re: Dumb question, I know, but is Islam a form of Christianity?

I grew up Baptist and I have fond memories of planning suicide bombing missions over Christmas break. Cheering at the death of non Baptist children in their aftermath.

Go tell that to a devout muslim and watch their reaction.

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If two groups attribute highly different traits, motivations and actions to the same theorized entity, are those entities truly the same?

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Theoretically yes. They believe that that God came from the same place and spoke through some of the same people. The difference between the three Abrahamic faiths is which prophets those faiths put the most emphasis on listening to. In Christianity, the most important prophet is Jesus, who is seen as the son of God, a divine being in his own right. His teachings are the focus of the religion.

In Islam, it is Muhammed who is seen as the Messiah. It is thus his teachings and philosophy that is given the most weight and is considered to be governing.

In Judaism, they don't believe the Messiah has come yet. So, the prophet they give the most weight to is that of Moses, who wrote the first 5 books of the Old Testiment. In those books, you will find the rules given by God to govern society.

Some of those rules (but far from all) were adopted by Islam. While those rules also informed Christian civilizations, many do not abide by those laws, seeing Jesus as replacing them, rather than supplanting them.

In reality, Jesus did not tell people to stop following the laws handed down in Deuteronomy and Leviticus, but rather that mankind should not be in charge of enforcement of those laws, that God is the ultimate judge (rather than man), that those laws represent a standard worth striving for, that forgiveness and atonement for failing to live up to those standards is available on earth, that those whose sins are forgiven are granted eternal life in heaven while those who sin spend eternity in Hell, and that some simpler rules of thumb to follow (the beatitudes and the golden rule) tend to be an easy way to avoid breaking most of them.

These are key differences, but do not necessarily mean that the God itself is different despite these different religions calling their one God by different names.

They are both considered Abrahamic faiths, because they both trace their roots to Abraham.

Your “friend” is equating the Old Testament with Christianity, which is precisely the difference in the two. Jews, Christians, and albeit a different version of the story, Muslims, all subscribe to the Old Testament concepts.

In short, Muslims believe Mohammed fulfilled the law and the prophets and Christians believe Jesus Christ (Christians~little Christs) fulfills the law and prophets. Jews believe that it has not yet been fulfilled.

Admit it, you hang out with idiots to make yourself feel better, don’t you?

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He probably means that both religions worship the same God.

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No they don’t.

Your friend is a moron

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Dumb question, I know, but is Islam a form of Christianity?

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To be Christian means you believe in the divinity of Christ. Muslims believe that Jesus was one of many in a line of prophets, the penultimate one being Muhammad. Islam is based off of the teachings of all of the prophets to an extent, but all their most sacred texts are Mohammad's words, either written or copied from his spoken words.

So no, Islam is not Christian. Jews also believe that Jesus was a prophet, or great spiritual teacher; but they are also not Christians.

Your friend is right. Islam is form of neo-Pentecostalism.

The Pentecostals took down the towers. Jihadi John was a former deacon at the Mt. Zion church in D.C. before making his way out to the Levant.

Interestingly, Islam does have a thing for Mary. She is the only woman mentioned by name in the Quran (and is mentioned by name more often in the Quran than the New Testament), and they do affirm the virgin birth. What I cannot understand is, if you believe Jesus is just another profit, why was the virgin birth necessary?