by Dr. Ali Shehata
Is Islam the Only Religion that Sanctions War and Fighting?
Unfortunately, many people incorrectly believe that Islam is the only religion that sanctions war. They point to the Jesus of the Bible and say that religions like Christianity are commanded with peace, and even loving the enemy. Is this true?
Undoubtedly, we see the Christian nations and kingdoms throughout history leading the forefront in regards to warfare and killing, as evidenced throughout the numerous Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the forceful take over and forced conversion of the Native Americans of both North and South America, clear into the blood baths of the two World Wars. In his online blog, Professor Juan Cole, the present Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan, writes:
Contrary to what is alleged by bigots like Bill Maher, Muslims are not more violent than people of other religions. Murder rates in most of the Muslim world are very low compared to the United States.
As for political violence, people of Christian heritage in the twentieth century polished off tens of millions of people in the two world wars and colonial repression. This massive carnage did not occur because European Christians are worse than, or different, from other human beings, but because they were the first to industrialize war and pursue a national model. Sometimes it is argued that they did not act in the name of religion, but of nationalism. But, really, how naive. Religion and nationalism are closely intertwined. The British monarch is the head of the Church of England, and that still meant something in the first half of the twentieth century, at least. The Swedish church is a national church. Spain? Was it really unconnected to Catholicism? Did the Church and Francisco Franco’s feelings toward it play no role in the Civil War? And what’s sauce for the goose: much Muslim violence is driven by forms of modern nationalism, too.
I don’t figure that Muslims killed more than 2 million people or so in political violence in the entire twentieth century, and that mainly in the Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988, and the Soviet and post-Soviet wars in Afghanistan, for which Europeans bear some blame.
Compare that to the Christian European tally of, oh, let’s say 100 million (16 million in WW I, 60 million in WWII—though some of those were attributable to Buddhists in Asia—and millions more in colonial wars.)
Belgium—yes, the Belgium of strawberry beer and quaint Gravensteen castle—conquered the Congo and is estimated to have killed off half of its inhabitants over time, some 8 million people at least…
I could go on and on. Everywhere you dig in European colonialism in Afro-Asia, there are bodies. Lots of bodies. Now that I think of it, maybe 100 million people killed by people of European Christian heritage in the twentieth century is an underestimate.
As for religious terrorism, that too is universal. Admittedly, some groups deploy terrorism as a tactic more at some times than others. Zionists in British Mandate Palestine were active terrorists in the 1940’s, from a British point of view, and in the period 1965-1980, the FBI considered the Jewish Defense League among the most active US terrorist groups…
Even more recently, it is difficult for me to see much of a difference between Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Baruch Goldstein, perpetrator of the Hebron massacre.
Or, there was the cold-blooded bombing of the Ajmer shrine in India by Bhavesh Patel and a gang of Hindu nationalists. Chillingly, they were disturbed when a second bomb they had set did not go off, so that they did not wreak as much havoc as they would have liked. Ajmer is an ecumenical Sufi shrine also visited by Hindus, and these bigots wanted to stop such open-minded sharing of spiritual spaces because they hate Muslims.
Buddhists have committed a lot of terrorism and other violence as well. Many in the Zen orders in Japan supported militarism in the first half of the twentieth century, for which their leaders later apologized. And, you had Inoue Shiro’s assassination campaign in 1930’s Japan. Nowadays militant Buddhist monks in Burma/Myanmar are urging on an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya.
As for Christianity, the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda initiated hostilities that displaced two million people. Although it is an African cult, it is Christian in origin and the result of Western Christian missionaries preaching in Africa. If Saudi Wahhabi preachers can be in part blamed for the Taliban, why do Christian missionaries skate when we consider the blow back from their pupils?
Despite the very large number of European Muslims, in 2007-2009 less than 1 percent of terrorist acts in that continent were committed by people from that community.
Terrorism is a tactic of extremists within each religion, and within secular religions of Marxism or nationalism. No religion, including Islam, preaches indiscriminate violence against innocents.
It takes a peculiar sort of blindness to see Christians of European heritage as “nice,” and Muslims as inherently violent, given the twentieth century death toll I mentioned above. Human beings are human beings and the species is too young and too interconnected to have differentiated much from group to group. People resort to violence out of ambition or grievance, and the more powerful they are, the more violence they seem to commit. The good news is that the number of wars is declining over time, and World War II, the biggest charnel house in history, hasn’t been repeated. (Cole, J. (2013, April 23). Terrorism and the other Religions. Retrieved from: https://www.juancole.com/2013/04/terrorism-other-religions.html )
But, to be fair, let’s look at the hard facts as written in the words of the Bible to see if there is evidence of Holy War in the Old, or New, Testament, and whether Jesus himself ever spoke of war or fighting.
Most Christians are very familiar with the following verses:
You have heard that it was said, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. [NIV Bible, Matthew 5:43-44]
But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. [NIV Bible, Luke 6:35]
Thus, most people have come to think that the above is the Biblical guidance to those who would attack you, even though, as just mentioned, this is definitely not what the followers of the Bible have practiced throughout history. Maybe the earlier Christians were implementing the following verses:
[Jesus] replied, “I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away. But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.” After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. [NIV Bible, Luke 19:26-28]
Do not suppose that I [Jesus] have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. [NIV Bible, Matthew 10:34]
So [Jesus] made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market?” [NIV Bible, John 2:15]
If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. [NIV Bible Luke 14:26]
These verses are mentioned here only to bring fairness to the attack of those who claim that Christianity has no basis of violence or hate within its folds, only love and forgiveness. (Ladd, C. (2014, Dec 31). Which religion is the most violent? Washington Times. Retrieved from: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/dec/31/which-religion-mostviolent/)
These same people then take hold of a portion of one of the verses of the Quran and leave off the context, in order to convince innocent people that Islam came with nothing but hate and violence.
Looking into the Old Testament, we find more verses commanding killing, pillaging and even rape—all apparently in the name of God.
Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man. [Numbers 31:17-18]
This was allegedly God’s command to Moses in regards to the disbelieving Philistines who occupied the Holy Land promised to the Children of Israel. Also,
All who would not seek the LORD, the God of Israel, were to be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman. [2 Chronicles 15:13]
In contrast others, as Muslims, we encourage people go back and look into the context of these verses and study them to understand. Why would the God, who is so often mentioned as Loving and full of Grace, command innocent women and boys to be mercilessly killed?
A careful review of the first five books of the Old Testament will reveal even more commands of war, killing, enslaving of people and confiscation of property. The point of this book is not to analyze these circumstances, or the theological questions they pose, or to attack Jewish and Christian scriptures. Instead, the objective of this review is to demonstrate the truth to honest people seeking to understand the reality of religion. The unbiased reader is invited to compare such orders as found in the Old Testament, as well as the words mentioned above from Jesus, with the verses from the Quran that permit people to defend themselves when persecuted and to help oppressed nations.
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