Hey Lawerence.
Praise be to God [Allaah] who created one man, and from this man his spouse, and from them both He created many men and women to test us in this worldly life to see if we would turn to Him [God] in obedience. In the end we will all be brought back and judged on all that we did. The one's who submitted to God in this world will be rewarded with an eternal paradise, and those who rejected the signs and messengers of their Lord will be punished because of their own wrongdoings.
Theres many issues going on in the world today, and because they go into alot of detail i feel that i should link you to alot of the misunderstandings people hear about our faith.
The first issue is Jihaad and how people claim it to be a 'holy war' when in reality this isn't the case. The word jihaad linguistically means to strive/struggle ones utmost, and yes - this does include fighting. However, this is legislated upon the believers by God because it would be unjust if the muslims were to get attacked and not have a right to defend themselves.
You can read about Jihaad more from here:
Jihad & Warfare
http://www.islamtoday.net/english/show_sub_section.cfm?main_cat_id=15&sub_cat_id=0
Islaam is totally against harming the environment:
Islam and the Environment
http://www.islamawareness.net/Nature/environment.html
The other issues include faith. People need spirituality in their lives, they need a greater purpose than to just hoard up wealth and then simply die. Mankind is created for a purpose and this purpose is to obey the Creator over the creation.
Let's start off with the fact that the majority of the world believes in a God, or 'Higher being.' The difference between islaam and all other faiths is that instead of just recognising that there is a God, we believe that the Creator created us with the purpose of submitting to Him, worshipping Him alone sincerely without any associates.
These associates can be stone idols, it can be humans (or human legislations) it can be a person's desires etc.
Islaam call's to the worship of God, known as Allaah in arabic. If you're confused about why God is Allaah in arabic, realise that people from spain call God - Dios, the french call God - Dieu etc. Therefore we call God, Allaah in arabic.
Allaah has sent messengers to convey the same message of calling to the worship of God since the beginning of time, since Adam (peace be upon him) the first person to ever live. All the messengers came to call to Allaah's worship, and this is the purpose of our creation - to worship Allaah, without no associates, so no idols, no humans, no law which opposes the law which Allaah has revealed to His messengers.
We as muslims believe that Noah, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad (peace be upon them all) were prophets. There have been a total of 124,000 prophets that have come to mankind to call to the worship of Allaah Alone. However, the majority of mankind has fallen astray, because they do believe in a Creator, but they reject the fact that He should be worshipped alone.
If the world was to submit to the Creator, the world would be a much safer place. There would be less crimes, harm etc. This is because everyone would actually fear disobeying their Creator because He is watching over them, even if no other person is. If people are conscious of Allaah, they will fear to disobey Him, and if they do any good - even if no human is watching - they still feel a sense of joy and pleasure for doing it for the sake of their Creator, their Lord the All Knowing, All Aware.
Any deeds we do, we do them sincerely to gain Allaah's Mercy, and if we gain it - we will enter the eternal paradise which all the prophets have called to also. However, if someone rejects the worship of the One God - without any associates, they will be punished in the hellfire. This is the only sin which God does not forgive, why should He, if the person is saying that a stone is God? Or a human is God etc.
We all will die and be raised back on the day of recompense, when Allaah/God will judge between us on all that we did. No-one will be judged unfairly because Allaah is the Most Just. Allaah can bring the dead back to life, the same way He brings the dead land back to life by sending down rain.
If you feel that God is being unfair to His servants by punishing those that associate partners with Him, then the justice for this will also be balanced out. Allaah will ask those who associated partners with Him to ask the one's they worshipped for reward. So if someone worshipped a stone idol, they will ask that for recompense on the day of judgement (obviously the stone won't be able to do anything.) If someone worships a human, even if the human is pious, the person will have to get their reward from this human [but obviously everything is dependant on the Creator.] The one's who worshipped God Alone, sincerely without no associates - they will be rewarded by Allaah, the Exhalted with an eternal paradise where they can have all that they desire, and more.
If anyone feels that it is unjust, then they have to stop being unjust to their own Creator. If Allaah created man so he should worship Him, then why worship the stone idol, or why worship a human when you can turn towards your Creator?
Those who died in a state of submission to the Creator will be rewarded in the real life of paradise, and those who reject their Lord and His signs, then they are liable for His punishment. We seek refuge in Allaah from that. And Allaah is the source of strength.
Allaah Almighty knows best.
Peace.
