Do Muslims pray to the same God as Catholics or not?

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Yes, of course @Eric_Hyom on a spiritual/emotional level, but I phrased it this way to mean what should be done in a practical sense.

How does love of your neighbour work out on a practical sense.

I.e.,
  • if you say that Muslim taxi driver does not have to carry the guide dog, the vision- impaired person will say you are discriminating against him/her.
  • If you say the strict Muslim driver must carry the guide dog, the Muslim will say that you are discriminating against him.
What would you personally do?

Love of neighbour isn’t so simple when it comes to practical, real life situations.

Do you personally believe it is possible to have love of neighbour, while at the same time having national laws that are according to that countries values, even if they are in conflict with certain peoples religious practices?

Or do you believe love of neighbour means that you always accommodate to individuals practices, even if they are extreme/fundamentalistic interpretations of their religion?
 
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Rozellelily said:
Personally, I find nothing that attract me to Islamic faith, but I can’t understand how there can be different “paths”?
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I believe God allows these other religions to exist, but does not actively will them to flourish and spread, as many have.

I believe the Catholic Church has entered a sort of divided Kingdom period much like what happened to Israel after Solomon’s reign ended.

Both the northern and southern kingdoms were still Gods chosen people, but Jeroboam broke the covenant by erecting the idols and sought to replace Yahweh with these other gods.

If you took today’s Church and placed them in that time period, many clergy and laity would try to convince us that jeroboam and those who choose to worship the idols are worshiping the same God as Yahweh.

Plus they would suggest that because they are still God’s chosen people, they are protected under the covenant and therefore can still receive God’s graces.

Yet, we know what happened to the northern kingdom and eventually the southern kingdom, because they both broke the covenant. Now we are under the blood of the new covenant. It would be foolish to believe that there are no repercussions for breaking the new covenant.
 
Rozellelily said:
How does love of your neighbour work out on a practical sense.

I.e.,
  • if you say that Muslim taxi driver does not have to carry the guide dog, the vision- impaired person will say you are discriminating against him/her.
  • If you say the strict Muslim driver must carry the guide dog, the Muslim will say that you are discriminating against him.
What would you personally do ?
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I think this might be a rare occurrence. The chances are that not all Muslim taxi drivers would refuse to take a guide dog. I am not sure this is something that we can judge Islam by. Not all taxis cab take disabled people in a wheel chair, so you have to look for one that can.

As much as life seems unfair, we just have to find ways to adjust and cope.
Rozellelily said:
Love of neighbour isn’t so simple when it comes to practical, real life situations.
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I believe I was unfairly sacked in 2011 from a job I had been doing for ten years. I never had a day of sick, I did a lot of jobs other people seemed afraid to do, caring for people with challenging behaviour. A colleague I had been working with for a few years, witnessed an event that would have helped my defence, she said she would write a witness statement for me. But the manager told her she should not write this statement; so she didn’t. This lady died unexpectedly a couple of months later, my prayers were that I have forgiven her, and that God also forgives her.

Since being sacked; I have done about two thousand hours of voluntary work for the people who sacked me. On occasions, I come into contact with the people responsible for my sacking, I pray that God will bless them and give them peace.

It has been easier for me to do two thousand hours of voluntary work, rather than to hold onto any anger; resentment and hate I could have for them.
 
Eric_Hyom said:
The chances are that not all Muslim taxi drivers would refuse to take a guide dog. I am not sure this is something that we can judge Islam by. Not all taxis cab take disabled people in a wheel chair, so you have to look for one that can
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Eric, it is relatively rare in the sense that majority of taxi drivers here are moderate Muslims, but it is not so rare to not be relevant. I agree with you that Islam shouldn’t be judged on these occurrences, but at the same time I don’t think it should be swept under the rug issues about extreme expressions of Islam and that they are social issues.

Unfortunately, I can’t agree with you about the disabled issue. Those taxi drivers only refuse disabled people on a practical basis, solely on the fact that the wheelchair can’t fit into the cab, and not for any religious or person reasons. With this reasoning, at what point would we stop? E.g., if a driver states according to their religion they won’t carry women, or single women alone, or people with blonde hair, or a certain ethnic group, etc?
Even if you say that that those given scenarios are unlikely in a western country, I think you understand what I am saying.

Some Muslims and Christians practice polygamy as part of their religions- does this mean that our countries should accommodate this due to religious belief and accept/legalise polygamy?
I feel that balance and moderation is very important in life and that rules should be made according to moderate mentalities.

Most Muslims here do not dress their young daughters in niqab publicly, but it does happen. *So should the parents rights to extreme religious expression be held more important than the child’s rights to not be sexualized?
Whether it is a child dressed/posed like a 20 something year old model, or a child dressed in a niqab, both are types of sexualization because the child should not be considered something in any form to need covering in the first place.

I am very sorry that this happened to you. You seem like a great person and an amazing example of the Christian faith. I can clearly sense this through your posts.
Eric_Hyom said:
Since being sacked; I have done about two thousand hours of voluntary work for the people who sacked me
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Are you not worried that they will take advantage of you?
Can I asked why you agreed to do this? Even if you were able to truly let go of the hurt feelings and anger, but then to actually volunteer for them, why?
Is it because it is a different dept. from those responsible for your sacking? But if so, even then they happily accept your “quality of work” for volunteer work, but say your “quality of work” is not good enough when it comes to actually paying you?
 
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ReaderT said:
He does not. Spiritual depth comes only through the correct faith.
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By “spiritual depth” I mean they get some spiritual state and then become deeper and deeper into their faith.
For example: I heard of some woman from my own background (Croatian). Instead of staying Catholic like most Croatians, she became a Muslim, she was given a “new” Muslim name, she became more and more devout and stated than she found peace and fulfillment etc. So why does God do this? Or does Orthodox Church not believe that it is God but another spiritual source?
Which in that case would open a whole other can of worms…
 
How do Catholics answer a person who asks how do they know their religion is the “right” one?
I was asked this the other day and the person said: "Catholics will say theirs is correct, Muslims will say theirs is, etc…
There is no point saying to them look at the catechism, or Pope etc, because they just respond “Muslims say look at the Quran”, etc.
If you say, look at history -Catholic and Orthodox have been around longer than Islam (or even longer than other christian like protestant), they will respond "Hinduism has been around longer than all of them).
I really couldn’t find a satisfactory answer to give them:(
 
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Rozellelily said:
it is relatively rare in the sense that majority of taxi drivers here are moderate Muslims,
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I wonder the streets of our town until about 4 am on a Saturday morning; as a volunteer with Street Pastors. I often see Muslim taxi drivers put up with a lot of rubbish from drunken revellers. Islam is anti alcohol.
Rozellelily said:
Most Muslims here do not dress their young daughters in niqab publicly, but it does happen. * So should the parents rights to extreme religious expression be held more important than the child’s rights to not be sexualized?
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We can have out different thoughts on this, but the bottom line is modesty. It might seem extreme in our eyes, but it is still about modesty. I see the traumas young western girls put themselves through to look attractive.
Rozellelily said:
Is it because it is a different dept. from those responsible for your sacking?
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No, the same manager and staff.
Rozellelily said:
Are you not worried that they will take advantage of you?
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No one is taking advantage of me, at the sacking interview; I asked if I could come back as a volunteer, they said no.
Rozellelily said:
Can I asked why you agreed to do this? Even if you were able to truly let go of the hurt feelings and anger, but then to actually volunteer for them, why?
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I knew that the people I had supported would miss out on a lot if I did not volunteer. But more importantly, you have to prove to yourself what forgiveness means. I can only say; I would not liked to have lived with nine years of resentment.

Christians interpret what forgiveness means to them. This forum proves Catholics have diverse understandings of our faith. Likewise Muslims.
 
Eric_Hyom said:
often see Muslim taxi drivers put up with a lot of rubbish from drunken revellers. Islam is anti alcohol.
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To some level I can understand why they are, as binge drinking isn’t good values either, but I don’t believe the more strict Muslim’s should be allowed to deny passengers with closed bottles. I come from a migrant background also & we have to accept the values of our new country.
Some Muslim countries like Lebanon and Jordon allow moderate alcohol drinking.
Eric_Hyom said:
still about modesty. I see the traumas young western girls put themselves through to look attractive
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It isn’t either/or though. Both extremes are unhealthy for society & the individual. Modesty is for adults, and for teenagers. Children have nothing to be modest of. But some Muslim’s dress their young children (before teens) in this wear. This is dangerous for children.

Even for adult women I don’t believe it is healthy because if this extreme form of modesty was a good and godly thing, you would expect there would be less negative societal issues in the countries in where it (niqab) is practiced. Yet there are large issues. Egyptian women report constantly being sexually harressed in the streets even when wearing a Niqab (full face cover), child sex abuses still happen, there is still a culture in many Middle East countries of child sexual abuse as something being shameful to the family & that victims should not talk about it, there is still a tendency among many in Mid East to believe that women should be chaste but men’s behaviour turned a blind eye to, honour killings for women still happen… but how many honour killings we hear happening to a man? The reality is women are perceived as dishonouring their families through their behaviour more than a man is etc…

Modesty should not be confused with extremism.
The are Muslim’s in my own ethnicity and I have no issue with the Hijab at all - it is a beautiful form of modesty expression. But I cannot accept Niqab (full face cover) as healthy.

I am not being negative to people from Middle East. There are so many wonderful people from there. But the point is extreme form of modesty has not benefitted their societies.
 
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Eric_Hyom said:
I knew that the people I had supported would miss out on a lot if I did not volunteer. But more importantly, you have to prove to yourself what forgiveness means
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That’s wonderful that you did this. If you are working in some field where you are helping people then that’s very honourable and selfless as those people still receive your support and don’t miss out. But if it was a corporate job, I’m not sure I would be so kind to the company.
 
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Rozellelily said:
For example: I heard of some woman from my own background (Croatian). Instead of staying Catholic like most Croatians, she became a Muslim, she was given a “new” Muslim name, she became more and more devout and stated than she found peace and fulfillment etc. So why does God do this? Or does Orthodox Church not believe that it is God but another spiritual source?
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A couple thoughts:
  1. Being “devoted” to something doesn’t necessarily reflect on the piety of her soul. You can be devoted to non-religious things even, like a sports team, a TV series, anything. The fact that she is more “observant” as a muslim may simply be because Islam frankly demands more external actions than Catholicism (wearing the burqa, praying 5x per day, fasting all of Ramadan, etc).
  2. Christ is the only one who brings true and lasting peace and fulfillment because He’s the only one who can. If we don’t believe that, we’re not Christians. So either:
    a) The peace she’s experiencing is temporary and/or not very deep (even the Pharisees felt satisfaction by checking all the boxes and lording it over the Publicans)
    b) She has discovered a Christian virtue in her religious practice and this gives her peace. For example Islam teaches that she isn’t the center of the universe, so maybe she is cultivating some humility, which is actually a Christian virtue. The fullness of truth is found in Christianity, but the other religions may have a correct idea here and there.
 
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@catholic03
Thank you for the video. It was very thought provoking and I liked how the Bishop mentioned about respectfully sharing Jesus with the Muslim’s and not trying to force it onto them.

Looking at both sides of things from the Bishop Schneider and from the Pope:
  • On one hand, if we worship the same God then why can’t a Catholic pray in a Mosque, and why can’t a Muslim pray in a Catholic Church?
    After all, we are worshipping the same God. Even if “both sides” can’t agree on Christ divinity, the prayers are ultimately still received by the same God.
    Even if one faiths understand of full truth is wrong, ultimately it is the same God so why is it a sin?
  • On the other hand, society has become so proselytization fatigued” that these days any attempt of “sharing Jesus” is usually met with immediate resistance, eye roll, amusement, perhaps even mocking, thought that the person is a religious zealot etc…
    So would any Muslim be even receptive to someone “sharing Jesus” with them?
They will probably be polite but say “I have my own religious beliefs. We believe in Jesus as a prophet but not that he is God”.

And anyone sharing their religion needs to be prepared for questions. Questions which often don’t have “satisfying” answers to the human intelligent. Like explaining the Holy Trinity. Why “your” religion is truly right vs the others, and no just that, but why is your “denom” right vs the others etc…
 
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Our priest told us this joke -

A Muslim goes up to heaven and St Peter said, I will show you around. Over there is where all the Hindus are, and he points out where all the Anglicans live. St Peter said, we are coming up to a wall, I want you to duck down and be quiet as we walk past. All the Catholics live behind the wall and they think they are the only ones here.
 
Your priest may very well be right, but there are still real issues, difficulties, and concerns in this earthly life that we live in:)
 
There is only one God so yes they pray to the same God.

But they reject God has come and Saved the world.

Catholic’s are the only ones and break away Christians who believe God did come in Lord Jesus and became man

No other religion believes God become man.

Hope that helps.
 
englands123 said:
But they reject God has come and Saved the world.

Catholic’s are the only ones who believe God did come in Lord Jesus and became man

No other religion believes God become man.
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I fully agree with you, but we share this Earth with people of many diverse beliefs. The greatest commandments do not say; go and make everyone a Catholic.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the priest and the Levite walk past the wounded man. The Samaritan, who would have been regarded in the same kind of way as a Muslim today, tends to the wounded man.

If religious duties were important; Jesus did not mention any; when he was asked about the important question of salvation and what is greatest.

Would the Samaritan in the parable have been granted salvation? He was neither a Jew or a Christian, all he did was show compassion to a stranger.
 
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He did mention it my friend.

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

Jesus knew the devil would do his upmost to break the church and continues to do so today.

Many will cry out I knew you Jesus and Jesus will still reject them. For they turned away from his teachings.

I am not saying he doesn’t love everyone. Of course he does. Ultimately it’s up to the Lord who is saved. But he has tried to show us the way.

A Muslim rejects Jesus teachings and follows a different path of teaching.
 
Muslims are under the Law. I think.?

Atleast that’s my best idea. Also idk about you, but the prophets can be confusingggggg. I wouldn’t even bother with them if it wasn’t for the Catholic Church. I believe the prophets were prophets but how can I believe the prophets when I probably, 99/100 times don’t understand what they mean? But I understand Jesus pretty well. Love, sacrifice, forgiveness, generosity. Faith, and hope even when hope seems foolish.
 
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You’re wrong. I can prove it.

I’m looking, but the Catechism says something about if a man does what is good, having no idea about Jesus, then he is saved. Something about trying to live God’s truth.

Already in the second century St Justin spoke of the latter: “Those who acted in accordance with what is universally, naturally and eternally good were pleasing to God and will be saved by Christ … just like the righteous who preceded them”

Let me find it in the Catechism. I couldn’t find it in the Catechism, but the Popes say yes.

Here’s something on what Pope Benedict said,


And Pope Francis,


Idc what anyone says, that is His Holiness speaking.
 
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