clubbing each other in the name of God!

A friend emailed a question asking if Bahai's and jews were the same...

Baha’is are not jews, although there were many jews who converted to the Bahai faith. In some families, one branch is Jewish, the other is Bahai. There are some cultural differences between the jewish converts and those who converted from Islam (or other religions). But that’s the case with any group that converts from one faith to another. We bring our past beliefs and culture into the mix. That’s why the brand of Islam Iranians practice is different than what Arabs or Chinese Muslims practice. Culture is a huge part of it. In fact, much of what we think is integral to Christianity, Islam, or other religions can actually be traced back to the religion that existed earlier in the same region. African-American Christians worship in ways that can be traced all the way back to African rituals. European-American Christians worship in their own way.

The funny thing is that we all think we’re right and others are wrong, so we club each other on the head in the name of our God. If you go back far enough, all the religions have not just a belief in a higher power in common, but many of the small details, stories, etc. are identical too. In my humble opinion, there is only one God. There is only one religion. If you believe in God, you treat all of his creation (humans, plants, animals, the Earth, the cosmos) with respect. That’s the only true form of worship. Rituals are 100% cultural. They’re beautiful in and of themselves, but terrible as weapons.

By the way, Allah is not a different God than the Christian God! "Allah" is just the Arabic word for God, just like in Farsi we call Him "Khoda", in Spanish, it's "Dios", in French it's "Gadot", etc...