(Canscene) — Long being out of the religion loop by preference, but insisting on the right of anyone to worship in their chosen faith, I realize I must tread warily in what I’m about to say, but say it I must.

It’s fashionable in many quarters to cite passages in the Muslim Quran where action is supported by exhortations to violence. And it is true that terrorists who are of the Muslim faith seize on these passages to justify their acts. But let’s look at both sides of the coin.

The Quran
In the recent new version of the book The End of Faith, author Sam Harris in a chapter, “The problem with Islam” offers the following examples:

“They have incurred God’s most inexorable wrath. An ignominious punishment awaits them.”

“Those that deny God’s revelations shall be sternly punished. God is mighty and capable of revenge.”

“Never think that those who were slain in the name of God are dead. They are alive and well provided for by their Lord…….”

“Those that disbelieve and deny our revelations shall become the inmates of Hell.”

However, it is equally true that many fundamentalist Christians and Jews find solace for their hatred of Islam in old or new testaments of the Bible to justify their venom. Here are just a few examples taken from the many websites dealing with violence in religious documents.

Old testament
When one of the Israelite men brings home a foreign woman, Phineas (Aaron’s grandson) sees them and throws a spear “through the man .. and the woman through her belly.” This act pleases God so much that “the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.” But not before 24,000 had died.

God tells Moses how to care for his neighbors by saying: “Vex the Midianites, and smite them.”

New testament
God tells Death and Hell to kill one quarter of the earth’s population with the sword, starvation, and “with the beasts of the earth.”

The martyrs just can’t wait until everyone else is slaughtered. God gives them a white robe and tells them to wait until he’s done with his killing spree.

One is tempted to say along with Shakespeare: “a plague on both your houses.” But, isn’t that being violent, too?
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