“Superficially, the rituals in the Catholic Church and the rituals and structure of Islam seem similar..”
Pure, unadulterated nonsense.
The sum, substance, and summit of Catholic belief is the Sacrifice of The Mass. There is nothing like it in any other religion, least of all among Islam.
Well this is what an African missionary friend of mine tells me is true in Senegal. We are not talking substance here. We are talking superficial external appearances. Muslims have a hard time understanding Mere Christianity, but Catholicism seems easy to understand.