freediver - the reasons are given repeatedly in the violent sexist treastise on war - aka the koran

FD, I think you have this romantic idea of the noble Arab on his mighty black stallion smighting injustice whereever he finds it, but this Lawrence of Arabia image is strickly for the movies.

freediver - ?????
What part was progressive for women ?
The part where husbands should beat them for disobedience, or where they are worth 1/2 a man ?

A far cry from Jesus actions and teachings, some 450 years prior.

not if a man is worth 20 shekels

Sprint Have you actually studied the context behind the Qur'anic revelations that you've posted?

I could honestly find far worse verses from the bible. But it all comes down to context.. The majority of these verses are referring to a time where the Muslims were at war with the Pagan Quraish, the Pagans had forced the Muslims out of their own houses in Mecca and the Muslims were invited by those inhabitant of Medina (which was called Yathrib at the time) to establish an Islamic State there.

During that period of time where the Muslims had lived in Medina the Pagans attacked them many times and even raided their houses in Mecca, ransacking them and trying to take their goods to Syria to sell.

The Muslims had offered the Pagans many truces and the Pagans kept breaking them. It gets to a stage where you simply can't have a truce with people who continuously break them. So the Muslims brought their army to Mecca, hardly the hair on anyone in Mecca's head was touched and the inhabitants of Mecca were forgiven for their crimes.

In addition to that, when it came to expanding the empire (as any empire did) the Muslims participated in conflict against other Empires (namely the Romans and Persians) but not to force religion on others. People were free to keep their religion. Unlike Christianity's history where hundreds of millions were told to accept Christianity or die..

The non Muslims were however charged a minor protection tax as they were not obligated to serve in the Military.. At the end of the day they did receive pensions and government hand outs from the Islamic State. Christians and Jews were allowed to practice their religion, elect their own clergy, live by their own religious laws etc and were protected by the Muslims. In fact when the Muslims ruled Spain the Jews fled from all over Europe to live free from persecution and under the protection of the Islamic State. Jews and Christians enjoyed high positions within politics. And were very successful.

However when the Christians from France retook Spain the forced all of the Jews and Muslims (who they hadn't already slaughtered) to either accept Christianity or leave the state. The police would come by the Jews and Muslims houses to make sure that thy had ham in their house and were good Christians.

Islam isn't inherently violent. In Islam we are advised to live in peace with others regardless which religion they are and to have dialogue.

In the worst case scenario when we do have to go to war we are forbidden from even cutting down the adversaries trees, let alone harming innocent women and children or places of worship etc.

Thanks Malik, and welcome to OzPolitic. We sorely need someone who can add some perspective to this debate.

malik - feel free to quote passages from the bible you find offensive.
I'm ok to have my faith questioned.

You ok to have yours questioned ?