I've been following your excellent site (Al-Jazeerah) for months. It has a lot of useful -not available through mainstream media- information and opinions. The updating rate is awesome!

From my studies (I have a Christian background), I have known that "mandatory rituals" for Christians were not very different from those of Muslims, about 200 years ago. Christians had (still HAVE in certain places) to fast for Lent; they had to pray about 8 times a day (read about the "Books of the Hours") and women were forced to wear headscarfs, at least in church.

Christians felt as a part of a "Community" of Christians. Anyway, I condemn the intolerance of old Christian church, forcing conversions "by the Book and the sword" in eastern Europe and America, as well as forcing Muslims (Moors) and Jews out of Spain,  ... etc.

Do you think Islam would "evolve" the way Christianity did? (the relaxation of certain behaviors can be seen as bad or good, it depends on the point of view).

Uh, my link; I'd give it 5 full stars : http://www.cactus48.com, 

Specially interesting is the link http://www.cactus48.com/truth.html

Allah ma'aq (God be with you). This is a phrase I learned from my Lebanese root.

Hassan El-Najjar:

The proper context to discuss your question and answer it is Cold War II and how religion fits there. The United States led the West during Cold War I (1945-1990) to defeat Communism. It did. The Soviet Union is gone and East European countries replaced socialism with capitalism. Eventually, they have been integrated (swallowed) by the Western capitalist machine. The direct cost of Cold War I of military spending to American tax payers was about $12.8 trillion. It was a bonanza for the military industrial complex, Israel, and the big financial institutions that financed the NATO military machine.

Of course the term, Cold War, may be misleading because there were real and horrible wars fought, particularly Korea, Vietnam, Arab-Israeli wars, and many smaller but not less savage wars around the globe. But this was the term used by the power elite media.

Preparations for launching Cold War II started even before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Iran was a target from the first day of its revolution, in 1979, and Iraq became the second target at the end of the Iran-Iraq war, in 1988. Many Cold War entrepreneurs worked diligently to replace Communists with Muslims for a new Cold War, so that their benefits would continue. I discussed this in detail in my book.(1)

They succeeded. The United States, the only remaining superpower, has been dragged to fight Arabs and Muslims in what can be accurately described as Cold War II. The objectives are three folds, controlling the world oil reserves, continuation of military spending in the US and the West on the Cold War level, and removing any threats to the Israeli military superiority in the middle East. These objectives reflect the interests of the tripartite alliance of the power elite that rules the United states right now, namely the military-industrial complex, the oil industry, and Israel.(2)

For such a horrific and multi-decade brutal war to be launched, Cold War II entrepreneurs started to write and speak about the Islamic threat. This started as early as 1988 and continued throughout the 1990s. The 1991 Gulf War and its consequences, the US military presence in Arabia and the resistance to it (terrorism) was a big relief for them. But September 11 attacks gave them the decisive excuse for the US invasion of the Muslim World (The US military is present now in all the Gulf states, central Asian states, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Turkey).

It is in this context, Cold War entrepreneurs started to attack not only Muslims but also Islam itself as a religion. Even the Prophet himself became the subject of attacks. The objective has been to convince people that these Muslims are violent and terrorists because there is something wrong with the religion itself. The whole idea is obscuring the conflict so people would not ask the genuine question: Why are these people doing what they are doing? The elite and their Cold War entrepreneur agents have succeeded to a great extent so far to distract people from the fact that it is the US and Israeli invasions that have triggered the Arab and Muslim resistance, not the other way around.

Now, is Islam genuinely different from Christianity to the extent that people go to devastating wars to impose their religious beliefs on each other? Absolutely, not. George Bush is not out there in Afghanistan to convert Alqaeda and Taliban to become Southern Baptists or to believe in the Evangelical Bible prophecies. Nor Osama Bin Laden is fighting the US in order to convert the American people into Islam. Bush is fighting for oil, more military spending, and supremacy of Israel, and Bin Laden is fighting to force the US out of Arabia.

In the Holy Qur'an, all previous messengers of God are described as Muslims. This includes Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Jesus Christ, and Muhammed. Their righteous followers are also considered as Muslims. Jews and Christians lived among Muslims without persecution for thousands of years and they are not required to convert to Islam. They are the People of the Book. The Islamic teachings and rituals have roots in the Bible, as you mentioned. In fact, Zafar Khan has traced the roots of Islamic prayers to the Bible, as you may read below. Islam is the religion of God that has been revealed to humans in different eras and the Qur'an is the final word of God that supports his previous revelations to humans. 

What I am saying is that it is not religion itself that causes wars. Rulers and influential groups in society launch wars for their own benefits. They use the poor to fight these wars on their behalf, and in order to convince them to go to war, they bring religion to the discussion. Wars have always been fought for the control of resources, whether the infamous crusades of the dark ages or Cold War II now.

Your direct question was about whether Islam can "evolve" the way Christianity "evolved," that is, whether it's going to relax certain teachings, like clothes, diet, etc. It's more accurate to speak about Muslims and Christians instead of speaking about Islam and Christianity. People change but the scriptures don't change. Muslims, like Christians, are not uniform. In every society, the degree of religiosity is different on bases of social class, age, education, and sex among many other factors. As individuals and groups, people of all religions, including Muslims, do not share the same degree of religiosity or observance. So, it's not really an issue of importance. The degree of industrialization, though, is negatively related to the degree of religiosity. People in Europe were more religious before industrialization, so are people in other continents.

The bottom line, today's conflict (Cold War II), is caused by the US-Israeli invasion of the Arab and Muslim worlds. Religion is used by both sides to mobilize people to war. This is sadly the time we are living in.