Can't Refute It, So Argue on a Tangent

I wrote a post back in 9/2006 on "The Differences Between Christianity and Islam", which I found through Technorati was recently linked and discussed by a Muslim at The American Muslim.

Here is what I wrote:

And I am not talking about the big differences, because if you look, there are some similarities. Christianity believes in 1 God (made of 3 parts), Islam has 1 god, Christians are people of the Book (New and Old Testament) and Muslims are people of their book, the Koran, and both hold Jerusalem as a Holy place.

No, the big difference is how we go about making converts, how we deal with insults and our legal system. Christians are instructed by God to preach the Good News to non-believers, where as Muslims are instructed by their prophet to preach their faith, and if the person doesn't convert, to kill them. Christianity's goal is not to take over the world and control the world's Gov't, Islam's is. Violence in the act of faith is one the biggest and most glaring difference that can be seen daily. I am not saying Christianity is a non-violent religion, our past is full of it, from the Crusades to the Inquisition, but that is way in the past. Christianity has evolved and civilized to where violence is not the norm, but a very obscure abnormality. Where as violence for Muslims is a daily occurrence, and a sought after means to their ends. We don't burn and kill because someone made a slight against our God, God can take care of himself, and in the end that person will have to answer to God, where as Muslims throw fits, spew hate, burn and kill, because someone mildly insulted their prophet, not even their god. We don't target the innocent in the name of our faith as where Muslim believe that there are no innocents, thus all are fair game to their killings. Christians don't want to be at war with Muslims, we would rather preach to them, and if we can't settle our differences, then go our separate ways. Where as Muslims want to bring their war to us, purposefully trying to obliterate our way of life and our faith. We don't impose a barbaric legal system upon our believers and non-believes, we don't believe in 'honor killings', beheadings, or the cutting off of limbs for minor crimes, and we don't especially kill someone that convert to another religion.

The avocation of violence to convert, violence to protest an implied insult, violent and degrading legal system, violence to take over the world and violence against the innocent are what separate Christians from being similar to Muslims. Christianity and Islam will never truly see eye-to-eye, because of their proclivity to violence to obtain their goals, as where we know the end results of goals, God has the final judgment.

And here is their argument refuting what I wrote:

Let’s look at the premise that “violence is not the norm” in Christianity. How to measure something like this is tricky, but this was certainly not true throughout large portions of history. Whether it is true today is arguable. One look at our our cities, our schools, or even our homes, and violence by Christians, and every other group, is apparent. Since 9/11, there has been a rise in hate crimes against minority groups, and the aggressors often identify themselves and their motives as being Christian. Looking at the bigger picture, what country is the primary supplier of weapons to the rest of the world? Hint: it is not a Muslim country. What country has the highest military expenditures per capita of any country on earth? See previous hint. Which country has proposed bombing other countries into the stone age? The answer to all three is the US, which no one would identify as a Muslim country. Those who developed and dropped the atom bomb were a multicultural group--but none were Muslim. Looking outside the US, where have arguable violent and repressive systems like fascism, communism, and Naziism been produced? Not in Muslim countries. Was it Muslims who carried out the Rwandan and Bosnian genocides? Are the Italian and Russian mafias Muslim? Are the South American drug cartels Muslims? Who talks about sanctions, pre-emptive strikes, invasions? Who allows the torture of Muslims in various secret and not-so-secret prisons. What religion was Timothy McVeigh? The IRA?

So, the idea that ALL violence or terrorism is Muslim is laughable. All these examples show, as would a simple glance at any collection of court-documents, that there is an unfortunately common occurence of violence today, and it does not all involve Muslims (not even close). By population, violence is an aberration found in EVERY group.

What does military expenditures have to do with an inherent violent society? Just because we have the technology, and Muslim countries don't, to make weapons, does that make American Christians more violent?

Notice how this person did not refute one statement that I made about Muslims being more violent that Christians. Yes, they bring up wars involving Christians, WWI & WWII, but they were not started by Christians, but secular societies. And as I stated before, Christians don't protest, kill and riot for perceived insults, we don't believe in barbaric honor killings of family members, we don't purposely target innocent women and children for death to make political and religious statements. And our legal system would not imprison a victim of gang rape. Last, but not least, Christians today do not kill Christians that convert to other religions, or refuse to convert to ours.

I never said that Christian nations are non-violent nations, I said that the violence is not the norm and where in Islamic societies it is, and is accepted as the norm.


Mr Minority