Does the Qur'an preach violence

Answer 1

Answer 1

A great deal has been written on this subject. The best way for an individual to begin his or her assessment should be to begin with the Koran. See what the Koran says on the subject.

Notice that some observers cite violence of Christians and Jews a thousand years ago. It is today we are talking about. And today it is Muslims that are driven to violence by Koranic texts.

What is interesting about the Koran is the timeline. There are violent texts in the Old Testament, but these are not found in the New Testament written centuries later. There is a clear progression of moral thought. We see the development of concepts like the Golden Rule and the Good Samaritan. Yet in the Koran written centuries later we see a return to the more primitive ethics of the Old Testament, indeed and even more stark ethical message.

Answer 2

NO The Koran is a large book, and contains sections written by many different people (as scholarly research has shown), and thus closely resembles the Torah and Bible (and several other large religious texts) in the variety and variation of the message. Overall, the thrust of Islam is slightly more aggressive in spreading the word of Islam than either Christianity or Judaism, but this emphasis does not depend on violence. Like any other varied work, it is easily possible to cherry-pick verses that seem to (or actually do) invoke violence. Overall, however, the Koran does not preach violence as a necessary part of Islam, any more than militant sections of the Bible or Torah indicate that violence is inherently part of Judaism or Christianity.

The problem at this point in history is that many readers chose to follow the more militant sections of the Koran in pursuit of a political or social agenda; unlike either Judaism or Christianity, Islam (right now) has no major centralizing religious institutions which can enforce doctrinal (and dogmatic) consistency, so the Koran is free to be preached as each imam decides. Consequently, current-day Islam is beset by demagogues, which frankly abuse the Koran for their own purposes. Islam is hardly alone in this area - even today, both Christianity and Judaism have significant sects which extort a more activist (and even violent) attitude towards non-believers. However, the very significant institutional nature of those two religions has helped them marginalize these sects, something current Islam is unable to do.

In the big picture, the Koran is simply a complex religious text, open to interpretation by all. It contains some language that is aggressive and some more which is outright violent. It also contains a large message of peaceful coexistence with other religions (something neither the Torah nor Bible has) and an overall thread of non-violent devotion to Allah. Thus, when one asks "...does it preach", the overall message is what should be of concern, not the effective abuse of textually minor sections.

It is neither fair nor accurate to label the Koran as a violent text due to the current behavior of some of its adherents, just as it would not be to label the Bible as such based on the actions of medieval European Christians (of which, the Crusades are but a small example), or the Torah because of the violence in the pre-Roman Judaic kingdoms.

Answer 3

YES Interesting that a reader, not the above commentator who is engaging in an honest debate, simply deleted the 'Yes' section as if by doing so he can erase the obvious and opinions of others. I would not even want to erase the 'No' section, because I am quite willing to engage in a real debate. In fact I think it is very important to have this debate and am interested in the opinions of others. I am not afraid of the truth and see no need to hide the arguments of the other side. Actually the Koran is a relatively short text. I do not say that to denigrate the Koran, but to encourage readers to actually turn to the Koran itself to make their judgement. The Koran consists of verses organized into 114 chapters (surahs) many of which are quite short. The above commentator is quite right, however, in that many different voices are active in the Koran, there are especially real differences between the Meccan (المكية) or Medinan (المدينية) verses. And these verses include both messages of peace and violence. The violence includes both passages aimed at infidels as well as Muslims with 'incorrect' beliefs as well as women and homosexuals. It is absurd to contend that Islam as well as other religions have not been forces for violence. Of course Christianity was responsible for the violence of the Crusades just as Islam was responsible for the invasions of Christian lands that preceded it. History discussions are useful and interesting, but we leave in the modern day. And we do not see Christian mobs brandishing the Bible and chanting death to Muslims. We do see such behavior throughout the Muslim world. Just look at Pakistan. The country created a new holiday to defend the Koran--Day of Love for the Prophet Mohammed (September 21, 2012). How was it celebrated? Riots in the streets, chats of 'Death to America', brandishing the Koran, and burning the American flag. There is no doubt that many if not most Muslims take the peaceful verses of the Koran to heart. But there is also no doubt that the violent verses have a devastating impact. Just visit Islamist web site and see which verses they highlight as they preach violence. The 'cherry picking' argument the writer above mentions is often brought up and would make sense if there were not SO MANY violent verses. The famed 'Sword message' is repeated over and over. Here we encourage readers to actually look at the Koran and decide for your self. Have a look at the related links section to see a sampling of related verses, but look at the Koran before making your own assessment. Violent messages are repeated over and over and the impact can be seen again and again in the daily news. Observers who insist that the Koran does not promote violence need to explain why such violence ranges rife throughout the Muslim world.

Please move discussion of the above answers into the discussion area.
No the Qur'an does not advocate violence.

Islam permits violence, but with very strict rules and regulations. Many muslims (knowers, or those with knowledge) put it this way: "don't aggress." I have answered the question using verses from chapter nine of the Holy Quran, in which Allah states:

I agree that the vast majority of Moslems do not advocate unnecessary violence. However, I believe that the Koran does. Most modern "moderate" Moslems interpret the Koran "figuratively". However, the Moslem extremists interpret it literally. It appears that the early followers of Mohammad interpreted it literally also.

Note that the question is phrased "...preach violence". Grammatically, this would be asking for the general purpose or overall stance on violence, not specific instances of quotes.

All major religious texts are huge, and come from a myriad of sources (including the Koran, which is NOT single-sourced "as written solely by Mohammad"). Thus, it is trivial to cherrypick phrases from any such book to support some idea. However, when looked at as a whole, no major religious text espouses violence as a generally acceptable practice by its followers. Most do permit violence in certain limited circumstances (some, in more circumstances than others), but this is not to say that they condone general violence as acceptable.

Answer 2

The Qur'an is the last heavenly book, the previous being The Tora, The Zaboor, The Bible, etc, The Muslims believe in the Qur'an. The Qur'an teaches that all human beings are the off-spring of a single couple- Hazrat Adam (AS) and Hazrat Eve (AS). Thus all human beings are equal and brotheren. Islam teaches tolerance and love. Anyhow, it also teaches to fight against aggression, cruelty, criminals and those who become a danger to humanity and create disorder in society. Islam, like Judaism, believes in eye for eye, ear for ear, nose for nose and life for life.

Answer 3

The verb "teaches" is what makes this question difficult to answer.

If the question were simply: "Does the Qur'an command violence?", the answer would be rather simple: The Qur'an certainly has a number of violent verses with open commands to violence. (In particular, 2:189-193, 2:216, 8:12, 9:5, 9:29, 9:111, etc.) Conversely, there are also peaceful verses, but they do not typically abrogate the violence commanded word-for-word.

However, the word "teaches" refers to the way the book is read and explained from person to person, not the literal words present in the book. As is very common, the lesson taken from the book has more to do with the reader than the work. The Fundamentalist Muslim looks at the Qur'an in an attempt to justify has hatreds and anxieties about the world and reads those lines which appeal most to his burning desire to see others in as much pain as he finds himself. As a result, it is very easy for him to use these commands to violence to have actual current weight. Conversely, Liberal Muslims seek to live a life of honesty and truth and looks at the Qur'an to provide guidance about how to live a life of the highest moral quality. As a result, he contextualizes the violent verses to refer to a distant place and time and not to be applicable to the present. Conservative Muslims (the majority of Muslims) meet somewhere in the middle, where some commands have eternal weight and others do not, depending on the person and common philosophy in the local society.