Sister Cariad and all Non Muslims on the Forum, may I take this opportunity to say a few words. Islam says Allah loves all members of His Creation and wants the best for everyone. He loves us more than our parents and the most well mannered and loving person we could ever expect to meet. Judge all religions by its creed and not always by its members, and in our case today take a step back and ignore the proliferation of another system of ugly oppression, mass hate and hysteria; the International Mass Media which seeks to destroy peace and promote hatred of one or more religion for money alone.
Islam, like all other religions, does not restrict itself to love alone. Equal to His Love for His Creation or more so is His Justice and that is where the dividing line is between Mercy and Fairness. If love itself was sufficient than there is an argument that the human race would not have been necessary to exist due to our ability to sin, reject Allah and even oppose forms of goodness and those things that work for good. The angels were created without free will, without the ability to sin and without all forms of opposition to the Creator and if love alone was good enough than no creation other than them would have sufficed.
However, Islam says Allah has created two others with a nature that can sin, that have the power to exercise free will and can if they wish reject Him and His Message. They are the Human Race and the Jinn (a spirit world), the first are His Greatest Creation and the one He has honoured above all for all time. While the second creation are also important, space and relevance does not permit me to include them in this discussion, so I apologise for that.
Allah says in Ahadith [the sayings of the Prophet attributed to the words of the Creator], that if the human race could not sin, He would have replaced them with another creation that could, so that they (some, not all) could see the error of their ways, repent and ask forgiveness and He would gladly accept them. When human beings do good, He says, they are better than the Angels who are unable and incapable of sin and have no free will. If human beings do wrong deliberately and continue on that path without repentance, they are worse than the 'Shayateen', a special group of people or label attached to the most grotesque of creation among the Jinn who are capable of good, but have chosen to be evil and follow Iblis, the supreme devil, who is also a Jinn.
There is so much in Ahadith and in Qur'an which speaks of Allah's Love for then human race, but it is conditional on meeting the criterion to His Justice and total acceptance of His Message, otherwise it is oppression and a false form of love unfair on the rest of creation.
That is where His Representatives; the Prophets and His Constitution, in short the Religion He has selected and chosen for mankind to follow appears. If the Creator loves us so much, He would not send the human race to Earth without making a way for us to return to Him in a manner that is acceptable for Him to accept us into the Kingdom of Heaven and that is through His Message and Religion. Islamically, we believe Allah does not and will not appear Himself on earth to inform and teach the human race. He uses another method; He sends people like us, who live like us, have the same nature as us and the same natural needs and wants. They are named as Prophets and are the best of creation among the human race. They are human and not divine.
Just as Judaism and Christianity emphasize that Allah send His Representatives; the Prophets since the dawn of creation, we as Muslims believe His last representative was also His best and finest and it goes without saying that if that is so than the message, constitution, law, scripture and role also was suited, allocated and relevant to that purpose, meaning it was also the greatest of those sent or proceeded it and superseded it. To Muslims, that man was the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), his scripture was the Qur'an and Ahadith and his message was Islam. In a nutshell then, that is why we as Muslims believe we are on the right path.
This then brings us to the question; what of all other religions including Christianity and Judaism. We answer, like Christians and Jews believe, not all faiths are from Allah and hence they are outside of His Mercy and Justice to accept. Everyone's sincerity and goodness from all religions (and non religions for that matter) is rewarded and accepted but they are seen in a different light. They have chosen to reject Allah (either through ignorance or deliberately), we as Muslims leave their affair with Him and Him alone; it is for Him to Judge them, not us.
As to Christianity and Judaism, another name is given to those that are adherents to these faiths and that is 'Ahlul Kitab', a respectful term and one that elevates members to a seat of honour. This term represents those who have accepted some but not of Allah's Representatives and hence are accorded the same partial privilege they have given to the Creator. The Jewish religion refuses to embrace Jesus and the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be Upon them) while Christianity rejects the latter alone, hence why Allah's Justice assigns full recognition to those who accepts all of His emissaries and choose to follow everything brought by His Last Delegate to the world; the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be Upon Him). That is our belief and that is why we believe Islam is that culmination of closure both in Apostleship, Divine Law, Scripture and entry to Allah's love, Mercy and most importantly His Justice.