What does the Religion of Peace Teach About …

Question:  Does the Quran really contain dozens of verses promoting violence?

Summary Answer:  The Quran contains at least 109 verses that call Muslims to war with  nonbelievers for the sake of Islamic rule.  Some are quite graphic, with commands to chop off heads and  fingers and kill infidels wherever they may be hiding.  Muslims who do  not join the fight are  called ‘hypocrites’ and warned that Allah will send them  to Hell if they do not join the slaughter.

Unlike nearly all of the Old  Testament verses of violence, the verses of violence in the Quran  are mostly open-ended, meaning that they are not restrained by the historical context  of the  surrounding text.  They are part of the eternal,  unchanging word of Allah, and just as relevant or subjective as anything else in  the Quran.

The context of violent passages is more ambiguous than might be expected of a  perfect book from a loving God, however this can work both ways.  Most of today’s Muslims exercise a personal choice to interpret their holy  book’s call to arms according to their own moral preconceptions about justifiable  violence.  Apologists cater to their preferences with tenuous  arguments that gloss over historical fact and generally do not stand up to  scrutiny.  Still, it is important to note that the problem is not bad people, but bad ideology.

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