Musings on Muslim Extremism

The attacks by Muslim Extremists in India, in the past several days, have me doing some serious thinking in terms of why the world is in the midst of turmoil largely created and being perpetrated by this faction of Islam, ironically, called "the religion of peace".

I am growing quite weary and troubled by those who want to justify the actions of this group by denigrating all religion, especially, Christianity.

In simplistic terms, Christians follow the teachings of Christ (hence the name Christian) who came "not to condemn the world, but to save it". No where in the New Testament are Christians mandated to kill in his name. On the contrary, we are admonished to "love our neighbor as ourselves", "hate the sin, but love the sinner". The Old Testament is an accounting of Jewish law, which was mostly abolished with the coming of Jesus. The United States' judicial system was, however, patterned after the Ten Commandments, which are in the Old Testament.

Muslims follow the teachings of Mohammed, a warrior and founder of Islam. Islam was established 600 years after the birth of Jesus. The followers of that religion are bound by the teachings of Mohammed, which are clearly outlined in the Koran. The mandate to followers of Islam is to kill all unbelievers, if they cannot be converted. It is all is in there, in black and white, though most Muslims do not take that literally, (hence the Extremist view, which is to interpret it in that way).

Those who refuse to believe that, are courting danger in this very real "War on the West" we are experiencing and which is the source of most of terrorism in the world today. If suddenly and miraculously this war by Muslim Extremists were to cease, the world would be a decidedly more peaceful place.

As stated earlier, this is a simplisitic view, and is much more complicated, but basically that is the way I understand it.

To compare Christianity with Islam is folly at best, and ignores the very real dangers inherent in the teachings of Mohammed. I can only think that a large majority of the world's 2.3 billion Muslims are either illiterate and therefore, haven't read the Koran (just as a lot of people who claim to be Christians haven't actually ever read and studied the New Testament) or simply choose to ignore the part of their holy book which does indeed incite them to violence against unbelievers.

I continue to be amazed at the lack of an outcry among Muslims, as a whole, condemning these violent acts of terrorism.