Some believe Jesus uses Tu Quoque

LOL! Shasta Muslims HAVE to pray towards Kaaba. Christians do not have to pray towards alters, or statues of Jesus and Mary. We don't have statues of Jesus and Mary in my church.

Do you have a cross?

Excerpt from the The Road to Mecca:

�One day I asked a hajji, who understood a little English: �Do you really believe that God expects you to show Him your respect by repeated bowing and kneeling and prostration? Might it not be better only to look into oneself and to pray to Him in the stillness of one�s heart? Why all these movements of your body?� As soon as I had uttered these words I felt remorse, for I had not intended to injure the old man�s religious feelings. But the hajji did not appear in the least offended. He smiled with his toothless mouth and replied:

�How else then should we worship God? Did He not create both, soul and body, together? And this being so, should man not pray with his body as well as his soul? Listen, I will tell you why we Muslims pray as we pray. We turn toward the Kaaba, God�s holy temple in Mecca, knowing that the faces of all Muslims, wherever they may be, are turned to it in prayer, and that we are like one body, with Him as the centre of our thoughts.

First we stand upright and recite from the Holy Koran, remembering that it is His Word, given to man that he may be upright and steadfast in life. Then we say, God is the Greatest, reminding ourselves that no one deserves to be worshipped but Him; and bow down deep because we honour Him above all, and praise His power and glory.

Thereafter we prostrate ourselves on our foreheads because we feel that we are but dust and nothingness before Him, and that He is our Creator and Sustainer on high.Then we lift our faces from the ground and remain sitting, praying that He forgive us our sins and bestow His grace upon us, and guide us aright, and give us health and sustenance. Then we again prostrate ourselves on the ground and touch the dust with our foreheads before the might and the glory of the One.

After that, we remain sitting and pray that He bless the Prophet Muhammad who brought His message to us, just as He blessed the earlier Prophets; and that He bless us as well, and all those who follow the right guidance; we ask Him to give us of the good of this world and of the good of the world to come. In the end we turn our heads to the right and to the left, saying, Peace and grace of God be upon you and thus greet all who are righteous, wherever they may be.

It was thus that our Prophet used to pray and taught his followers to pray for all times, so that they might willingly surrender themselves to God which is what Islam means and so be at peace with Him and with their own destiny.

"LOL!! Shasta you are a hoot!! Muslims do not recognize that Islam carries on many pagan rituals. Christians understand that many celebration ideas were "borrowed" but changed the meaning to Christian."

Borrowing is a loose term. So, you don't celebrate any of these holidays?

remember that even pagans were once guided and may have believed as we do, mixing with what God taught vs what they added. God did guide people since Adam's time as we commonly agree.

It is/was their own actions that turn some to acts as what we call pagan acts and rituals.

Worshipping in different ways is not wrong, Worshipping anything other than God is.

The rituals of how you worship God can be discussed, learned and corrected but does not matter how devotely you worship those other than God, its of no use.

Throughout the Bible, the prophets are quoted to have prayed in the same manner as we the believers do today in Islam, only it was never carried on by its followers. Worship and Prayer (Salath) in Islam is the most comprehensive and the most beautiful service one can offer to his Creator without over and under doing. It was the practice of all the prophets as God must have taught them as well but like many other things, it was forgotten by them.

Shasta's Aunt those excerpts are beautiful.

believer, I am not good at putting words together but by God if there is anything we can offer to God that is from ourself is to offer Salath and other form of Worship to Him, everything else is given to us by him, thus is not ours. And you cannot give what is not yours!

Out of the Worship, most beautiful for me to offer to God is my Salath, and in Salath the Sajdah, when I lower and touch my temple (forehead) to the ground and exalt my Creator by repeating, " all praise is for the Lord Most High" For me it eliminates any confusions or misunderstanings between who am I in my relation to God, the Creator and Sustainer of All, only a humble servant, who always depend on Him and always need and seek His Mercy.

Do you feel that because Muslims perform certain rituals they are more humble?

Throwing stones at the pillars of satan- Is that in the Quran?

"Do you feel that because Muslims perform certain rituals they are more humble?"

I think that performing certain rituals such as praying at minimum five times daily allows the act of prayer to become so ingrained in your life that you are in a constant state of remembrance of God.

It isn't the act of performing the ritual that makes you humble, it is the meaning of the ritual and your intention in performing it that humbles you.