"Whoever
knows the Old and New Testaments, and then reads the Koran, clearly sees the
process by which it completely reduces Divine Revelation. It is impossible not
to note the movement away from what God said about Himself, first in the Old
Testament through the Prophets, and then finally in the new Testament through
His Son. In Islam, all the richness of God's self-revelation, which constitutes
the heritage of the Old and New Testaments, has definitely been set aside.
"Some of the most beautiful names in the human language are given to the
god of the Koran, but he is ultimately a god outside of the world, a god who is
only Majesty, never Emmanuel, God with us. Islam is not a religion of
redemption. There is no room for the Cross and the Resurrection. Jesus is
mentioned, but only as prophet who prepares for the last prophet, Muhammad.
There is also mention of Mary, His Virgin Mother, but the tragedy of
redemption is completely absent. For this reason not only the theology but also
the anthropology of Islam is very distant from Christianity."
(from JP II's book Crossing the Threshold of Hope, 1994.)