from an oratory, a rabbi of my acquaintance explained the story of the three religions as Judaism as being the root, and Chritianity and Islam as the two shoots that grew out of the root. that is the bud of Christianity sprouted first from the root, then later another shoot sprouted and grew, and that would be Islam. there was no pronouncement if there would be later shoots from the root to appear. we'll just have to be patient and wait and see.
No, you can read the scriptures rather than testing the wind, which remains suspect, depending on who passed gas.
