Why do people continually point to the violence of the Quran, yet neglect its presence in the Old Testament?

Question

Here are two examples (and there are plenty, plenty more):

"Take all the heads of the people and hang them up before the LORD against the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may be turned away from Israel.'" (Numbers 25:3-4)

"Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people." (Deuteronomy 13:8-9)

So how is the violence that is present in the Old Testament different than the violence in the Quran?

Sword/Lord: While I have not *personally* witness Christians doing this, there is this long series of wars that are often left out of the history books - they are known as the Crusades, which you might be familiar with.

Now lemme guess - Christians were justified in all of their actions then because they were allegedly reclaiming the Holy Lands from the Muslims, right?

And I guess I won't even mention the more recent groups, like the Nazis (oops!) or the Klu Klux Klan (oops again!). But lemme guess, they were ignorant in their understanding and perverted the message to suit their own alterior motives, right?

My point is that practically every religion has members who misunderstand and misuse their religion to justify their own villiany.

Answer 1

Please don't do it.
You are doing the same mistake as they do.
Don't use holy books for bad purposes.
Just pray to Allah (God) and ask him to forgive those people.
Otherwise this Christian-Jew-Muslim thing doesn't get better.

Answer 2

Do not look for consistancy with ANY organized religion. You won't find
it and that's not what religion is good for. Does it make you calm? Does
it give you some order to your life? Does it make you feel good about
living your life?

Great!

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Regarding the violence in the bible ending after the old testament,
its amazing how persons carrying said bible with the new testament
waged war on the muslims (crusades). People seem to think of
Christianity as a tolerant peaceful religion - but it has more history
that says otherwise than history that would lead you to believe that.

Burned a witch recently? No? How about the Spanish Inquisition?
Oh yes, and the Nazi's were all Christian.

The teachings of the Bible are by-and-large a wonderful thing.
The stories in the Bible are just that - stories. Some have their
basis in history and some are little more than fairy tales with
a point.

That's not the point: Does Christianity make you love your neighbor?
Does it make you a better, calmer, happier person?

Great! Stop trying to make it make sense!

Answer 3

Have you ever seen christians practicing this.??
Now have you ever seen Muslims practicing the violence that the Koran says??

That is the answer isn't it. Every day yes every day we are reading 50 or 60 people blown up. Muslims blowing up Muslims as well as others.. I have never in my life seen a religion such as this..

Rev 6:4 And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

Answer 4

The two books aren't treated the same. The bible is just a collection of stories, parables and treatise. Adherents take it with a grain of salt and try to learn wisdom from it.

The Quran is considered the unalterable word of God, to be obeyed without exception.

Violence in the bible is mostly ignored. Violence in the Quran is a command that must be obeyed.....or else.

That's the difference. Well....one of them. Mostly, it's an issue of behavior by islamics throughout history. More importantly, their behvior today.

Answer 5

The violence you see in the Old Testament represents God's judgment. Although He is a God of Love, He is also a God of Holiness and a Judge of all unrighteousness.

God promised the father of faith, Abraham, that He woud judge the Amorites by the hand of Israel. He kept His promise. We need to heed His teachings so that we do not fall under the same condemnation.

Note that nowhere does the Bible approve of individual violence as does the Qur'an. Biblical judgment is reserved to God and to governments.

Answer 6

I grew up as a christian but I've come to realize that "religions" is the mother of chauvinism.(My God is better than yours, my moral values are better than yours); an infinite mine's better. Throughout the history of mankind, all wars have been fought for control of resources in "the name of God". The crusade were not Muslim making. Until we realize that we are being manipulated , ask and answer the question " who benefits from all that" we'll go round and round while hating each other

Answer 7

It's not. Muslim's have just gotten a bad rap for the recent terrorist acts committed by radicals in the name of Islam. That's what's inciting the hatred. Most people don't realize that Muhammad actually was ok with Christianity. It was just a different means of worshiping the "one true God."

Answer 8

Perhaps because the people these days read the Old testament and don't usually run out to wage a holy war because it proves that everyone needs to go to hell right now for being infidels.

Answer 9

All the three major Sacred writings have blood and war in them ... THE BIBLE, QURAN, AND THE BADGAVA-GITA OR WICCAN BOOK
I guess it is human nature to draw blood some how. If someone thinks that one holy book has less blood shed than another then they are being hypocritical

Answer 10

If the history of your religion was all about a group of religious extremists invading other peoples' territories and wiping them out completely for not believing in the same god they did... wouldn't you try to shift the focus somewhere else?

(When you come down to it, many religions are surprisingly similar aren't they?)

Answer 11

Everyone is well aware of the violence in the Old Testament. They really should ban that thing. I wouldn't want kids to read that.