Contrary to Zahid Abbas's ( Religion is never wrong, only believers ) claim, Islam is actually the youngest of the world's large (more than 300 million members) religions - Christainity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism.
According to religious historians, Islam was founded by Muhammad the Prophet around 622CE (Common Era), or about 1,382 years ago in Mecca.
Christianity was founded by Jesus Christ approximately 1,971 (33CE) years ago. As for Buddhism, it was founded by Prince Siddhartha Gautama in approximately 566BCE (Before Common Era), about 2500 years ago.
In fact, the oldest of the four main religions is Hinduism. Hinduism has the oldest recorded roots in Dravidianism. Dravidianism was estimated to have been practised around 6000 to 3000BCE and as such predates Sumerian, Egyptian and Babylonian cultures.
Islam is the second largest religion in the world with an estimated 1.2 billion followers (about 20 percent of the world's population). Presently Christianity is still the largest with about 33 percent of the world population its followers.
However, Islam is today's fastest growing religion. By 2025 or earlier, Islam will overtake Christianity as the world's largest religion. This is due to conversion (in mainly non-Muslim countries) and also the population growth in Muslim countries.
Therefore, Zahid should take comfort in knowing this and he perhaps may wish to change his view regarding the rights of an individual to choose his religion.
And what about Judaism, the religion of the Jews? It was founded around 1312BCE when Moses left Egypt for the promised land.
To say that Islam was founded by Adam and it was reborn with Abraham is incorrect even though it has been widely acknowledged by religious historians that Islam and Judaism both have the same roots in Abraham.
Thereafter, the same roots took different paths through the children of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael. But, don't forget - Judaism was not practised as a religion until the revelation of God to Moses at Mt Sinai and the Laws of Torah (including the 10 Commandments) came into existence.
Likewise, the same applies to Islam and the Holy Quran. It came into existence during the time of Prophet Muhammad. As for Adam, he was the first man on earth and was created by God ... and by virtue of the former, there could not have been any religion in existence then.
