Comment Reply

A friend of mine posted a comment on my last post, asking for proof of some of the comments I made(you can read both of these things for yourself). Now, normally I would reply in the comments section, but once I started, I realized that my response was going to be way too big. Not only that, but I thought it might be pretty interesting for everyone to know exactly where I'm coming from on this issue(religion). So here we go:

First of all, I was asked to point out where in the Qu'ran it "states that any muslim not only has the right, but the duty, to kill any non-believer"(those are my words). If you read it carefully, I say that their religion teaches this idea, not the Qu'ran. Most of a religion's dogma comes by way of interpretation by the clergy(priests, rabbis, mullahs, etc.) For example, I don't believe the Bible states that Jesus' birthday is Dec. 25th. The date for the celebration of Easter is even more specious; it's not even the same calendar day from year to year! Yet they have been handed down by the clergy as the proper days for celebration, and accepted by the masses. This situation is even much more prevalent in Islam, for they make the claim that the Qu'ran is not the Qu'ran unless it is in arabic; no translation will suffice. That means that for the millions of non-Arab muslims, they can't even comprehend their religion until they learn a second language. I would say it's pretty naive to think that they would ever understand Arabic(or any second language) as well as a native speaker. According to the CIA factbook, 98% of the population of Iran is Muslim, yet only 1% actually speak Arabic. Not only that, but only 77% of the population is literate(it doesn't say in what language). That means that roughly one-third of the population has to depend on the interpretation of others for their religious beliefs. Given all of this evidence, I think it's pretty clear that it doesn't matter if it's actually stated in the Qu'ran or not.

What is stated in the Qu'ran (quite clearly, I might add) is the pain and torture awaiting those who don't believe. The majority of the condemnations I've read involve the wrath of God, meaning that they'll leave the judgement to Him. But there are also passages citing past conquests against non-believers, and even threats of future violence (Note: I didn't bring my Qu'ran with me to work today, so I'll update this later with the actual passages). Not only that, but I found a passage saying that if you fight in the name of the Lord and are harmed or killed, all of your sins will be expunged and you'll be granted access to the gardens. There's also one that says(I'm paraphrasing) that no dead person would wish to come back to life, accept for the martyrs, who have found such great rewards in heaven that they would martyr themselves again. And I haven't even read the whole thing yet.

I feel I shouldn't have to mention this, but all you have to do to find proof of what I said is to look at the world news section of any major newspaper. Not a week goes by that they don't report "sectarian" violence between the different Muslim groups. They can't even get along with each other! Or how about the situation that's been brewing in Israel for the past 5o years? In all honesty, I do not feel that what I said about the Muslim faith was incorrect, and it will take a lot, A LOT, of evidence to change my mind. I'd also like to say that I don't harbor any ill will towards the Muslim people. And I understand that not all of them are so strong in their convictions; far be it from me to condemn all of them because of a few bad apples. The problem is that those bad apples have proven to be so dangerous, and I think it would be foolish of us to turn a blind eye, simply because we don't want to appear prejudiced.

I also mentioned in my last post that the Christian holy books(by which I mean the old and new testaments) also advocate violence toward non-believers. I'm not a Christian myself(sorry Mom), but I'm definitely more familiar with the Bible than the Qu'ran, so this should be pretty easy. How about the story where Moses goes up Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments? While he's gone, the people ask Aaron to make a god for them. Tada! Golden calf. Moses is of course pissed, so he proceeds to first destroy the calf, then ordered the tribe of Levi to kill as many people as possible. Not only that, but a plague was then sent upon the people "because they made the calf, which Aaron made" (Again, don't have my Bible with me, but this is in Exodus 32).

Here's a fun one - "...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" Joshua 6:21. This was of course at the battle of Jericho. Here's another - "But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee." I think I've made my point. As for the New Testament, I don't have any good verses, but I don't think I'm wrong in saying that the Jews, who actually believe in the same God, have been persecuted for well over a thousand years for the killing of Christ.

So there you are friend, proof that religion promotes discrimination against non-believers. Not that any of this should come as a surprise to you; I think you just wanted to make sure I wasn't spouting ignorant nonsense. For that, I would Google "American Taliban." You might be surprised (and hopefully apalled) at what your fellow Christians have to say.