What NOT to call a
Muslim. Although it is used by
orientalists to describe
Muslims, Muslims hate the term because of the extremely displeasing implication that Muslims worship
Muhammad. Muslims are very strictly monotheistic -- to become Muslim you declare that "There is no god but The One God (
Allah), and Muhammad is His messenger". Furthermore, Muslims don't believe that Muhammad originated the religion of
Islam; rather,
God revealed the truth to many prophets (such as
Abraham,
Moses,
Jesus) which has always been submission to His will (which is what
Islam means), but their message got distorted over time. It was just that Muhammad was the last in a long chain of Prophets, all of whom received the same divine revelation of submitting to His will.
So call a Muslim a Muslim.