For that matter, Islam began shortly after the Catholic church was established, well before the Protestant Reformation.
I didn’t know that. Interesting.
Islam began shortly after the Catholic church
I am fully aware of that, but thanks for the reminder.
I guess I might be one of those rare individuals who look at more than just labels. Labels have their purpose, and that is to distill and encapsulate an entity's or ideology's attributes into a simple title. That being said, their are many shared attributes between Rome and Islam, for that matter, there are many shared attributes between Rome and Pagan belief systems dating back to at least the days of Nimrod. We are very familiar with a number of these obvious syncretisms between Rome and Pagan idolatry, one of the best known is the Saturnalia born circus we call Christmas, which followed Halloween which was also borrowed from di/divi parentes which is Pagan Rome's ancestor worship which has also been institutionalized into Rome's Iconaltry.
I have read some interesting books that show point by point how Rome has heavily borrowed from Ba'al worship and the whole of the worship of Ishtar and Tammuz. The point being, is that Mohammad took many religions and their many gods and distilled them all down to one kooky works/faith religion that has a convoluted soteriology that involves lots of gray. I submit that Rome is really no different, in that it borrowed heavily from regional predominant religions and packed them into one religion that gives us a quirky path to salvation that involves sacraments, allegiance to a foreign king, purgatory, indulgences, prayers for dead, and a hodge podge of crap syncretized from what the vulgar were engaged in at the time.
This explains how Saturnalia became Christmas, and how burning the Yule log is supposed to bring good fortune. Because both Islam and Rome are consolidators of pagan religions, they have a common ancestor - Satan, and I propose that Satan has worked through the ages refining the tactic of making a Religion By Committee that has things that appeal to everyone.
If Rome was truly Christ centered in sound biblical theology, how on earth did this Maryolatry faction pop-up and maintain traction? Where did relic worship come from and why do we have over thirty foreskins of Jesus allegedly floating around? Its because Rome found out that it can claim greater authority, appeal and money by condoning these things while simultaneously butchering Jews and torturing Christians and Pagans alike who challenged the authority of Rome. See any correlation to Islam there?
Both systems arose from the ashes of fallen empires, the people were without tyrant rulers and they were disorganized in much of their lives. Rome filled the vacuum of the fallen Roman Empire, and she had ambitious plans to conquer the known world with a religious/political system starting with the Byzantine Empire. Mohammad consolidated the wildly volatile nomads and tribes under a powerful religious/political system that became through the stages of caliphates and dynasties became the Ottoman Empire. Like everything with Satanic origins, purges were required to remove the infidels and challengers to these juggernauts.
I picked up a copy of "Islam for Idiots" and after perusing the pages I come to find out that Muslims will believe damn near anything but kill whoever is in arm's reach if you don't swear to the authority of the Koran and a particular Imam's interpretation of its Traditions (yet a similar mechanism to Rome). Example: Evolution or Creation? Doesn't matter as long as you say that Mohammad knew the correct one (but didn't care to share).
Look at how the Romanists argue here. No different tactics than the Muslim. You bring up Scripture and they return with Tradition overriding that Scripture. You bring up logic and you are accused of Defying Authorities who presumably have already dealt with it and the case is closed. You challenge the authority and source of their articles of faith and you get various levels of hate and violence in return. The reason why there are so many similarities in the means is because the ends are the same, and that is to exploit the carnal nature of fallen and unregenerate man, appeal to the vanity and darkness that makes up the natural man and turn his heart against the Creator God.
It works even better if the false religion claims that is in league with the Creator God since most people only look at labels and not really at the defining attributes. ;)