With few exceptions, religions the world over preach and commit acts outsiders would condemn. Jews and Muslims slaughter animals according to strictures laid out in their religious teachings, some Muslims practice female castration, Christians in Africa burn children they suspect of witchcraft, and gays have been beaten and even killed due to selective interpretations of the Bible.
While much of the cruelty can be attributed to erroneous interpretations, some of the most heinous actions are very clear and require no interpretation. The behavior of the Israelites after they left Egypt if committed today, would be labeled genocide and condemned by the world.
Unfortunately, Muslim actions today are in keeping with the teachings found in the Koran. And fortunately, cruel and violent acts committed by Christians, while horrible, rarely reached the level of atrocities found in the Bible. God, at least in the Old Testament, killed indiscriminately and with such thoroughness and barbarity as to raise the envy of even the most malignant despot.
For believers, acknowledging negative aspects is difficult. But it must be recognized that humans have the tendency to emphasize the faults in others while they minimize (or even ignore) their own. This is true worldwide and throughout time mainly because it is a valuable survival tool. Leaders recognize this and capitalize on it by appealing to the native religious system in order to create an “Other” that requires vanquishing. That Other, in every case, has something of value coveted by those in power.
Systems of power, of which Religion is undeniably one, are all eventually used by the unscrupulous in order to improve their position (greed). We see this repeated time and time again throughout history. Systems of power get bent to the will of those who control it. And saintly sheep do not gravitate to systems of power. Devilish Wolves do.
If you have made it this far, it should be clear that this essay was not proving that Islam is peaceful. It is, in fact, possibly the most violent religious ideology currently on the planet. But for Christians to notice that speck while ignoring the branch is to wear blinders to reality. While those blinders make us feel good and righteous, they limit knowledge and hamper progress towards peace. Most importantly, those blinders make us as a herd of simpletons easy to control in the service of ends we would not otherwise support.
