Thanks for the well considered reply.
Your argument seems to boil down to a couple of main points, if I may be so bold:
1) The Koran (and Islam itself) are such that the 'extremist' elements are well within its teachings, and therefore at least condoned as legitimate.
2) The classification of extreme Christian religions (even Church of LDS) as 'Christian' is incorrect, because they do not follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Bible.
The Koran, like the Bible, contains much that is both contradictory and conveniently used/ignored by various sects to promote their own agenda. Those who have corrupted the Koran to justify suicide as defending the faith and holy lands ignore the following:
[2:195] You shall spend in the cause of GOD; do not throw yourselves with your own hands into destruction. You shall be charitable; GOD loves the charitable.
[ 4:29] O you who believe, do not consume each others' properties illicitly - only mutually acceptable transactions are permitted. You shall not kill yourselves. GOD is Merciful towards you.
[ 4:30] Anyone who commits these transgressions, maliciously and deliberately, we will condemn him to Hell. This is easy for GOD to do.
Rather than promise heaven and the however-many-virgins, suicides are condemned to Hell. There is no promise of heaven or virgins in the Koran (although they may have been derived from the Sunna and/or Hadith; which, by the way, are taken by many moderate Muslims as written by the hand of man, and thus NOT the Koran. In fact, those that take the Sunna and/or Hadith as the Koran, and not just the additional thoughts of man, are considered somewhat heretical).
On the other hand, there are portions of the Bible that are downright ghastly. Contrary to your statements that the Bible does not contain passages that could be interpreted as justification of murder, etc ("Contrariwise, the Christian Bible can by no means be reasonably taken to countenance the barbarism so easily found by a reasoned reading of the Islamic holy works"), there are the following:
At I Samuel 15:3, the prophet Samuel gives King Saul this commandment from the Lord: "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass."
Ezekiel 9:4-7 provides the following account of a message from the Lord: "And the Lord said unto him, Go through...the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old and young, both maids and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark..."
Hosea 13:16 sets forth this description of a punishment from the Lord: "Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up."
Deuteronomy 32:23-25 reports that after the Israelites had provoked the Lord to jealousy by worshiping other gods, the Lord said: "...I will spend mine arrows upon them....The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs." At Numbers chapter 31, the Lord indicates his approval of the following order which Moses gave, as set forth at verses 17 and 18, regarding the manner in which the Israelite soldiers were to treat certain women and children captured in war: "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 13:9,15-18 contains this message from the Lord: "Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger....Every one that is found shall be thrust through. ...Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes...and their wives ravished. Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them....[T]hey shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children."
I'd have to say these are pretty strong words, don't you? Someone following the Bible, reading these passages, would be inspired, nay, instructed to go forth and kill not only the enemy, but wipe out women and children, with no pity.
Do you see now why moderate Muslims say that Christians who condemn Islam as an evil religion are hypocrites?
The hatred and barbarism that has swept across the Middle East region has many geopolitical roots. To single out Islam as a cause of these issues is a bit of a backwards argument. The geopolitics of the area have been one of extreme exploitation by European powers; one could argue that if there was only a single reason for the violence, surely it is that of a political power struggle and not religious.
Which brings me to the next point, that Islam has been co-opted by secular political opponents to the West who use it as a means of both justifying their 'holy war' and gaining the support of the people of the region. To say that *that* method is a purely Islamic phenomenon is to ignore practically the entire history of Christianity.
Although you seem to feel strongly that the Mormons are about as far removed from Christianity as can be, realize that the moderate Muslims feel the same about the extreme Islamic factions. They have corrupted the teachings of the Koran to fit their earthly needs, and caused people in the West to believe that the Koran instructs them to be evil doers. No wonder there is so much hate and mistrust in the world. |
