One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other (Islam vs. Christianity)

“Islam, like all the other major religions, is a religion of peace or of violence depending on who is interpreting it.”—Prof. Michael Sells, whose book on Islam is scheduled to be required reading for all incoming freshmen at the University of North Carolina.

One of my theories of life is that certain strains of stupidity are immune to the effects of logic and reason. While some bad ideas, like communism and disco, spread quickly but eventually succumb to the white-blood-cell qualities of freedom and good taste, other obviously stupid notions—such as letting the government run our schools, or the phrase “starring Kevin Costner” —are highly resistant to reason, perhaps even indestructible.

The most contagious of the current dumb-yet-indestructible ideas is “Islam Influenza,” the patently false and demonstrably disprovable belief that Islam is “just like every other religion.” This idea is like the Terminator: It will always be back.

I invited Professor Michael Sells onto my radio show to explain his theory of Islamic equivalency. If all religions are equally violent, where, I asked, do the butt-kicking Buddhists hang out? Or the killer Quakers? Or the marauding Mormons?

He had no answer, because it is impossible to earnestly follow the teachings of Buddha and blow up school buses at the same time. When I pointed this out, Professor Sells kicked into the standard “Christians are evil” counter-spin that has infected every media outlet in America.

After the obligatory attacks on the Crusades and the Inquisition (why not throw in the Druids and Zoroastrianism while you’re at it?), Professor Sells went on to claim that Christianity today is just as violent a faith as Islam because of something called the “Christian Identity Movement.” This “movement” is actually a handful of gap-toothed racists who hang out in Idaho fantasizing about race wars and playing military dress-up. They are as representative of Christianity as Tiger Woods is of the racial makeup of the PGA tour.

When further challenged, the professor brought up the Holocaust. Why? I have no idea, unless you believe that Adolf Hitler and his philosophical inspiration, Fredrich “God Is Dead” Nietzsche, were evangelical Christians. Sells blamed Christianity for Timothy McVeigh (What? You didn’t notice that crucifix he was waving outside FBI headquarters in OKC?) and then, in utter desperation, said that Slobodan Milosevic and the Serbs were waging a “Christian” war against the Muslims of Kosovo.

This is a fascinating argument for a scholar of Professor Sells’ stature to make, given that a) Milosovic’s Serbia also waged war against the Christians of Croatia and, b) the people who came to the rescue of Kosovo were those nasty Christians of America and Europe.

But all of this is a smoke screen anyway. Arguments about the existence of violent Christians are just a dodge, a way for the stupid virus to avoid the antibodies of obvious truth. If a million-man army of evangelicals arose tomorrow and began executing people for preaching different faiths, slitting the throats of homosexuals and slaughtering Jews while they observed Passover (all actions taken in the name of Allah this year), it wouldn’t make Christianity the violent religion that Islam is.

All kinds of bad people do all kinds of bad things all the time and blame God for it afterwards. That’s an issue of character, not theology. The difference is that when you’re murdering sleeping women in their beds, you cannot be faithfully following the teachings of Buddha or Christ or Moses as they are understood today. A Buddhist, Christian or Jew who commits murder is ALWAYS failing his faith.

On the other hand, there are entire nations of Muslims led by the world’s most prominent clerics with millions of followers who see in the teaching of Islam either the duty or the opportunity to commit murder with the blessings of Heaven. In places like Iran (population: 60 million), Iraq (20 million), Saudi Arabia (19 million), and Yemen (15 million), among many others, it is entirely possible to be a successful murderer and a good Muslim at the same time…as long as you are murdering Jews and Christians.

If a Christian blew up a mosque this week, every single sect of world Christianity would publicly denounce the act as evil and contrary to the faith. But when Hamas—an Islamic organization supported by Muslims all over the world, including some in America--blew up a cafeteria on July 31 and killed five Americans, thousands of Muslims took to the streets to celebrate. Millions more spoke volumes with their silence. These followers of Mohammed can’t say that terror bombings are a good thing, but their understanding of Islam also prevents them from saying these killings are bad, either.

That’s one reason why, when the world’s 57 Islamic nations held a meeting earlier this year, they were unable to pass a resolution denouncing bombings that target civilians. Can you imagine any other faith whose leaders would meet in the year 2002 and say “This whole ‘murder,’ thing, is that bad or what? Blowing up school buses? Too close to call.”

The gulf between modern Islam and the rest of the world’s faiths is a chasm nearly as wide as the gulf between Arab culture and civilization itself. The chasm is so vast that, after a year of “Islam is a religion of peace” propaganda, even some members of the media are starting to notice. One of my local newspaper columnists wrote an editorial last week in which he finally conceded that Islam is “sort of” more dangerous than Anglicanism.

It doesn’t sound like much, but trust me: In the current climate of Islamo-Equivalence, such steel-jawed invective is revolutionary.

“Islam, like all the other major religions, is a religion of peace or of violence depending on who is interpreting it.”

http://www.hti.umich.edu/k/koran/

"The Women" [4.89] They desire that you should disbelieve as they have disbelieved, so that you might be (all) alike; therefore take not from among them friends until they fly (their homes) in Allah's way; but if they turn back, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them, and take not from among them a friend or a helper.

[4.91] You will find others who desire that they should be safe from you and secure from their own people; as often as they are sent back to the mischief they get thrown into it headlong; therefore if they do not withdraw from you, and (do not) offer you peace and restrain their hands, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them; and against these We have given.you a clear authority.

The Dinner Table - [5.51] O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people.

The Cattle - [6.146] And to those who were Jews We made unlawful every animal having claws, and of oxen and sheep We made unlawful to them the fat of both, except such as was on their backs or the entrails or what was mixed with bones: this was a punishment We gave them on account of their rebellion, and We are surely Truthful.

The Immunity - Denial of Deity of Christ and His Messiahship - [9.30] And the Jews say: Uzair is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away! (MAY ALLAH DESTROY JEWS AND CHRISTIANS)

[9.5] So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to them; surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

The Congregation [62.6] Say: O you who are Jews, if you think that you are the favorites of Allah to the exclusion of other people, then invoke death If you are truthful. (PLEASE COMMIT SUICIDE)

The Cow - [2.111] And they say: None shall enter the garden (or paradise) except he who is a Jew or a Christian. These are their vain desires. Say: Bring your proof if you are truthful.

The Women - [4.171] O followers of the Book! do not exceed the limits in your religion, and do not speak (lies) against Allah, but (speak) the truth; the Messiah, Isa son of Marium is only an apostle of Allah and His Word which He communicated to Marium and a spirit from Him; believe therefore in Allah and His apostles, and say not, Three. Desist, it is better for you; Allah is only one god; far be It from His glory that He should have a son, whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth is His, and Allah is sufficient for a Protector. (CLEARLY STATES THAT JESUS IS **NOT** THE SON OF GOD)

The Dinner Table - The Dinner Table [5.14] And with those who say, We are Christians, We made a covenant, but they neglected a portion of what they were reminded of, therefore We excited among them enmity and hatred to the day of resurrection; and Allah will inform them of what they did.

[5.72] Certainly they disbelieve who say: Surely Allah, He is the Messiah, son of Marium; and the Messiah said: O Children of Israel! serve Allah, my Lord and your Lord. Surely whoever associates (others) with Allah, then Allah has forbidden to him the garden, and his abode is the fire; and there shall be no helpers for the unjust.

Quran tells Muslims to kill the disbelievers wherever they find them (Q. 2:191), to murder them and treat them harshly (Q. 9:123), slay them (Q. 9: 5), fight with them, (Q. 8: 65 ) even if they are Christians and Jews, humiliate them and impose on them a penalty tax (Q. 9: 29). Quran takes away the freedom of belief from all humanity and tell clearly that no other religion except Islam is accepted (Q. 3: 85). It relegates those who disbelieve in Quran to hell (Q. 5: 11), calls them najis (filthy, untouchable, impure) (Q. 9: 28). It orders its followers to fight the unbelievers until no other religion except Islam is left (Q. 2: 193).

"Fight those who do not profess the true faith [ISLAM], till they pay the jiziya with the hand of humility." - Koran 9: 29

".... I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers, Smite ye above their necks [CUT OFF THEIR HEADS], and smite all their finger tips of them [CUT OFF THEIR FINGERS]." - Koran 8: 12

"Prophet, make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites, and deal rigorously with them. Hell shall be their home: an evil fate." - Koran 9: 73

"When you meet the unbelievers in the Jihad strike off their heads [CUT OFF THEIR HEADS] and, when you have laid them low, bind your captives firmly." - Koran 47: 4

"The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet and alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land. Such will be their degradation in the world, and in the Hereafter theirs will be an awful doom...." - Koran 5: 33-34

" Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last day, nor hold the forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and his messenger, nor acknowledge the Religion of Truth from among the People of the Book, until they pay the Jiziyah with willing submission. And feel themselves subdued." - Koran 9: 29

"....the Christians call 'Christ the Son Of God'. That is a saying from their mouth; (In this) they but intimate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth." - Koran 9: 30

"....the People of the Book and the pagans shall burn for ever in the fire of Hell. They are the vilest of all creatures." - Koran 98: 1-8

"Garments of fire have been prepared for the unbelievers. Scalding water shall be poured upon their heads, melting their skins and that which is in their bellies. They shall be lashed rods of iron. Whenever, in their anguish, they try to escape from Hell, back they shall be dragged, and will be told: 'Taste the torment of the Conflagration!'" - Koran 22: 19-22, 23

"And burn ye him in the blazing fire. Further, make him march in a chain, whereof the length is seventy cubits. This was he that would not believe in allah Most high and would not encourage the feeding of the indignant. So no friend hath he here this day. Nor hath he any food except the corruption from the washing of wounds. " - Koran 31-37

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.