Rhian,
Ok, point taken but really that has nothing to do with this discussion, violence in "Christian" countries has gone down dramatically even in our lifetimes and particularly in the last twenty years.
In Muslim countries violence just gets worse and worse and you can't blame Western meddling for all or even very much of it, nobody invaded Egypt,Pakistan,Syria,Kazakhstan,Thailand,Nigeria,Libya or Bangladesh yet they've seen horrifying levels of violence in recent times.
Something like 25% of European people still practice the Christian faith, in traditionally Islamic societies above 90% of the people are practicing Muslims and between 25-40% hold "extremist" views, I think that's your explanation there.
The Muslim diaspora also reflects the levels of violence in their homelands, 60% of French prison inmates are of Muslim background, all of the drive by shootings and gang warfare in Blacktown and surrounding suburbs are down to the Lebanese, 100% of stranger rapes in Oslo are carried out by Muslim men and 90% of the victims are native Norwegian women.
The facts speak for themselves so it's pointless even discussing other religions because even though there are suggestive passages in their scriptures they don't demand violence in the way that the Koran does and even if they take such writings to heart they don't act out in violent ways.
But then Rhian, if it's not the Koran what is it that makes Muslims so violent? Studies in the west show that books, TV, video games and movies have no effect on violent behaviour and that increasing use of internet and TV watching actually seem to have played a part in the reduction of violence since the mid 90's. Muslim kids in the West have access to all the same mod cons yet they're violent and our kids are peaceful, socio economic factors don't matter, many terrorists and gangsters come from "good" homes. So why?

Dear Jay of Melbourne,

I normally save myself the bother and usually skip over your offal loads of tripe. And I know you think the sun shone from your Fuhrer's arse, but when you attempt to rewrite history the BS gets piled so bloody high it was impossible to miss.

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=16994#299604

I have related on another thread how it took the influence and programming of a hard right Christian to swing Hitler's magnanimous attitude toward Jews into the anti-Semitism that caused so much death, misery, and destruction. That man was Dr. Karl Lueger, one of the founding members of the Austrian Christian Socialists. Hitler, in his own words, describes his deep reluctance to succumb to anti-Semitism but the good Christian doctor managed it. Just imagine how different the world would have been without the hatred of this man poisoning the young mind of Adolf Hitler.

And you have the audacity to try this on;

“Hitler was not a Christian, he admired Christian Socialism as a teenager but in adulthood was a fanatical socialist”

What utter bunkum.

He was 33 when he said this;

““My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a
fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded
by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and
summoned men to fight against them and who, God’s truth! was greatest
not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian
and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord
at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the
Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was his fight
against the Jewish poison.”

And 47 when he said this;

““I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty
Creator. By warding off the Jews I am fighting for the Lord’s work.”

If you are going to be so enamoured by the man at least show the respect of correctly articulating his religious beliefs.

Rhian,

Where, in the New Testament, are Christians exhorted to kill on behalf of God? Christians live by the word of Christ, not by the Old Testament. Check out the New Covenant.

Muslims are exhorted to violence by the Quran to do the work of Allah. I agree with you that there is cruelty contained in the New Testament, but there is no exhortation to kill. If you can prove your point about the equivalence of texts by finding something better than your offering about buying swords (above), then do.

Luciferase,

"Where, in the New Testament, are Christians exhorted to kill on behalf of God? Christians live by the word of Christ, not by the Old Testament. Check out the New Covenant."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromwellian_conquest_of_Ireland#The_Siege_of_Drogheda

Wish you'd been around to offer advice when Cromwell was gallivanting around Ireland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritan

And anybody here want to tell me the difference between ISIS and the Ustashi?

Quote;

Although estimates vary, between 300,000 and 700,000 victims were murdered by Croatian fascists during the war.

When Hitler’s forces invaded Yugoslavia in the spring of 1941, Croatian right-wing extremists, under the leadership of Ante Pavelic and his fascist “Ustashi” movement, were given control of Croatia. Pavelic aligned the country enthusiastically to the Nazi cause and immediately launched a horrific onslaught against the Serbian minority. The official policy was popularly expressed as: Kill one-third of the Serbs, convert another third to Roman Catholicism, and expel the remaining third from Croatia.

The Roman Catholic Church insists it condemned the atrocities, but the record suggests a mix of official responses, ranging from weak condemnations to tacit support. While the killing was under way, the Croatian archbishop, Aloysius Stepanic, blessed the new regime and Pavelic was granted an audience with Pope Pius XII. A number of Franciscan monks participated in the killing. After the war ended, the Vatican helped Ustashi criminals evade capture and flee to South America.

During the war, Serbian Orthodox churches were burned and many Serbian communities wiped out. Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies were interned in concentration camps, where thousands of victims were slaughtered like animals.

The nature of the carnage was so horrific that senior ranking German officers in Croatia, including SS-Obergruppenführer Artur Phleps, sickened by the slaughter and worried that it was driving Serbians and anti-Ustashi Croats into the ranks of resistance groups, urged Berlin to demand a stop to the slaughter. These protests were in vain and the genocide continued.

End quote.

I am more than happy to acknowledge that certain sections of those of the Islamic faith are out of control and that just as the Christian faith was the greatest threat to European peace during WW2 Islam has now taken that mantle. It has a long way to go to reach the depths of deep depravity achieved by far right Christian groups during the war. Hopefully that will never happen and we can all do our part by keeping our hatemongers at bay.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2010/0402/Croatia-should-apologize-for-World-War-II-genocide-before-joining-the-EU

"Ise Mise
"Fortunately this doesn't apply to followers of the Christ."
You could have fooled me. Go back to the crusades and the Spanish inquisition.

David"

The Crusaders and the Inquisition were not followers of Christ, had they been then they would not have acted as they did.

Christ's message was one of peace.