Does Islam Encourage Violence More Than Other Religions?
Morgan Lee ("Christianity Today," September 12, 2014)
As debate continues over President Obama's assertion about the religious
nature (or lack thereof) of the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group, a new
Pew Research Center study finds that more Americans across the board believe
that Islam encourages violence more than other religions.
Obama announced on Wednesday that the United States would begin training
forces near Iraq and Syria to combat the well-organized Sunni extremists. In
the same speech, the president argued that despite its name, “ISIL is not
Islamic.” “No religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast
majority of ISIL’s victims have been Muslim,” he added.
[Note: CT refers to the group as ISIS, which refers to the Islamic State of
Iraq and Syria. Because the fighters use Syria to more broadly refer to
Lebanon, parts of Turkey, and Jordan, the Obama administration uses ISIL,
with the last initial referring to the Levant.]
The statement was widely contested, from the Family Research Council to Sam
Harris.
“ISIS does not represent the whole of Islam, or even the majority stream
within Islam today. As the president said, ISIS victimizes Muslims as well as
non-Muslims, and many Muslims are appalled by the group’s conduct," wrote
First Things columnist Mark Movsesian. "But ISIS has definite roots in
parts of the Islamic tradition. For example, its treatment of Christians has
antecedents in Islamic history. ISIS did not invent the dhimma on its own.”
Pew's September survey found that 70 percent of white evangelical
Protestants now believe “Islam encourages violence more than other religions.”
While this number, one of the highest of any demographic group, has risen 13
percentage points since February, the beliefs of Christians from all
backgrounds have shifted against Islam.
For instance, agreement among white mainline Christians has risen even
more, from 36 percent in February to 54 percent in September (an increase of
18
percentage points). Agreement among Catholics has risen from 41 percent to
53 percent (12 percentage points), and among black Protestants from 35
percent to 43 percent.
Well, duh, there are about 120 jihad verses in the Koran and of these some
70 explicitly command violence, including commanding beheadings,
crucifixions, and use of violence to bring about religious conversions. The
question is why the entire US public does not know these facts for what they
are.
The report also finds that a majority of Americans are “very concerned”
with the spread of Islamic extremism at home and worldwide. Following Osama
bin Laden’s death in 2011, a record low number of Americans (36 percent)
were “very concerned” about Islamic extremism. Now the number has risen to 53
percent for domestic threats and 62 percent for international threats.
(Prior to bin Laden's death, concern was 52% for domestic threats and 49
percent for international threats.)
ISIS's violent actions have been condemned by many Muslim leaders,
including Egypt's Al-Azhar, a top center of Sunni learning. The Organization
of
Islamic Cooperation argued that although ISIS claimed “that they do their acts
in the name of Islam ... their doing has nothing to do with Islam.”
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, the most populous Muslim
country
in the world, said in August that his country would “not tolerate it” and
“forbid ISIS in Indonesia.”
In CT’s interview with Rodney Stark earlier this year on why global
religious hostility is on the rise, the Baylor University sociologist
suggested
that Muslim violence was largely because "most Middle Eastern nations have
several Muslim groups that have been bitter enemies for centuries."
“Some 75 percent of the people who died from religious hostility in 2012
were Muslims killed by Muslims. Then the terrible bitterness among them gets
fanned by the enormous anger in these countries toward the West: the
jealousy arising from poverty; technological backwardness; and then, of
course,
being appalled at the West's immorality, especially as depicted in the media,
” said Stark. He also argued that “religious violence isn't something new
in the world,” and noted that he hesitated “to think there is anything
peculiar to the Islamic tradition. There is a problem, to be sure, in that
Muhammad butchered people for their irreligion. But the fact is, Christians
have killed each other by the millions too.”
False equivalence: Since Muhammad murdered literally thousands of people
personally ot at his direct orders, the comparison should be to Jesus. The
issue is ho many people Christ killed himself or ordered to be killed. The
answer, of course, is Zero.
In 2008, CT interviewed Dalia Mogahed, co-author of Who Speaks For Islam?
What a Billion Muslims Really Think, who argued that “if the Qur'an espouses
violence, then we should have a greater percentage of Muslims involved in
violence.“
Tens of thousands of Muslims, actually more like hundreds of thousands,
killing people isn't enough evidence ???
“Terrorist sympathizers or the ‘cheering section’—the 7 percent who are
politically radicalized—are no more religious than mainstream Muslims who
abhor violence and say it is morally unjustified. Muslims are as likely as
Americans to denounce attacks on civilians,” she said.
Demonstrably false
CT also noted a 2013 Pew poll which compared the views of American Muslims
to Muslims worldwide on suicide bombers and other matters.
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