Islam is often presented in the media with a negative stereotype of violence and evil in relation to terrorism and terrorist acts, not as a religion. After reading the chapter on Islam in Honoring the Faith of Our Neighbors, I discovered that much of the teaching on Islam attempts to promote harmony and to in no way commit harmful acts towards others or be a terrorist . I personally had a misconception about this concept of linking all Islamists and Muslims with words like militant and terrorist. A patient of mine recently attempted to explain to me that terrorism is in no way associated with Islam. He highlighted the fact that terrorism goes against the beliefs of Islam. In this article I will provide a brief description of Islam, their beliefs, similarities found with my Catholic religion, and finally my thoughts on whether or not the teaching of Islam promotes violence. Fortress describes Islam, which implies "peace", as a monotheistic religion based on the teachings of Mohammed ibn Abdullah who lived around 570-632. Muslims, those who practice the religion of Islam, base all aspects of their lives in trying to please their GOD ALLAH. You may notice that all letters in these words are capitalized to show extreme respect for their supreme being. Muslims in addition to pleasing ALLAH, strive to please him and only him. This is done to reach heaven not in this life but in the next. “The future life is better and more lasting” (Ballou, 1999 p. 453). Muslims can be found on every continent of the world, including the United States, and belief in Islam represents the religion of one-fifth of the human race (Fortress, 1999). It is known that Muslims set aside five obligatory times for prayer during the day in addition to personal...... middle of paper...... violence is not implemented in modern times. It is necessary to think and study critically any biblical teaching according to what is the accepted behavior of modern times. My conclusion to the question of whether Islam promotes violence, my answer would be that some passages in the Quran contain violent expressions, but this was acceptable behavior in ancient times. In summary, I have provided a brief description of Islam, mentioned some of their beliefs, identified the similarities found between Islam and the Catholic religion and finally presented my thoughts on the question of whether or not the teaching of Islam promotes violence. An interesting ending though, my patient had asked me how long I had been studying Islam and its teachings because he said I seemed very educated in my ability to converse with him. He really didn't believe me when I told him it had only been a few days.