Islam’s violent tendencies
- Herald Sun
- October 06, 2014
A CULTURAL self-loathing is driving many commentators to destroy
what they should most defend in our clash with radical versions of
Islam.
Take the latest meme of our media class — to relativise Islam into
nothing more dangerous than Christianity, the foundation of our
freedoms.Sydney ABC host Richard Glover, for instance, breezily assured us at the weekend: “In truth, Islamic State is just a flag of convenience for the lost and enraged. It’s Islamic in the same way as Nazism was Christian.”
Similarly, Howard government minister Amanda Vanstone, the ABC’s token “conservative”, told Age readers: “The Muslim and Christian religions have much in common ... Islam holds no monopoly on the production of radical fanatics. Hitler is a good example.”
I can understand why Glover and Vanstone prefer to believe Islam is much like Christianity, with both producing their radical monsters — Islam, the Islamic State, and Christianity, Hitler.
Hey, what better way to seem broadminded? What better excuse to avoid a bruising argument on Islam? And isn’t it honourable to hose down the bigots now trying to demonise our many peace-loving Muslims?
But there is a problem here. It is called “facts”. And no good intentions can excuse a wilful and dangerous blindness. (Disclaimer: No, I am not Christian.)
Fact one: The Islamic State actually claims it is Islamic, but the National Socialists never claimed they were Christian. The names of both organisations tell the story.
Fact two: The Islamic State actually quotes Islam’s sacred texts — the Koran and Hadith — to legitimise its slaughters, but the Nazis never quoted the Bible to legitimise genocide.
Indeed, the Islamic State’s recent statement ordering Muslims around the world — and specifically in Australia — to “kill the disbeliever whether he is civilian or military”, quoted the Koran and Hadith at least 25 times in support.
The Nazis could never find a justification in the Bible to kill all Jews, gypsies or the mentally “inferior” and never tried.
They simply didn’t see themselves as soldiers of Christ in the way Islamic State jihadists insist they are warriors for Allah.
Fact three: The Islamic State is not completely delusional in claiming it has a religious mandate.
BLOG WITH ANDREW BOLT
Islam’s founder, the war leader Mohammed, practised violence in a way Jesus never did, and the primary texts of their respective faiths show the difference. The Koran and Hadith urge or condone violence against enemies, while the Christian New Testament does not.
The result is that Islam’s holiest texts can be easily read to favour terrorism, even though the vast majority of Muslims reject such an interpretation.
Sure enough, in its statement demanding the slaughter of non-believers, the Islamic State cited specific scriptural injunctions to violence, with two, in particular, seeming to inspire both its savagery and its characteristic beheadings: “Allah the Exalted said, ‘And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush’” and “He the Exalted said: ‘So when you meet those who disbelieve (in battle), strike (their) necks’.”
Nowhere is Christ recorded urging followers to kill disbelievers. Christianity would be a very different faith had he done so.
Instead, Christ urged followers to reach out to unbelievers not with a sword but with help — as recorded in the parable of the good Samaritan. When besieged by his enemies, Christ did not fight back but let himself be killed.
Fact four: The Islamic State insists it fulfils Islam’s purpose on earth, but Hitler believed Nazism should destroy Christianity’s.
Hitler, like the Islamic State and many other totalitarians, was actually an enemy of Christianity, not least because it defends the dignity of every individual, including the unborn and deformed, and resists their enslavement or destruction.
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