Q&A: Is Islam's aggression any different from the routine bloodshed of the Old Testament?

Question: Is Islam’s aggression any different from the routine bloodshed of the Old Testament? Israel claimed at that time to be following God’s orders, as Muslims claim to follow Allah’s.

Response: There is a huge difference. Muslims claim to follow Allah. He is not the God of the Bible (see Q&A Feb ’02). Muhammad claimed that Allah commands Muslims to “fight against all people [worldwide] until all confess there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.”

By contrast, Israel was not commanded to convert anyone under threat of death, nor to take over the world, but to exterminate the Canaanites because of their wickedness and to go in and possess that specific land. Its boundaries are given in Genesis 15. Prior to this, Israel was held captive in Egypt and was restrained from invading Canaan for 400 years because “the iniquity of the Amorites [was] not yet full” (Gn 15:16). Only then did the evil of these people reach such proportions that God’s holiness forced Him to use Israel to annihilate them.

Muslims also point to Crusader killings in the name of God and Christ. That slaughter of Jews and Turks, however, was in disobedience to the Bible and to the teachings and example of Christ.

The murder of millions of both Christians and Jews by Muslims all through history, and today’s terrorism, are in obedience to the Qur’an, Allah, Muhammad, and the example that he and early Muslims set. What a difference!