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 (the reader
can refer to other articles on this web site, e.g. in the sections
Muhammad and his enemies
or Islam & Terrorism), 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. Needless 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.
Related articles: The Goodness of God
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