i address this question to historians and scholars out there: Is Islam an offshoot of catholicism?

Answer 1

No.

He who unified the tribes and encapsulated the belief system was in no way influenced by Catholicism.

Except in response to invasion there was no influence by The Church in Rome (Roman Catholic) or the Church of Byzantine (Greek Orthodox).

Islam came into being (7th century) during a low point of Byzantine history. Little literature - even saints' lives - survives, and even less art. The period is studied above all for the history of the struggle over icons.

Rome was pressured by population explosions of Europe and was busy converting pagan buildings into Christian churches.

See Below.

Answer 2

There is no serious historical theory or evidence to support this hypothesis.

The only place I have read of this claim is in the over-the-top anti-catholic Chick Publications which claims that the Catholic Church:
+ Started Islam
+ Instigated the American Civil War
+ Assassinated Abraham Lincoln
+ Formed the Ku Klux Klan
+ Was responsible for the Inquisition known as the WWII Jewish Holocaust
+ Keeps every Christian's name in a computer in order to make persecution easier

Here is a detailed rebuttal to Chick's tracks: http://www.catholic.com/library/sr_chick_tracts_p1.asp

With love in Christ.

Answer 3

Not directly.
Muhammad was inspired by both he New and the Old Testament writings. Seeing the correlation between Judaism and Christianity, he took those two belief systems and twisted and combined them into a new faith system which "sorta" looks like a little of each, yet never aligns itself completely with either.
Upon seeing a vision of an angel identified as Gabriel, Muhammad lowers Jesus to the level of a mere prophet, then raises himself up to be equal with Jesus.
Islam is a confused mess of teachings for which two other books must be used to make sense of it.

Answer 4

Yes, it is. A painful truth for the muslims indeed. I read another post in here from a while back about some catholic priest named alberto Rivera who supposedly cracked all of this wide open and paid for it with his life. I checked out the guys story on the internet, and it does seem as though Islam was definitely created by the ancient, catholic church to carry out the crusades. Check it out for yourself.

Answer 5

Well if you consider Jesus the role model for the interaction of European Earth religions and Judaism, then I guess you could consider Muhammad the role model for the interaction between Jahiliah and Christianity..... or Jahiliah and Judaism.

This doesnt say either were not who they claim, but given the timeline involved their could have been influencing factors to the intepretation's of divine messages.

Answer 6

Christianity.
Remember Jim Jones? Tammy Fay? Hial Hitty? Mother Teresa? Diane Sawyer? Dick and Jane?
Off shoot or not, Shame or Fame, everything is intertwined, get used to it.

Answer 7

Absolutely not!

Answer 8

No