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Muslims believe
that God had previously revealed Himself to the earlier prophets of the
Jews and Christians, such as Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Muslims therefore
accept the teachings of both the Jewish Torah and the Christian Gospels.
They believe that Islam is the perfection of the religion revealed first
to Abraham (who is considered the first Muslim) and later to other prophets.
Muslims believe that Jews and Christians have strayed from God's true
faith but hold them in higher esteem than pagans and unbelievers. They
call Jews and Christians the "People of the Book" and allow them to practice
their own religions. Muslims believe that Muhammad is the "seal of the
prophecy," by which they mean that he is the last in the series of prophets
God sent to mankind. Muslims abhor the followers of later prophets. This
attitude serves to explain the extreme Muslim animosity toward Bahais,
followers of a nineteenth-century prophet, who in the Muslim mind is false.
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