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Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate
Okay. Obviously I'm doing a horrible job of getting my point across.
You said that you do not foresee the violence coming to an end soon because the extremists have these verses in the Quran to hold onto.
But if there are similar verses in the Bible, then why aren't Christian fanatics able to recruit young people into being terrorists?
Which makes me believe that this violence is more geo-political than religious.
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Christianity doesn't advocate violent conversion. The New Testament(new covenant) was extablished by Jesus Christ and communicated primarily through the Apostles. They preached about judgement and hell but, the Christian wasn't the administer of judgement: God is. And judgement is to take place the end of the world. Today is a time of grace; not judgement.
When Muhammad started his religion in 622 AD he seemed to have invisioned a peaceful religion but, his later writings show a shift towards forced conversion. Christianity wasn't setting a good example in Mohammad's day. The Roman State had adopted Christianity as its State religion about 300 years before and certainly had been guilty of various degrees of forced conversion itself. I'm sure there were also instances of the State church claiming God's roll as judge and executioner as well. Muhammad could very well have modeled his vision of a State religion after the Catholic system or more probably a combination of that and the ancient Israel state religious model described in the old Testament(old covenant).
Simply put Christianity that is practiced according to its holy book doesn't promote violence. Conversely, Islam practiced as Muhammad invisioned it will include forced conversion and conquest.
Yes one can take a piece of any book out of context and make it imply something it doesn't. But when that is done it is pretty easy to refute. What it says is what it says.