocted the Book of Mormon as a third testament of the Bible. Likewise the Muslims concocted the Koran as a kind of third book on top of the old and new testaments. Cant be doing that and be accepted as Christian. No fanfiction allowed! You cannot add (like the Mormons and Muslims), nor can you subtract (lke the Jews who just stop at the old testament).

It's inaccurate to say that Jews "stop at the old testament". What you call the "old testament" (Tanach in Hebrew) is just the first volume of several that comprise Jewish canon, including the Talmud, the Midrash, and the Shulchan Aruch. I won't go into greater detail, but there are far more pages to go through than in the New Testament.

*Sigh* I wish you know how to read arabic, there's a fantastic booklet on this very subject.

It is by Abou Mousa el Hariri, I couldn't find this book translated in English, it explains in details of the most logical explanation on the origin of Islam:

http://www.muhammadanism.org/Arabic/boo ... t_book.pdf

I believe no one dared to translate it.


Islam, was an extension to an already existing Non-trinitarian Christian sect, which were called the Ebionites.

The Ebionites, unlike the Christians, rejected Paul and consider Jesus only as a Prophet and human. Their gospel was called the Gospel of the Ebionites.

And unlike Christians (Catholics, Orthodoxes, Protestants...all Trinity believers) they kept practicing the Jewish laws, hence why they are were seen as Messianic Jews. And alcohol was prohibited for them, according to the book.

[And that explains why Islam and Sharia are very similar to Judaism and Jewish Laws. Actually in Arabic we call the Jewish laws as "Al Sharia el Yahudia" (Jewish Sharia). The way Jews pray today is also very similar to Muslim's way of praying.
Christians today, are extremely different than the Jews: The old testament is by far less important than the new testament in the Christian lives; that's why Christians today apply nothing from the old laws such as not eating pork,, the mandatory daily praying, Kosher meat (Which is called halal in Islam)...etc ]



According to the book, the Ebionites originated from Jerusalem, were the Jews who believed in Jesus but yet couldn't abandon their strict Jewish monotheist belief, hence why they didn't believe him as a god. They were very radically against the Jesus's divinity concept, exactly like the Muslims today. It is also theorized they were originally Nazarenes.

After the declaration of Nice Decree by the two largest churches (Catholics and Orthodoxes) in 325, which defined Christianity as Trinity believers and by result, considering all non-Trinity believers as heritics, the Ebionites became the weakest demography in Jerusalem: They were not accepted neither by Jews nor by Christians. So they immigrated toward Arabia, and there got mixed with Arabian tribes.


It really all started with Khadija, Mohammad's first wife, who was older than him and richer, was a member of the Ebionite sect; her cousin was an the Chief priest of this church called Waraqa, he was an educated man who translated the holy books to Arabic. Waraqa was the mentor of his wife and later the mentor of Mohammad.

When Mohammad claimed to have seen Angel Gabriel, Waraqa declared him as a Saint / Prophet, and hence Waraqa's word was the highest in this sect, the Ebionites eventually became Mohammad's followers.

How else do you think Mohammad got his first army?

The amazing thing is, when you read this book you realize that Islam, is not really a newer religion than Trinitarian Christianity, and there was "Islam" before Islam - Mohammad didn't invent much - so Islam is something ancient....very ancient, an ancient faith as old as the Trinitarian Christianity which was always seen as a threat to the Trinity faith, and that's the secret of its powerful emergence.

The conflict between Islam's view on Jesus vs Christianity's view on Jesus didn't start with Islam.....it started way before that.

From the book:

My translation: Where is the previous book which Waraqa and the Prophet (Mohammad) relied upon? And what is it? And what its teachings? Is it the Torah and the Gospel together? And which Torah and which Gospel exactly? And We know that there were many versions of Torahs and Gospels, and some which were considered official while others as false and heretic (by the Church). However, the Arabic Qur'an mentions only one "Gospel" as if there's only true one and no else, it never mentions the Gospel in dual nor in plural form (In Arabic there's three form: Single form, dual form and plural form).

And other sources such as Hadith and Sira mentions it as well, and mentions it as a Hebrew holy book. Yet, we find in the Arabic Quran teachings which don't exist in the known "Hebrew Gospel"! So how is that possible? The truth is, that we are erroneous when we say that the priest of Mecca (Waraqa) was relying only on the "Hebrew Gospel" without taking into account other Gospels and other teachings inspired from Nazarenes and ancient Christian oral traditions. Fact is, the Quran has collected information from many sources, and we should be patient before to understand the truth later in the book.

If Islam is considered a branch of Christianity, then Christianity should be considered a branch of Judaism. Protestantism should be counted as a branch of Catholicism. Of course, few are going to make such arguments. Where a faith has it's origins, and where it ends up can be two different things.

^ Islam comes from the “other branch” of Christianity - not the Christianity you know; but from a Christianity that evolved in contemporary with Trinitirian Christianity, the two were always seperate and time and geography even set them more apart.

It started from two conflicted views on Jesus among the Earliest Christians.

To use Darwinist language, you might say they share a common ancestor.

Um...no. Christianity and Islam are diametrically opposed. They're never going to live peacefully with each other...they never have and never will.

Regardless of how one may perceive on faith or the other, the fact remains that Mohamed had been deeply influenced by Christians he had met along trade routes in Arabia.

Um no.

Islam is to Christianity what Pepsi is to Coke. Manifestly very similar to each other.

Their similarities to each other don't stop them from hating each other, and don't stop both from hating their common parent Judaism.

Yes, exactly.