The Main Religions In Isreal

The Main Religions in Israel

Israel is the home to many religions. Unlike most countries, they try to provide a home with equal civil rights to all citizens, no matter their ethnicity, religion or heritage. There are three major religions that exist in Israel. The main religion, which consists of 77% of Israel's population, is Judaism. This follows with 16% Islam and 2.1% Christian ("Wikamedia Foundation"1) With their similar backgrounds, the followers of these monotheistic faiths have come to view God with some attributes that are common throughout them all to some degree or another.

In Judaism, the most ancient of these religions, the books of the Old Testament are a set of compositions describing God's actions in our world, both directly and indirectly. The Jewish name for their God is Yahweh. Jews believe that Yahweh has chosen them as his people and believe that they share a sacred covenant with him. By following the rules that have been passed down to them by God, they believe that they acquire a divine protection that is unique to them. In this we see that the Jewish concept of God is able to rationalize, favor, and protect man. Through the laws, the Torah, given to the Jews by God, we see that their God also has a sense of justice, which implies the ability to enforce the laws being handed down. In Judaism, the concept of God has led to several beliefs. The belief that Jews are the chosen people has led to the development of an inferiority complex on the part of the Jews when looking at other faiths. They tend believe that since these people are irreverent, they do not share God's favor and therefore are inferior." The concept of God being male has also led to the marginalization of women in Jewish society, taking much of their prestige that was enjoyed in other religions that stressed the female role in fertility and creation. The emulation of God's actions, such as resting on the Sabbath, has been a major practice among the Jews. The concept of justice as delivered to them by Yahweh has inspired in the Jewish population a sense of morality and social justice. This even led to the Jews creating one of the first welfare systems in their state of Israel that was greatly admired and copied by other ancient civilizations. Jews believe their God is a vengeful, jealous God, outraged by idolatry and worshipping of other Gods. The Old Testament is filled with stories of God punishing the Jews when they strayed from His path, using armies and natural disasters as means to destroy their state and scatter them into exile. Another belief is that God speaks through unique men who act as his prophets. There are numerous records of such men, and what is notable about each of their messages is directed from a personal level and perspective. In this way, prophets tend to have a very personal experience and interpretation of God, creating Him in their own image. Prophets gave social commentary based on their experiences, and described their point of view and concerns as Yahweh's. This has led to a belief that theology is a private matter among Jews, and no theological idea of God is enforced upon the Jewish population.(Tannenbaum 5)

The second big religion in Israel is Islam. The Islam originated among nomadic Arabic tribes during a time of great economic and cultural upheaval. The prophet of Islam was Muhammad, a man deeply concerned with the changes in his culture and who believed that traditional values needed to be preserved in order to keep Arabic society intact. The God of Muhammad is known as al'Lah. Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam has also written work to correspond with their faith. This book is known as the Qu'ran, it is unique from the other two religions in that it is believed to be the actual words of God departed to Muhammad, rather than an interpretation of events or a collection of metaphors and laws to correspond with their beliefs. In Islam, al'Lah is able to speak directly through the prophets, and take action in inspiring them and affecting the world of man. Once again, because of a prophet's considered "favored" by God, Muslims believe that by emulating Muhammad they can become closer to al'Lah and more receptive to his word. Since Muhammad took such an active part in organizing government and restructuring the Arabs into a fledgling empire, politics became entwined with religion. From this, Muslims throughout history have participated in an active criticism of their government, believing that religion and government should always be entwined, which goes against our secular thinking of separation of church and state. While believing that al'Lah was found in everything, much like the other two religions, it is thought that we could know God only through his manifestations in our world, not his physical actions. Muslims would find the Christian doctrine of a God incarnated in a man blasphemous to the extreme. Muslims believed that their God was one of ultimate reason, and they were influenced by Hellenistic thought more than any of the other religions. Because reason and truth were thought to be essential, Muslims believed that to an extent they could know God better through knowledge of our physical world, and thus embraced science and mathematics. Indeed, Muslims are responsible for many great advances is medicine and other sciences. The God once again encouraged an adoption of humanistic ideas and in Islam it was a central moral message that each Muslim had a duty to create a just society where the less fortunate were expected to be treated decently. It was viewed as wrong to develop personal wealth at the neglect of society as a whole, and alms-giving became one of the central pillars of the faith of Islam. This belief served as another reason for Muslims to question their governments, especially in cases when it was believed that they had become too rich and powerful at the expense of others. This belief in equality, once again, led to the good treatment of women in a religion. Once again, this privilege and belief was modified and eventually taken away to marginalize women and put them in conditions as harsh as any other monotheistic religion. Islam views theirs as the rational, final evolution of the monotheistic religions, and while they believe that their belief system is superior, they view both Judaism and Christianity with tolerance and consider them related in that they have the same God, just with different prophets and revelations. Because of this, they do not actively pursue converts to their religion, and believe that one can join them only if they wish to. Muslims believe, unlike some other religions, that it is one's choice if they wish to convert to their religion. (Abdulsalam 1)

The third religion in Israel is Christian. Christians share a similar belief of God as the Jews, but believe