Lastone wrote: Reply #1968 - Today at 3:52pm
Quote:And so is the old Testament. Lets establish some common ground. Genocide is evil correct?
And Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel; now therefore listen to the words of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’” (1 Sam 15:1‑3).
There are many other incidences in the old testament. why are these not indicative of evil teachings, while the ones in the Quran are?
TO my 21st century way of thinking genocide is abominable.
To many people of all different kinds and creeds about 4000 years ago it was an accepted part of their life, inhumane cruelty was the norm for many people, you can read about human sacrifice, animal sacrifice all sorts of abhorrences were practiced by men. Now to get to the bit about the Old Testament being evil and the qur'an.
The evil in the O.T. is time and people specific.
We have the revenge on the Amalek in 1 Sam, then we have the taking of the promised land:
Genesis 15:18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
Genesis15:19 The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, Genesis15:20 And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, Genesis15:21 And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
& Joshua 1:2 Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Joshua 1:4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.
The promised land had a defined geographical and people limit:
http://www.differentspirit.org/articles/images/promised_land2.jpgThis is the exact opposite of the qur'an which makes the case that all non muslims are to be killed forever untill all religion is for islam. islam divides the world into dar al-islam literally the house or region of submission and dar al-Harb the house or region of war.
This is the reason why the entire world is on muslim terrorism alert, there is no global Jewish terrorism alert.
There's a huge difference in the significance of the teachings of the two faiths.
Thank you that was exactly the answer that I was looking for. You have to look at the historical context and circumstances upon which the instance occurred.
Now apply the same standards you applied to the biblical instance I quoted to the Quran.