The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day." [CCC, 841]As I understand it, this teaching says that, insofar as the Muslims worship the same God as Abraham, they worship the One and Only true God. This does not mean that Islam is "just as good as" Chistianity; it does mean that Muslims perceive a piece of the Truth, but not the Whole Truth. When a Muslim sees Allah he sees God, but a warped, distorted image of God, filtered through the dark glass of Arab tribal paganism and Satanic disinformation. The Whole Truth exists solely within the Church; therefore, there is no salvation outside the Church.
However, this does not mean anything as crude as "only baptized Catholics go to Heaven". Rather,
Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.In other words: Christ is the only Way to Heaven, and only those who seek and accept Him as Lord and God will be saved; however, God is not bound by His Own sacraments, and may, though acts of Divine Mercy, preserve those who sincerely seek Truth (and therefore Him) at the Last Day. How God saves people is His Own affair.This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:
Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation. [CCC 846-7]
But this does not mean that all religions are equal! This simply means that only God is a Perfect Judge, and only He can be counted upon to give every one of us the afterlife that he or she truly deserves. (The thought of myself getting what I truly deserve frankly scares the crap out of me.) We cannot judge who is saved; our job is to tell the world Who Jesus is so that they can be saved:
"Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize ." [CCC 848]So: do the Muslims pray to the same God as Christians and Jews? If they are praying to the God of Abraham, the answer is yes. But despite that, Islam is still an error, a heresy, and a damnable lie based upon the denial of the Incarnation, Resurrection, and Eternal Kingship of Jesus Christ, and should be vigorously opposed by all followers of Our Lord and Master. Satan's claws are sunk deep into Islam; although his infernal power cannot extinguish the spark of Truth that lies at its heart, the fact remains that any Muslims in Heaven will be there in spite of the teachings of Mohammed, not because of them.
Sounds like the Catholic Church has some revision or clarification work to do on that catechism.
If the Muslims are worshipping a God that says you can forcibly convert someone to Islam - and that Christianity and Judaism are lies, then who really cares if they *say* they worship the 'God of Abraham.' If they think that God allows this kind of act in his name,they are not worshipping the same God.