Muslims naturally insist that Islam is a peaceful and tolerant religion.
Can anyone think of an Islamic country that gives it's citizens the same freedom and opportunity to practice Judaism and Christianity as Muslims enjoy in Western "Christian" nations?
Is this a fair test of whether a religion is peaceful and tolerant?
History is forgotten when it comes to how Christians interacted with (and admired ) them as well.
There's actually an excellent book on the issue that I think you'd be blessed by entitled
The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam by
Sidney H. Griffith
As
another noted best (for brief excerpt):
Griffith is concerned to show how the terms of discourse were basically set by the Islamic attacks on Christianity. For example, the list of topics found in popular genres of Christian apologetics in Syriac and Arabic in the early Islamic period are distinctively Islamic (97). Christian kalam is basically a borrowing of the Islamic style of religious discourse in Arabic (89)....Our author is also concerned to point out that although the characters are often fictional or symbolic in the popular apologetic genres that depicted dialogue between Christians and Muslims, these texts nevertheless shed light on real historical circumstances of open dialogue between Muslims and Christians (102-103). Griffin also shows a concern to demonstrate that Christians made use of the authority of the Quran to validate their Christian doctrines to the Muslims (168-70). Finally, Griffith thinks that Christianity should not discount the churches that were considered as dissident churches by the exclusive Roman imperial authority (129). Latin Christians in particular, Griffith thinks, have wrongly considered Christians of the Orient as heretical and schismatic.
The history between Christians and Muslims is interesting - as well as the history with the Jews in some of their responses (including
branches such as the Zealots who believed in the use of violence to achieve Divine ends) - for there are more passages in the Bible endorsing the use of violence than in the Koran.
I've heard it said a lot "Unlike Judaism and Christianity, hate and intolerance toward others is integral to Islam!!!"
But saying such doesn't show such or prove anything anymore than it'd be true for one to claim that Christianity leads to Replacement THeology simply because it's "integral." ..especially when the same ones using texts from the Quran don't have hate or intolerance simply because of texts used for such by others, just as believers don't use texts
on slavery (including those in the NT) or
killing women/children in the OT as signs of it being acceptable simply because others did so. One has to deal with the text and history before making assertions and there's no way around that. Simple as that
Yes, many things happened in the Scriptures which others have noted to be questionable - one of them being what happened when it came to the captive
Midianite virgins, as God apparently
permitted the Israelites to take them as wives or
servants (even thoug
h both wives and servants had particular rights under Mosaic law, including prohibitions against mistreatment..
Ex 21:26-27,
Dt 23:15-16,
Dt 21:10-14).....and some have argued that
God was right to make these allowances for Israel for a time, just as a parent is right to make certain allowances for children until its time for them to grow up. ....although others have also said the same thing of the Quran when it comes to seeing the timeframe of when things were written and what exactly was meant when Mohommad wrote certain things - with it being accepted/allowed for a time.
Even the issue of beating women is one that has been hotly debated. For the beating dynamic is one many Muslim men have taken out of context and been corrected on....and yet noted the parallel dynamics with what occurred with practices such as stoning for adultery or aggression of the woman toward the husband in the Bible (like with Mary being close to being killed for her adultery and the Woman at the Well in John 8) - and even dynamics with slavery:
Exodus 21:22
20 Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a rod must be punished if the slave dies as a direct result, 21 but they are not to be punished if the slave recovers after a day or two, since the slave is their property.
Of course, on the Bible aspect of things, that has LONG been debated when it comes to the reality of how passages of slavery were taken out of context to allow for a host of problems (more
here and here at
Slavery in the Bible: Does God Approve of It? /
Evidence for God from Science View topic - Slavery in the Bible ) - and the same has been argued with the Quran. Obviously, there is violence in the Quran and that cannot be avoided - but there's a way to deal with it.
For more:
For more, one excellent book on the matter is
Miniskirts, Mothers and Muslims: A Christian Woman in a Muslim Land
The author is the Western wife of an Arab from a conservative Muslim family. And IMHO, her personal experience is both profound and enlightening. Themes include: status; the place of women; the veil; stereotypes; segregation and restrictions; family life; hospitality and witness.
For some good study resources:
One thing I've often seen people do is claim that all Muslims are meant to be violent--with the narrative being that believers are not and have never been in the scriptures....and yet they forget on how the scriptures, for anyone studying them honestly, have had an EXTENSIVE history of vioolence. Elisha himself called down a curse on others for making fun of his bald head and had 2 bears kill over forty-youths ( 2 Kings 2:23-25/ 2 Kings 2 ). FOr others saying that Mohommad was vindictive and Biblical prophets were not, I think there's a big lack of honesty in seeing how others responded.....and there's a reason that others often chose to become Zealots for the Lord.
The same thing goes for Samson in Judges 14-16 when the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he went to war with the Phillistines....with Judges 15 being interesting after seeing how he had a riddle he made solved and the Spirit of God empowered him as he took vengence upon them by killing their own people to pay the winners what was agreed on. Again, anyone studying the prophets and OT Israel in how they did things will see that it wasn't anywhere close to being a pretty narrative or something where violence wasn't at times praised/celebrated.
As it is, the example of Elisha is interesting when seeing how he responded to mocking with the Lord's approval in shutting things done.
And all in the OT who followed God were believers, just as it is with believers today....be it Moses when it came to the slaughter of the Midianites for enticing Israel into sexual immorality after Balaam taught them how to seduce them, or David in his conquest of Jerusalem/wars---or Josiah in II Chronicles 33-34 who wiped out all of the idolators in the land/put them to death...and many others. The account of Maccabees also is another to consider as well as Phineas (more shared
here ).
Obviously, there's no avoiding where there is In the new book
Laying Down the Sword: Why we Cant Ignore the Bibles Violent Verses, Philip Jenkins brilliantly
compares and
contrasts the Bible and the Quran in terms of sheer violence.
For other good reviews:
War and peace in Quran and Bible
Building Bridges program with WTPN - Philip Jenkins and Jerry Davis (28th