@13. MiamaMan:
Please allow me to disagree, your comments have a kernel of truth, but are not accurate in that:
Let me expand that kernel for you.
“Christianity has been promulgated using the very same strategies of conquest – and any historical treatment that portrays Islam as a violent, expansionist faith should not omit the same truths as they relate to the Christian tradition.”
Comparisons must be done according to age and date and while comparison centuries ago may not be very dissimilar, nowadays the differences are stark.
I will be happy to confine comparisons to the last 100 years. The differences are stark, but not in the way you appear to imagine. I am willing to assert that both religions are being used to promote very similar goals, as one would expect given their commonalities. Both promote capital punishment, both have been used to justify the persecution of homosexuals, both have been used to advocate the notion of people as property, and both have been used to discriminate against people based on their race, gender and/or religion. The main differences come when you consider the scale of the warfare conducted by adherents of either faith. Christians have been by far more violent and more lethal. That many Christians and Muslims abhor such violence, regardless of the source, is undeniable. To pretend that Christians are less violent and less dangerous than Muslims is to ignore the recent history of the world.
I think your contention that we have gone overboard with addressing the lies and omissions in our history books is either naive or overly optimistic. We have a long way to go in recovering the historical records to repair the gaps and fabrications in our collective understanding of history. Native American history is still very poorly understood – even very modern history has mostly been lost. African American history is likewise very poorly understood. Granted, a great deal of progress has been made in the last century – but any scholar of history could explain to you how far we have left to go.
@14. Delia:
Yes, Christianity has had a number of bloody and violent reformations over the centuries. Islam likewise has reformed to various degrees over the centuries. Both Muslims and Christians assert that they have a unique connection to their God – and that all other faiths are flawed. In many ways, both would prefer a world where everyone agreed with them – and unfortunately they are mutually exclusive. Your idea that all of Islam is somehow out to cleanse the world of infidels is rather obtuse.
@17. Joe Bison:
Maybe I read the Bible wrong.
You may not personally have read the Bible wrong – but clearly there have been a few misinterpretations throughout history. Violence is endemic to both the Muslim and Christian traditions.
Clearly you understand that there is a distinction between Islam and violence perpetrated in the name of religion. You even provide an anecdote showing that Muslims are not all out to get us. If we’re going to fix our textbooks, there’s no reason to exclude our own culture’s history.
@27. Don:
You make a compelling demographic point about the rise of Islam. The fortunate long-term news (in my opinion) is that secular values are taking root worldwide, and providing a common understanding that will make religious violence less acceptable over the next few centuries, provided that secularism is not devastated by ongoing religious warfare.
Read the Koran and then the New Testament before making really ignorant, stupid, naive comments like the one you made in your post.
You might want to make your criticism more specific. Simply calling my comments ignorant, stupid and naive doesn’t do much in the way of educating me about your wise, intelligent and well-reasoned alternative interpretation of reality. The truth is that violence committed by Christians has killed far more people than violence committed by Muslims. We need to address both as we are re-evaluating our history textbooks.
Peace.
DS
