Q: After September 11th
2001, many Christian-based anti-Islam websites have sprung up, focusing on the
Islamic love for war. How do we respond?
Another reported saying of Jesus is as
follows: "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye
and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?"(Matthew 7:3-4, also see
Luke 6:41-42). To be fair, there are Muslims -- like Osama bin Laden who preach
war -- but one has to ensure that one radical voice, or a few radical voices,
are not taken as representative of the entire umma
(Muslim nation), just as one does not take certain Christian preachers’ warped
views as representative of all Christianity. Besides the genocide in the new world already mentioned above, as recently as the 20th century, of the estimated 102 million people killed by religious and political violence, the vast majority was killed by "Christian" nations, and this trend seems likely to continue unabated in the 21st century (Juan Cole is a Professor of History at the University of Michigan).
Posted January 19, 2002