Violence in the World's Major Religions

This is an interesting article by Raymond Ibrahim examining the popular relativist argument that Christianity and Judaism are as violent, if not more violent, than Islam.

Ibrahim readily conceeds that the three major monotheistic religions have all experienced their share of violence and intolerance. So, in light of these realities, can it be said that Islam is unique in its tendency to foster violence among its adherents?

He makes the point that an evaluation of a particular faith's violent proclivities must be undertaken with an eye toward the presence or absence of scriptural exhortations to violence, rather than the presence or absence of violent periods or incidents in a faith's historical tradition. As he puts it, the key question is "whether this violence is ordained by God or whether warlike men merely wished it."

If I claim to be a Christian but occasionally tell a lie, no serious person would see my individual failings as evidence that Christianity promotes dishonesty. The correct conclusion would be that I'm simply an imperfect person - which is, by the way, the fundamental assumption of the Christian faith. In the same way, a religion cannot be honestly described as violent unless it's authoritative texts command violence as a matter of practice.

The article makes a compelling argument that, seen through this lens, any attempt to equate the violent tendencies of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is either misguided or dishonest.