The Difference Between Violence in the Bible and the
Qur'an
A Christian Perspective
After the events of September 11th, the issue of violence and
religion has once again come into intense discussions and debate.
As soon as Christians and others of good will condemn the Islamic
justification and foundation for resorting to violence in the
name of Godjustifications found both in the Qur'an and the
life of prophet Muhammadwe are quickly told that the Bible
(especially the Old Testament scriptures) and Christian history
are also filled with violence and that we should not single out
Islam or the Qur'an in this regard.
For example, Fareed Zakaria, in his report in Newsweek,
entitled "Why they hate us: The roots of Islamic rageand
what we can do about it" writes, "The historian Paul
Johnson has argued that Islam is intrinsically an intolerant and
violent religion. Other scholars have disagreed, pointing out
that Islam condemns the slaughter of innocents and prohibits suicide.
Nothing will be solved by searching for true Islam
or quoting the Qur'an. The Qur'an is a vast, vague book, filled
with poetry and contradictions (much like the Bible). You can
find in it condemnations of war and incitements to struggle, beautiful
expressions of tolerance and stern pictures against unbelievers.
Quotations from it usually tell us more about the person who selected
the passages than about Islam. Every religion is compatible with
the best and the worst of humankind. Through its long history,
Christianity has supported inquisitions and anti-Semitism, but
also human rights and social welfare."
How can Christians respond to such counter-charges? Are Christians
and their scriptures no different than Muslim terrorists and others
who use violence in the name of God to destroy their enemies?
What can we say in light of our own dark Church history and also
graphic passages found in portions of the Old Testament that do
not seem to cast any better light on the roots and actions of
our own faith tradition? The following are some of my reflections
on these questions. Time does not allow me to develop each point
fully, but I hope that they can be of some help and bring some
clarification to these issues.
As Christians we must be very emphatic that Christians have
and continue to do many shameful things in the name of Christ,
BUT the issue is this: Christians who use violence in the name
of God to destroy their enemies have no justification for their
actions from Jesus Christ, his life and teachings as found in
the New Testament. Whereas, Muslims who are engaged in violence
and destruction of anyone who opposes Islam, have ample justification
for their actions from the Qur'an and the life and sayings of
prophet Muhammad. It is beyond the scope of this paper to quote
verses and passages from the Qur'an, the Hadith and biographies of prophet
Muhammad ,
but suffice it to say that it is beyond doubt that the prophet
of Islam did encourage the killing and intimidation of his enemies,
not just in self defense as it is commonly reported by Muslims,
but in the promotion of the cause of God and the spread of Islam.
Needles to say, the actions of the prophet were in direct contradiction
to the teachings and actions of Jesus Christ and his disciples.
So the point is not that Christians have never resorted to violence
and other horrible atrocities. They have indeed committed many
horrible acts, but when they have done this, they have betrayed
the very person that they claim to follow. But when Muslims commit
such acts, they can in fact claim that they are following the
example of their prophet and thus fulfilling the will of God
and promoting His cause. That, certainly, is a big difference!
When we turn our attention to the Old Testamet and look at
passages that are found in the book of Joshua regarding the extermination
of the Canaanites living in the land, we can still notice a dramatic
difference in those passages and the events in the early history
of Islam. The primary theme in those accounts is the issue of
God's holiness. Even hundreds of years before the invasion of
Canaan, God had told Abraham that the sins of the people living
in the land had not reached its limit, but when the inhabitants
had defiled the land to its limit, the land was going to "throw
them up." In fact, God later warned the nation of Israel
to be careful in not repeating the sins of the previous people,
otherwise the land was going to throw them up too. So we see
that God is using Israel as an instrument of His justice to purge
the land of its sinfulness and later in history God used other
nations like the Assyrians and the Babylonians as His instruments
to cleanse the land by destroying the people of Israel for their
sinfulness.
However, when one reads the early accounts of prophet Muhammad's
raids and wars, not only one sees no mention of the theme of
divine holiness and its opposition to sin, but the primary motivations
that one constantly encounters are the looting of the enemies
and the obtaining of booty and the spoils of war or the relief
and pleasures of Paradise or conquering the enemies and spreading
the rule of the prophet. I am not just repeating an old stereotypical
charge against Islam. I have just finished reading the most ancient
Muslim biography of prophet Muhammad, written by Ibn Ishaq in
the second century of the Islamic era (translated by A. Guillaume
and published by Oxford University Press in 1955). I truly encourage
all Muslims and non-Muslims to read this book to see for themselves
the violence in the actions of prophet Muhammad and his early
followers.
Another important point that we need to keep in mind is the
fact that the divine command for the destruction of the few cities
of Canaan, was for a specific people, a specific time and place
and a specific purpose. Nowhere in the later Old Testament period
do we see God commanding the nation of Israel to go and attack
other pagan nations, either as self-defense or as a way to promote
faith in the true God of heaven and earth. However, in the Qur'an,
we encounter general commands to kill and destroy the enemies
of Islam that are applicable for all times and places and people
groups. It is beyond dispute that from the earliest times, right
after the death of the prophet, Muslim splinter groups began
fighting, killing and assassinating even each other, in the name
of God. The history of Islam, down to the present day is filled
with the appeals of various Muslims to ever-applicable Qur'anic
passages to destroy and kill their enemies.
I would like to conclude this brief article by using a popular
Islamic analogy. Muslims generally believe that since Islam is
the final great monotheistic religion, it is superior in every
respect to Judaism and Christianity. Living in the Middle East
and growing up in a Muslim country, we were always told that
Judaism was like elementary school, Christianity was like high
school and Islam is like university. Each religion was from God,
but each one became progressively higher and better. Now the
question that we must ask is this, how can Islam claim to have
a superior ethics to the New Testament, and yet resort back to
the use and justification of violence, elements that were supposedly
part of the early Jewish tradition? It seems that Islam not only
has not improved on the teachings of Jesus and the New Testament
in regard to the use of force, but that in fact Islam has gone
back many steps in this regard.
I hope that the above comments have been helpful in clarifying
some of the issues that we are facing these days regarding the
use of violence in the Qur'an and the Bible. As Christians, we
must not forget that the lens through which we must look at everything
in life and even the Bible is the cross of Jesus Christ. Ultimately,
it is the cross that defines for us who God is, what is He like
and the means by which He is redeeming the world.