The followers of the three monotheistic religions are often called, as a whole, “the people of the book” because of their almost genetic way of passing down and ‘mutating’ each other’s stories and scriptures–or ‘genes’–over the millennia. This way of referring to these groups implies that they treat each other like family, but they don’t always act as such. Current conflicts between Muslim extremists and the Jews they kill or drive out of their newly seized lands have raised doubts about the moral compasses possessed by such extremists and how those beliefs could have descended from their abrahamic ancestor (Pullella). In the realm of Judaism and Islam, the religious moral compass’s magnetic north is weighted based on the definitions of …show more content…
Instead, they believe that God has an infinite power of forgiveness with which he uses to deliver people from evil and toward proper conduct (Clendenen 414). In Judaism, there is a holiday that is entirely dedicated to making atonements and righting the wrongs of the past year called Yom Kippur. Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman said that “[Yom Kippur] is a day to catalogue sins and, as you say, ask forgiveness … In the vernacular, it was sort of getting right with God,” (“Atonement”). In Jewish tradition, not only do they see forgiveness from God, they seek forgiveness from other people before asking God (McCullough, Pargament, and Thoresen 314). This practice is quite similar to that of Islam, the only difference being the use of steps in Islam, as said by Imam Johari Abdul-Malik: “One, to admit that what you've done is wrong; two, to detest it in your heart; three, to commit to turn away from it and not to go back; four, to make restitution; and then five, to ask for God's forgiveness,” (“Atonement”). These two examples do not depict a variation in ideals between these religions, but instead show a distinct hint at the underlying genealogy between them. At least in this light, Judaism seems to be the grandpa or great uncle of Islam that their pedigree would lead one to