Islam has many different connotations for people: terrorism, peace, hatred, and love. Unfortunately, recently, Islam tends to be represented in the media from a negative bias, usually focusing on extremist individuals that paint a negative film over the religion.
In fact, peace is a key belief in Islam, to the point where muslims address eachother with “peace be with you”. The Qur’an (the Holy Book for Muslims) contains numerous verses that instill peace and justice throughout many sections, including “Humanity is but a single brotherhood, so make peace with your brethren”(Quran 49:10).
These verses tend to be overlooked by the allowance of war; What is unknown is the various conditions required, including: When there is the oppression of Muslims (self-defense) both within a country, or the attacking of an Islamic state by other nations. Even then, war must be conducted in a disciplined manner with minimum necessary force, humane treatment of prisoners, and no killing any non-combatants. If the allowance of war is what makes Islam violent, then comparing the Qur’an to other Abrahamic texts shows that it is the least (2.5%) violent, with the Old Testament being the most violent (5.5%) and the New Testament being at less viscious than the old (2.8%). This has led to Harvard University recognising the Qur’an to be one of the books most expressive of justice and a Professor at University of Pennsylvania stating “[Surprisingly], the Islamic Scriptures were far less bloody and violent than those in the Bible”.
What is key to remember is that the media is extremely biased, focusing on extremists for shock value, when in reality all religions have extremists, and the vast majority of Muslims are just regular people.
Sahar Bakari
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