Many people have been quoting the Quran out of context in an effort to show that Islam promotes violence. A recent op-ed piece by Cal Thomas is a high profile example.

This is pure nonsense. Thomas and others doing this are taking selected passages and reading them completely out of context to support whatever argument they wish to make. I can do the same thing with the Bible.

Here are some choice passages from the KJV Bible which when read in isolation makes the Bible appear to be a primer for evil:

1) In Leviticus 25:44-46, the Lord tells the Israelites it's OK to own slaves, provided they are strangers or heathens.

2) In Samuel 15:2-3, the Lord orders Saul to kill all the Amalekite men, women and infants.

3) In Exodus 15:3, the Bible tells us the Lord is a man of war.

4) In Numbers 31, the Lord tells Moses to kill all the Midianites, sparing only the virgins.

5) In Deuteronomy 13:6-16, the Lord instructs Israel to kill anyone who worships a different god or who worships the Lord differently.

6) In Mark 7:9, Jesus is critical of the Jews for not killing their disobedient children as prescribed by Old Testament law.

7) In Luke 19:22-27, Jesus orders killed anyone who refuses to be ruled by him.

Context is important, of course, and many of these seeming cruelties disappear when read as such. However, this would not stop a Christian terrorist from interpreting the Bible in a manner necessary to concoct a religious justification for unspeakable horrors, as Pope Urban II did, for example, when he preached the First Crusade in 1095 or as many American preachers did when they used Leviticus to defend slavery.

Political and religious extremists have abused Islamic, Jewish, or Christian scriptures continuously throughout history. Cal Thomas, a man who claims to be Christian, would do well to learn something of his own faith s scriptures and history before accusing Islam s Quran of promoting violence.

Ambrosia : you are lloking to some leaves only. Look at the whole tree of Christianity.

Thomas [Tom]

 Ambrosia,

  U seem rather angry and defence. The Koran, Torah and Bible all preach violence and cruel punishments for those that sin and fail to repent. The 3 books also preach good things, u cant say one is being interpreted out of context and not the other two. U dont sound dumb to me, indeed very knowledgable, however its good not to be deluded by personal bias. All of these books were written by humans, all  humans have failings.

judeadrigan wrote: All of these books were written by humans, all  humans have failings.

ooohhh, better watch out for the backlash

Ambrosia : what is really your intention to open a topic like this? Just to vent your steam ?

I'm sure  that there are lots of non-Moslems, like me, that are convinced that Islam is not a violence loving faith.

On the other hand, I think that you have also face the hard and plain facts, that nowadays there are lots of violence exercised by lots of Islamic factions. And as far as I am told that they justify their acts on verses in the Qur'an. Following your anger and frustration, wouldn't your statement that many [of us, non Moslems] using verses of violence in the Qur'an out of context, be equally applicable to these violent Moslem factions?

On the violence triggerring verses in the Bible, you in turn, need to understand them in context as well, and, as I am always trumpeting in my postings :it is best try to understand the whole picture of Christianity, Old and New Testaments first, the whole tree, and then look in that context the small, often already dead, leaves. [I am trying this approach also for my efforts to understand IUslam better.]

All the best. God bless you!

Tom.-

Forgot to comment on your question:

It is completely bullsh*t that the Bible preach violence.

Just don't yourself misled by those anomalic leaves. [Except of course, that you definitely feel to use canons to bombard Christianity with those verses and don't give a sh*t on anything else, which I hope you don't.]

Tom.-