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Muslims are mainly Arabs, and Islam is
the exclusive religion of the Middle East.
The first misconceptions that westerners held concerning Islam
is “Muslims are mainly Arabs, and Islam is the exclusive religion of the
“Middle East”. Believing that Islam is only a religion for Middle East is a myth that
was spread by the enemies of Islam early in its history. This mistaken assumption
is possibly based on the fact that most of the first generation of Muslims was
Arabs, the Qur'an is in Arabic and the Prophet Muhammad was an Arab. Shaykh
Khalid Yasin said that 1 out of 5 people in this world are a Muslim. This means
that people who embrace Islam, which is Muslims, consist of vast range of races
nationalities and cultures from around the world. And the largest Islam
community lies in Indonesia, which lies on the Asian continent. This shows that
Islam is not specifically for the Middle East people, or specifically Arabs.
Based on the fact given above, we can see that that Islam
is for all, regardless ages, race, nationality or even language. Allah mentioned in the Quran Surah Al'imraan verse 85:
“If anyone desires a religion other than Islam (Submission to Allah),
Never will it be accepted of him; and in the Hereafter he will be in the ranks
of those who have lost."
In this verse, it is
clear that Allah mentioned that if anyone, not specifically Arabs, desires a
religion other than Islam, it would never be accepted by Him.
There is not a single Quranic passage, or hadith which states that Islam is for Arabs only . Prophet Muhammad last sermon mentioned:
“All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over black nor does a black have any superiority over white except by piety and good action. Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood. Nothing shall be legitimate to a Muslim which belongs to a fellow Muslim unless it was given freely and willingly. Do not, therefore, do injustice to yourselves.”
This sermon
specifically stated that the even the Arabs has no superiority over non-Arab
nor non-Arab have any superiority over an Arab. This shows that Islam highly
promotes the equalities over all people.
Generally, it is known that not all Middle East, or
specifically Arabs, embraces Islam. There are other religion practiced by the
Middle Eastern people, or Arabs, such as Jew, Christians and atheist. It is also known that not all countries from
the Middle East can be considered Middle Eastern people or Arabs. For example, we can see Turkey and Iran (Persia), in
which the people who live in these countries speak languages other than Arabic
as their native tongues and are of a different ethnic heritage than the Arabs.
Based on the history itself we can see that there was Bilal, the African slave
which shows that Islam is not for Middle Eastern only.
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