What Makes People Tick?

Goodreads reviewer Manny wrote a very hilarious and entertaining review (well... not quite a review...) of the Qur'an / Koran on Goodreads. I laughed and chuckled and laughed and chuckled some more. Check out this very entertaining entry about famous authors, Anonymous and the battle of the Goodreads librarians: Manny's Reviews > The Quran  

I firmly believe that all people are equal because we are all human. Whether one believes in a Big Bang and gradual evolution or believes that we were created by a Higher Power and the first of us were Adam and Eve - one cannot deny that we are all equal, all the same, all human, all part of the same family. We are all individuals - We are all people who think, dream, imagine, smile, laugh, love and cry. We all feel emotions, we all have families and friends we love, we all have hopes and dreams and aspirations. While we are all unique, different and individual, we are also all human. In the end we all want the same for those we love and care about - we all want them to be happy, safe, loved and protected. I myself want the same for my family and friends - I want them to be happy, to be free, to be able to speak their minds, to choose their own path in life, to know they are safe, to be free from persecu...

In The Netherlands, the fourth and the fifth of May are special national days.  The fourth of May is Liberation Day while the fifth is Remembrance Day. "People experienced the Second World War in very different ways, depending on who they were, what they stood for, what they did or where they lived. All those different experiences are reflected in the different commemoration ceremonies throughout the years. During the national commemoration of Remembrance Day on 4 May, those various experiences come together and the dead are jointly remembered." (1) "On the 5th of May we celebrate that we in The Netherlands live in freedom. We celebrate that we were liberated in 1945 from German occupation in Europe and Japanese occupation in Asia and that since then we've been free from war and repression in the Kingdom of The Netherlands." (2)

The Jewish Shema Yisrael and the Qur'an's surah (chapter) 112 known as Al Ikhlas share quite a few similarities. While in today's world many Muslims seem to believe that it is their duty to kill as many Jews as possible and the two religions don't always get on as well as they could, when one looks to the texts and the teachings of these two religions, one finds a lot of similarities. Of the world's three monotheistic faiths, Judaism came first, Christianity came second and Islam came third. While Christianity believes in a three-in-one package deal, as opposed to the only-one beliefs of the other two religions, the three religions are still considered connected monotheistic religions. While Judaism has remained a religion of roughly 20 million people or less, both Christianity and Islam have become huge religions with adherents numbering in the billions, in most countries of the world. All three religions have gone through many changes and developments since thei...