We do not and should not "teach" religion in schools, but we can and should teach a little about religions, in order to give students religious tolerance and understanding of what people of other religions believe. Learning about Islam is especially useful for Jews and Christians, because it helps them to understand the tradition of monotheism that they share with Muslims.

Islam historically originated in the Western part of Saudi Arabia.  It was there that the Prophet Muhammad received a series of revelations from God, through the Angel Gabriel, beginning in the year 610 of the Christian Era. The first revelation came to the Prophet while he was meditating in a cave. The revelations to Mohammed continued until shortly before the his death and are recorded in the Koran, the holy book of Islam.

Muhammad lived in the city of Mecca, where he was a successful businessman married to a wealthy widow.  When he received his first revelations, he was afraid that he was going crazy.  His wife helped him to accept his mission as God's messenger.  People in Mecca at that time worshipped many gods, and Muhammad's message was not popular.  He made only a few converts, and in the year 622 AD he and his followers fled Mecca to the city of Medina.

Eventually the Muslims peacefully conquered Mecca, and Islam spread throughout Arabia.  After the death of the Prophet, Islam then spread out to the rest of the world.  Today about one out of every five people in the world is a muslim.  Islam is now--or will soon become--the religion with the second largest number of adherents in the United States.

Muslims believe that there is one God and that Muhammad was the final prophet in a series of prophets beginning with Adam--including Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and others.  Muslims believe in the legitimacy of Biblical revelation, and that Jews and Christians are fellow believers in the same God.  In fact, many of the figures in the Koran--Mary (in Arabic, Miriam), Jesus (in Arabic, Aissa)--can be found in both the Bible and the Koran.

The following is an excerpt from the Koran.  It tells of the story of Joseph (not Joseph the father of Jesus, but the Joseph whose brothers abandoned him in a pit).  It has been translated into English from  Arabic, and has interesting similarities and differences with the story of Joseph in the Old Testament.  Whether one believes that this is the word of God or not, it is still a great story.

Q: Why did Joseph's brothers throw him into a pit?

A: They were jealous because they thought their father loved Joseph more.

Q: Did Joseph's brothers want to kill Joseph?

A: No.  They left him where a passing caravan might find him.  They just wanted to get him out of the way.

Q: Why didn't Joseph's mother step in to protect him?

A: The story doesn't tell us, but she may have been dead.  Joseph's father had more than one wife; Joseph and his younger brother (Benjamin) were full brothers, and those that put him in the pit were only half-brothers to them.

Q: What kind of a pit did Joseph get tossed in to and how did he get out?

A: It was a well, and people came to draw water from the well and rescued him.

Q: What are the accusations and counter-accusations in the story, and how did they figure out who was telling the truth?

A: The wife of the Egyptian to whom Joseph was a servant said that Joseph had tried to rape her.  Joseph said that she had tried to seduce him and he had fled from her.  If the woman was telling the truth then Joseph's clothes would be torn in the front (from her resistance), but if the woman was lying and Joseph was telling the truth, then Joseph's clothes would be torn in the back (from her trying to pull him back).  His clothes were torn in the back, so he was telling the truth.

Q: What do we learn from this text about of slavery in the time of Joseph?

A: We learn that slaves were not always badly treated.  Sometimes they were treated like family members or even adopted.  Slavery is bad, but it has been practiced in different ways at different times and in different places. It has been worse in some places (eg, the plantation system in the American South) than in others (eg, in Egypt at the time of Joseph).

Q: What kind of a person was Joseph?

A: Very handsome--the women all cut themselves because they were so distracted by his beauty.  He was also patient (to spend time in prison and not get discouraged), wise and inspired (to interpret dreams), and forgiving (he forgave his brothers).

Q: What is the moral or morals of the story?

A: The end of the text tells the morals.  On one level the story is addressed to the Prophet Muhammad by God, to encourage him to persevere in the face of adversity and to have faith that God will take care of him in the end.  On another level the morals of the story--faith and perseverance--are intended for all people.