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The Koran says the infidel must be crushed. At the
same time we are constantly told that Islam is a
tolerant religion.
I hate to interrupt a perfectly good shouting match
with information, but as usual there is a lot to
what both sides are saying.
Moslems often refer to all non-Moslem faiths as
"infidels." Sunni Moslems refer to Shiite Moslems
as "heathens" and Shiite Moslems refer to Sunni
Moslems as "infidels." Like most insults, these
labels are not strictly accurate.
When the Koran uses the word "infidel," it is referring
to faiths which are not derived from the Old Testament.
Judaism, Christianity and Islam all recognize the
Old Testament. Moslem countries allowed Jews and
Christians to practice their own faith. In Moslem
countries, Christians and Jews were discriminated
against, but they were not killed.
Pagans, true infidels, were killed by Islam. So
those who worshipped the old Greek gods or the old
Arab tribal deities were slaughtered outright. Followers
of all the old religions of Northern Europe were
burned alive.
This is exactly the same approach medieval Christians
used in relation to Jews. Jews were permitted to
practice their religion in Catholic countries, in
Eastern Orthodox countries, and in Protestant countries,
but a "pagan" was burned alive.
A Jew who practiced his Old Religion was tolerated
in every Christian land. But any of my ancestors
who practiced his Old Religion was burned alive.
Jews are the only ones we hear complaining about
discrimination because they are the only ones who
are still alive to do so.
No one complains about the burning of "heathens"
by Christians because our old religions were wiped
out by pure intolerance. The only people still around
to complain are Jews, so the significance of the
fact that they were allowed to live and practice
their faith under Christians and Moslems is totally
ignored.
So what we call the tolerance of Islam, slaughtering
infidels but not Jews, was practiced by Christians.
When Jews were persecuted they went to Moslem lands
or to other Christian lands. This sort of "Tolerance"
is a very relative term.
According to the Old Testament, today's Israel
was taken from its native inhabitants complete with
blood, fire and genocide. Islam was spread with
the sword just as Old Testament Judaism was. So
the Crusaders, about whom Christians feel so guilty
because they took the Holy Land by fire and sword,
were simply the third of three faiths which took
the same land the same way.
The forceful taking of Israel by the Jews in our
age is a repetition of a very old process.
No faith based on the Old Testament is likely to
be tolerant.
Pagans were almost always tolerant. Which may be
why I must refer to them in the past tense.
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