Incitement to Hatred in Koran ?

Submitted by Jonathan Brahms (United States), Jul 4, 2003 at 07:33

I would appreciate if greatly if a qualified person would extract the lines (if any) from the Koran and other classic Moslem texts that incite hatred of "infidels" - Jews, Christians and others, and encourage conquest and conversion by force. I think it would be valuable for non-Moslems to know the source of the energy and hatred behind "Islamism", if indeed it is to be found at the source of the religion.

Suggestion/Solution

I have read that after taking a great deal of material from Judaism, Mohammed invited the Jews of Arabia to convert to Islam. Naturally, they refused. They also apparently took sides against the followers of Mohammed during the period when Islam was in its formative stage. When Jews refused to convert and took sides against his new religion, Mohammed vilified them. This vilification became holy writ and since then, Jews have been seen as the enemy by Moslems.

After approximately 2,000 years of horrific persecution of the Jews, per their alleged role in the death of Jesus, the Catholic Church, mitigated its position on the guilt of the Jews. It was too little, too late, but going forward, it may help how Jews are perceived.

Is a similar modification/mitigation of the Koran possible?

The obstacles that occur to me are that Islam in not centralized the way the Vatican is and therefore cannot impose such changes universally. In addition, it seems to me that Islam is practiced only on an "orthodox" level and that mitigating or modifying any content would still be seen as heresy.

True?

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