Except for the fact that Islam does NOT advocate violence against non-believers, neither does Christianity, and I highly doubt Hinduism does either, but I'm less knowledgeable about that one. The Arab leadership, and the Muslim extremists are perverting the Koran to "prove" their ideals much in the same way the American Republican Party is perverting the Bible to prove theirs.
Where there's power to be taken, nothing is sacred. As long as we give these extremists even the time of day, they are winning.
When you take statements out of context, you can use them to prove anything. While I can't directly talk about the Koran (I've been meaning to read it), but I can about the Bible.
You cannot take statements out of the Old Testament without also including the New Testament books. The OT is about setting up history and pretext for what the NT teaches about life. Yes the OT has some very violent stories, but you cannot read through them and say "oh, this is telling ME, TODAY, to be violent". To do so is to say that killing intellectuals is OK today because the Khamer Rouge did it in Cambodia. Or that it's ok to drop a nuke on someone because we did it to Japan. The Old Testament is history and context so that you understand the importance of the coming of Jesus and his teachings in the New Testament, and no-where does Jesus's teaching tell people to take up arms and cause violence.
Comments
Any religion that states that violence is the answer to non-believers is going to be the same. I don't see how they can possibly single out that one.
Except for the fact that Islam does NOT advocate violence against non-believers, neither does Christianity, and I highly doubt Hinduism does either, but I'm less knowledgeable about that one. The Arab leadership, and the Muslim extremists are perverting the Koran to "prove" their ideals much in the same way the American Republican Party is perverting the Bible to prove theirs.
Where there's power to be taken, nothing is sacred. As long as we give these extremists even the time of day, they are winning.
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474979... Those quotes are pretty telling.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071221015548AA... And the Bible, for good measure.
When you take statements out of context, you can use them to prove anything. While I can't directly talk about the Koran (I've been meaning to read it), but I can about the Bible.
You cannot take statements out of the Old Testament without also including the New Testament books. The OT is about setting up history and pretext for what the NT teaches about life. Yes the OT has some very violent stories, but you cannot read through them and say "oh, this is telling ME, TODAY, to be violent". To do so is to say that killing intellectuals is OK today because the Khamer Rouge did it in Cambodia. Or that it's ok to drop a nuke on someone because we did it to Japan. The Old Testament is history and context so that you understand the importance of the coming of Jesus and his teachings in the New Testament, and no-where does Jesus's teaching tell people to take up arms and cause violence.