About

Islam is a monotheistic Abrahamic religion which revolves around the worship and submission to God. Islam's followers are known as Muslims and they believe that God's final prophet was a man named Muhammad. Islam's central religious text is the Qur'an which is to believed by Muslims to be God's direct words.^[1] Muslims commonly practice "The Five Pillars of Islam" which include Shahadah, or announcing that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is his messenger, Salat, or praying towards the holy city of Mecca at five regular intervals throughout the day, Sawm, the ritual of fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, Zakat, or giving 2.5% of you money to people who need it more if financially capable, and Hajj, which is the annual pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca at least once during a Muslim's lifetime if capable to.^[2] Two major sects of Islam include the Sunni^[3] and the Shia.^[4]

Origin and Spread

Islam began in the Arabian Peninsula around the time of 622 C.E. It was founded around the Qur'an and the teachings of the prophet Muhammad.^[5] The religion slowly but surely spread throughout the Middle East by word of mouth and conquest of land by Muslims who converted the inhabitants of the conquered areas to Islam. With the formation of the Islamic Ottoman Empire in 1299 C.E., Islam spread even farther as the empire grew and became transcontinental.^[6]

Related Memes

Innocence of Muslims

Innocence of Muslims is an anti-Islam film that was allegedly produced by Nakoula Basseley Nakoula and directed by Alan Roberts.^[7] On July 2nd 2012, YouTuber SamBacile uploaded two 13 minute clips of the movie which garnered much attention by the general public. Later that month, a version translated to Arabic was aired on Egyptian television which caused the movie to turn into a viral controversy worldwide. The film pictures Islam in a very negative way and has depictions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad which are not allowed in Islam.

Islamic Rage Boy

Islamic Rage Boy is an image macro series of a photo of an Islamic political activist who appears to have a very enraged expression. His face is often photoshopped or superimposed over other images for comedic purposes.

Everybody Draw Muhammad Day

Everybody Draw Muhammad Day is a day reserved for an online protest of violent actions by Muslims against people who attempt to make depictions of Muhammad which is strictly against the rules of Islam. To protest this, people as many draw depictions of Muhammad as they can. The first "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day" was on April 20th. This fad originated from when the creators of the show South Park were receiving death threats from Muslims for depicting Muhammad in the episode "201".

Ordinary Muslim Man

Ordinary Muslim Man is an advice animal image macro series including a picture of a smiling man wearing a Muslim taqiyah hat. The captions placed on the photo often use bait-and-switch tactics and make the first line something that sounds anti-American and make the second line something that is totally innocent for comedy.

"Dude, You Have No Qur'an!"

Dude, You Have No Qur'an! is a quote by 23 year old Jacob Isom from Amarillo, Texas. In response to the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the Christian priest David Grisham local to Amarillo, Texas led a group of Christians to burn a copy of the Qur'an. Jacob Isom allegedly rescued the Qur'an from being burned while the priest wasn't looking. When asked by reporters about the incident, he had this to say:

“[I] Snuck up behind him and took his Quran. He said something about burning the Quran, and I was like ‘Dude, you have no Quran!’”

The phrase "Dude, You Have No Qur'an quickly turned into an internet meme and has seen multiple auto-tune parodies and is often quoted as a copypasta

Online Presence

Islam is currently the second largest religion in the world.^[8] Various pages on social networking sites have been made for Islam including on Twitter,^[9][10][11] Facebook,^[12][13][14] Tumblr,^[15][16][17] and Reddit.^[18]

External Resources