No,no,no,no,no!

Submitted by jennifer solis (United States), Aug 15, 2008 at 18:09

The Old Testament DOES NOT command killing based on rejection of God. The Bible is extremely lucid about WHO EXACTLY was to be killed - the Assyrians, the Philistines, worshipers of Baal, etc. and NEVER was the reason for wiping them out based on their "disbelief". It is based on such wonderful activity such as beastiality, incest, rape, child sacrifice - commited on behalf of these various cults/tribes, which are ALWAYS named. Also, killing was commanded by God to preserve the nation from it's enemies. Again, these enemies, to be killed, were NAMED, and it wasn't "unbeliever".

NEVER IS KILLING COMMANDED BASED PURELY ON DISBELIEF.

The Qur'an, however, does command killing based purely on disbelief.

The Qur'an does state "disbelief", alone, qualifies you as an enemy to be killed.

In fact, it rewards it with Paradise, as you correctly state. While some Muslims argue that this is only appropriate and applicable during "times of Jihad" - a term which in itself is an argument - the Bible never considers enemies to be killed are enemies because of rejection of God. During times of Jihad or not.

The Bible teaches faith as the way to Heaven. Islam teaches works, which includes killing unbelievers, as the way to Paradise.

The fact that Islam and it's scripture considers rejection of Allah as reason alone to kill, during jihad or no, is, in my opinion, the greatest obstacle to any argument that Islam can co-exist within any society, for any length of time, without seeking to destroy it.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".