The purveyors of hate on the religious right often claim that Islam is inherently a violent religion. A couple of examples here and here. And yes indeed they can find many examples of violence in the Qur’an. But have they read their own Bible?
1 Samuel 15:3
Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.'”Deuteronomy 13: 5
And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God…Deuteronomy 13:15
Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword.Numbers 31:16-18
“Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD. Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.”Isaiah 13:15-16
“Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword. Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.”Deuteronomy 2:34
And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain.”Joshua 6:21
“And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.”
Some 500 hundred years after the Qur’an was written the Pope’s “holy” Jihadists Crusaders marched into Jerusalem and massacred over 10,000 men, women and children, both Muslims and Jews.
And 500 years after that we had the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition where Muslims, Jews and protestants were killed. The wrath of the Spanish Inquisition found it’s way to the Spanish colonies of the new world.
Islam, like Christianity and Judaism, is an Abrahamic Religion which has it’s source in the violent tribal culture of the middle east. A Christian calling Islam violent is without a doubt a case of the pot calling the kettle black. The violence is part of the foundation of all Abrahamic religions.
Cross posted at Newshoggers