Featured Comments

As a person who knows very little about the Qur’an, it is interesting for me to read what the actual scripture reveals about the religion. Reading through the excerpts and explanations, I see a variety of takes on peace and violence. Ranging from, "Muslims fighting and killing those who refuse to live under the singular lordship of God and who break covenants of peace with the Prophet Muhammad" to more peaceful interpretations such as, "killing a single soul is tantamount to killing all of humanity." I believe that understanding scripture is a key to a deeper and more authentic understanding of a religion, but at the same time it can be misleading. Scripture is interpreted differently by its readers. People pick and choose which lines to believe, which to ignore, and which to reinterpret into modern understanding.

Thomas Jefferson created his own personal bible which literately cut and pasted all statements which he regarded as purely morally based into his own bible. Protestants and Catholics have interpreted the same bible to have very different meanings. Jews has divided themselves amongst numerous sects based on how strictly they interpret the Torah. Just like these examples, Muslims interpret the Qur’an differently, leading to a very wide range of beliefs within in a single religion.

My goal in pointing this out is because I believe that while Jihad has been grossly mischaracterized as always violent, this does not mean that all Muslims interpret the Qur’an in the same way as you. Many focus their beliefs on the peaceful parts, but on the other hand, those who choose to engage in violence are able to find justification for their actions by focusing their studies on the violent scripture in the Qur'an. It worries me, as a non-Muslim, that the Qur’an includes something that says that those "who break covenants of peace with the Prophet Muhammad (Q 9:1-14)" can be killed. Just as all religious texts tend to be conceptualized according to the modern world. I hope that lines like the one for which I just quoted your paraphrasing can be looked upon by Muslims symbolically and historically rather than literately in order to help move towards peace and dialogue amongst Muslims and non-Muslims.