I am reading up on islam from various sources from the web and i am confused. Some say allah is the same god as christianity. Others try to prove he is not through things like name and sounds more like they are trying to reason. All say mohammed is a prophet of Allah and that jesus is also a prophet. Which means it is the same God. Some say that the bible is one of several books that are from Allah, but the scripture is corrupt. Due to this the quran from mohammed is directed as the only truth. Which just sounds lazy, as in i dont want to try and differentiate the truth in the other book, so i am just gonna throw them away. I have also read people say that muslim is not chritianity because they dont believe jesus is god, but just a mere prophet. I thought christianity was to believe in God, not to believe in jesus. Which further confuses because if muslims believe they are one in the same then chritians believe in allah.
Several good replies have already been offered, and I will try not to be redundant. Yes, one of the main differences is how Jesus is seen. Only Christians consider him to be God. Other faiths - particularly Judaism, Islam, and Bahai - revere him as a prophet but don't consider him divine.
On the question of whether Muslims, Christians, and Jews worship the same god, their holy books suggest they do, for reasons already stated. The broader question is whether this is the same god worshipped the world over by other faiths: Hindu, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Native American, etc. The answer here comes down to personal belief. If one believes there really is only one god, then all must represent the same divine entity. That is a somewhat broader question than you posed, but it is a good illustration of how I view and engage with religion.
The term "religion of the book" has been used. Religions referred to by this term rely on writings attributed to God for wisdom, inspiration, and instructions on how to be a good person. Other religions in contrast find these things in more diverse sources. The reliance on a relatively unchanging text lends itself to a literal interpretation and can lead to ossification since, if the text never changes, it is easy to claim that our spirital world view and rules for living must never change. Disagreements arise then between those who want to take the writings literally, and those who favor a more figurative interpretation. From what I have read about contemporary Muslims, the second group has made far less headway than the corresonding group within Christianity. Then again, Islam as a religion is 600 years newer. I was gratified to hear an Imam on the radio the other day pointing out the need for Islam to shift to a more figurative interpretation if it is to remain relevant in the modern age. The majority of Christians seem already to have figured this out, though there are plenty of literalist hold-outs.
One cannot underestimate the interplay between culture, politics, and religion. It is easy to mistake a cultural influence for a tenet of faith, for instance. The writings of Elaine Pagels provide a good perspective on this for Christianity. Unfortunately I do not know of a similar book concerning Islam, though I am sure they exist. The collapse of the many Jesus groups after the first couple of centuries BCE into the hierarchical church that has endured for hundreds of years was encouraged by rulers of the day wanting to establish a single ruler in charge of a political hierarchy. Mohammed's purpose in uniting his people through Islam likely influenced its early development in a similar manner. It should be pointed out that many provisions of Sharia law that we look on as backward and sexist now were actually progressive in their day. For instance, a daughter inherits only half as much as a son. On the other hand, her brother must also support her out of his share, and prior to that, she was guaranteed nothing at all. Seen figuratively, it is easy to update this for the modern age; taken literally, women truly are locked into the middle ages (a time, by the way, when Islamic culture was quite ahead of the West).
As I mentioned, culture is a big influence on religion, too. This can be seen even in the language of the various texts. I don't know Arabic, but even in translation, I can see that the Quran is much more flowery and poetic than the Bible. The most uplifting and breathtaking descriptions of God I have ever read anywhere are from the Quran. Bahai writings are similar, which isn't surprising since Bahai faith evolved out of Islam much as Christianity evolved out of Judaism.
If you want a good, practical, and personal comparison of the three religions of the book, read
The Faith Club.
Basically, Mohammed used a strict interpretation of a popular monotheistic religion to unite his people into a single identity with a purpose. Mohammed saw his people as people of the book (Bible/Torah) too since all of Abraham's descendants existed in his region.
This is a very good way to summarize it.
This is one of the religious justifications for radical Islam's aggressive stance against the non-Muslim world, agreed. That was always a flame burning ready to consume and devour everything around it but Western foreign policy in the last 100 years definitely poured gas on that shit whether it was intentional or just stupid calculating and blow back. Of course, that's not to blame the West for the core violence inherent in radical Islamic theology but it gave them a clear and recognizable enemy to direct that hate towards. And this is one of the problems today. Their radicals recognize their enemy (the West and Western culture/values) while many of the supposed leaders in the West wont even name the enemy and try to pretend that this clash/war of civilizations doesn't exist.
The Bible is full of prophetic statements. Some are bound to come true by simple coincidence. Of course literalists will take this as Gospel, the way things have to be. I put it on a par with Christians blaming Jews for the death of Jesus; only die-hard literalists do that any more (I hope). Never mind that, according to their own mythos, Jesus had to be killed in order for humanity to receive redemption. I guess Jews just drew a short straw in that narrative.
The problem can be put simply as there is no separation of mosque and State in Islam, while there is the separation of church and State in Christianity.
Separation of church and state are no more part of Christian doctrine than Muslim. The fact that this separation exists more in majority Christian nations than majority Muslim ones derives from culture, not faith. For centuries, the Christian church was virtually synonymous with the government, through divine right of kings and loyalty of royal families.