Zen wrote:Your example of the Dark Ages is well taken but I would be remiss if I did not point out that despite mans failings, the message of Christ can be summed up as follows; "Treat others as you would wish to be treated". Do you really believe that Islam extends to you the same wishes?
I frankly don't know the Quran well enough to answer that, but a quick bit of Googling brought me
here; I didn't read everything, obviously, but the basic gist seems to be "as long as non-Muslims are willing to be peaceable towards you, do the same to them". Not precisely the same principle, but pretty close. On the flipside, there is a corresponding (and probably more frequently cited in our neck of the woods) guideline to be warlike towards those who are warlike towards Islam...which, incidentally, sounds a whole lot like the white supremacists/Christian nationalists/etc. who claim "we have nothing
against these people, really, but our culture is
under attack here, what choice do we have?"
On a related note, while I'm unfamiliar with the Quran, I
do know the Bible a fair amount, and am aware of both the Golden Rule as well as the parts where the Israelites received divine orders to carry out
literal genocide on their neighbors, and did just that, with joy and dancing afterwards - if I had to guess, I would imagine that devotees of both books, violent or peaceable, can point to passages which appear to justify their actions, and find some excuse to invalidate the other parts that contradict them. Moreover, I will, again,
vigorously argue that the poorer, less educated, and more desperate you are the easier it is for a religion, government, or other institution to convince you that you're "under attack" and thus
need to undertake "drastic measures" in response.
My man, we are all on the farm.
Yeah, but most of us toil on it, while others run it, and the latter still manage to win elections.
OK, good luck to you.
