Chapter 11 deals with the emergence of Islam.
I posted a link which points to the Kaaba (the word none of us could remember during class). The Kaaba is the giant cube in Mecca. In the days preceding Muhammad the Kaaba contained over three hundred images of religious icons. Once Mohammed's rule took Mecca it was replaced by one.
As described in the book, prayers in Islam were originally pointed towards Jerusalem, this direction was later modified and all prayers point towards Mecca now.
Muhammad was born in Mecca and like Buddha and Jesus we went on a sort of sabbatical where he gained his insight. His teachings were much different than Jesus who worked in concert with the State, he was the State. There was no distinction between religion and law, all was based on the religious law which crossed countries and nationalities.
This belief system spread throughout the Middle East and Asia and currently contains 22% of the world's population.
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I wonder why Muslims never question the reason why they used to face Jerusalem in prayer and had to do a sudden change towards Mecca. If it was appropriate before, why was it wrong to continue to do so? Since they believe that there should be no mediator between God and man, why pray where Muhammad was born? Was it spiritually correct to do the change just because Muhammad got displeased with certain jews during his times or was it pride that drove him to do it?
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