I have been sitting here for the past hour or so comparing the Qua'ran passages given to the actual text of the Qur'an. In every case, the passages were misquoted or taken out of context.
While I do believe that a goal of Islam is to see that every person on earth lives under Islamic law and thus the spread of Islam must be checked, I do not believe that misquoting the Qur'an will be of any help.
kangharue:
Hooray! Someone actually looked them up! :) Yes, it's unforunate that some, in their eagerness to demolish Islam, will resort to intellectual dishonesty. A more reasonable approach would be to look at the Quran and try to see if what these people did is sanctioned in there. The passages often quoted in these discussions have a context which has to be taken into account if one wants to understand what the text is saying.
Also, I've seen a lot of people get hung up on the English translation. Ex: the passage about not taking Jews and Christians as "friends". The word is Arabic actually means something more like "protector". So, it's really nothing more than an Islamic version of "be not unequally yoked". Any believing Christian should understand that idea.
pcl:
While I do believe that a goal of Islam is to see that every person on earth lives under Islamic law and thus the spread of Islam must be checked, I do not believe that misquoting the Qur'an will be of any help.
Kangharue:
It is true that it wasn't so much Islam the religion that was spread...but rather Islamic RULE. This is why I tend to disbelieve the "convert or die" scenario. My husband's family were Catholics living under the Ottoman empire...and they actually were able to amass considerable wealth and status. Ironically, this ended when the Ottoman Empire fell, and they ended up fleeing to Greece where they weren't treated very well. They actually wanted to go back to Adana! (now in Turkey)
Perhaps you have heard of Bat Ye'or, a Jewish writer who isn't AT ALL friendly toward Islam. Well, in the book "The Decline of Eastern Christianity" she points out that most of the "Islamic" dhimmi laws used against non-Muslims were actually taken from the Byzantines...who used them against other Christian groups, and against Jews. The Muslims simply adapted them and turned them back on the Christians.