ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY MORALLY EQUIVALENT?

Predictably, Karen Armstrong in The Guardian portrays Islam and Christianity as similarly violent and as morally equivalent. An English reader has emailed me the following riposte to that:

Karen Armstrong's article “When God goes to war” (December 29) seriously misleads about a topic of great importance. The equivalence of militarism between religions which she paints is utterly untrue.

Jesus Christ never retaliated even when he was assaulted and his life threatened, and he preached a gospel of total non-retaliation. His disciples heroically continued this total pacifism through three centuries of martyrdom and other persecution. Christianity grew only by persuasion and the honorable example of its many martyrs. Christian martyrs are still being killed in Pakistan.

By stark contrast, Mohammed was a multiple murderer (sorry but this does have to be said whatever the Mohammedanist censors would prefer), who contrived to get others to kill those who disagreed with him. Evidently he was also a coward. Islam was spread not by persuasion or honorable example but only by the sword-wielding of Mohammed and his collaboraters.

The Crusades were organised by rulers rather than saints and were a reaction to Muslim armies occupying the Holy Land and then trying to conquer Europe too. Of course there are many very honorable and pacifist Muslims, while much murder has been committed supposedly in the name of Christianity. But that original historical basis goes a very long way to explaining why it is only Islam that inspires people to become martyrs and murderers concurrently as suicide bombers. In no way can the anti-democratic militaristic multiple murderer Mohammed be a worthy example for our troubled times. Should we face that fact or retreat instead into politically-correct deceit?