Brown sent me an email today, and it was strange, because i had been thinking about pretty much the same thing earlier in the day watchin foxnews/cnn/msnbc before headin to work.... his simple statement was 3 words...Isaac and Ishmael. Now I have copied below a very simplified explanation of this, which basically explains that the Jews (and Christians/Protestants/Catholics) and Muslims (Islam and its offshots) come from the same damn place. This is copied from the Bergen Record, i believe.
Who was Abraham?
Abraham (or "Ibrahim" as pronounced in Arabic) is considered the patriarch (or father) of the Jews and the Arabs. He had two sons: Isaac and Ishmael. Jews trace their ancestry through Isaac. Arabs trace their ancestry through Ishmael.
The story of Abraham is well known to Jews and Christians as well as to Muslims. In Islam he is remembered as one of the great Prophets, and the father of the Prophet Ishmael who was the ancestor of Prophet Muhammad himself.
Long, long ago, a child was born to the Prophet Abraham and his second wife, Hagar. The baby's name was Ishmael and, when he was born, he was Abraham's only son. In those days, it was not unusual for a man to have two wives. Abraham's first wife was named Sarah. She had no children, and this made her sad. But God told Abraham that one day, Sarah too would have a son. He would be named Isaac. Ishmael and Isaac were to be the ancestors of two great nations and three great religions. The nations were the Arabs and the Jews.
The prophet Abraham, revered by Jews and Christians, is a model of faith for all believers in God. He was born in Babylonia (present-day Iraq), during the rule of King Nimrod. He was persecuted for preaching against idol worship and astrology. He invited everyone toward the worship of the one true God.
God tested Abraham's faith by asking the great prophet to sacrifice his son Ishmael.(NOTE: The version in Genesis of the Bible is different in that it is Abraham's son Isaac who would have been sacrificed, not Ishmael.) This test was even more severe because Abraham did not have any children until he fathered Ishmael by his second wife, Hagar, at a very old age. Ishmael exhibited the qualities of prophethood from a young age, urging his father to obey God's command to sacrifice the young man.
Because Abraham and Ishmael were willing to carry out this difficult command, God was pleased; therefore, Allah provided a sheep for Abraham to sacrifice in place of his son.
After passing the great test, Abraham and Ishmael rebuilt the Holy Kaaba, a house dedicated to the worship of the one true God. The Holy Kaaba, which stands at the center of Mecca's Great Mosque, is the most sacred place for Muslims.
Condensed from The Record at http://www.bergen.com/home/mirza25199903259.htm
So...if you beleive what the ancient scriptures have to say, on both sides mind you...we are all chasin the same god, and descendent from the same man. 2 brothers, from 2 different women, who, according to which side you are on, were the good guys. And probably, as most sane adults know, the truth is probably a mixture of boths sides of the argument. But...what we have now is a family spat, that has grown from heated words, to throwin rocks...to... firing uranium tipped rockets at each other. And probably everyone reading this knows that the worse spats can be family spats. sigh.... and this is a difference of opinion (taking sides) that will quite possibly take over the world.... and it is amazing to read on the web about this story. even the excerpt above is biased. depends on what side of the family you are on as to how the story is portrayed.
