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Download a Comparison Chart of Islam and ChristianityTranscriptIs ISIS an example of Muslim extremism, or are other Muslims simply inconsistent?Recently, there was an article in the New York Times about how ISIS - the Islamic State - has enshrined a theology of rape, and in fact, they're using rape as a recruiting tool. They view rape as an act of worship. It actually fits in as a part of their religious system and worldview. However, what is often said in the media is that “this is an example of Muslim extremism. This isn't Islam at its pure, at its core. This is an adulterated version of Islam.” You actually see these type of comments when we look at what was said after September 11th. On Oprah's show, and other shows, you had Islamic scholars who would say, "Islam is a peaceful religion. Islam treats women well.” But the majority of the time, these are Western Islamic scholars. When you ask Eastern scholars, you get a very different type of story. In fact, Eastern Islamic scholars will often tell you that Jihad is a fundamental part of Islam. Jihad is the term for “holy war” in Islam. Some people will say that it means struggle, and it does mean that, but what has often been said recently by, once again, Western scholars, is that this is some type of inward holy war.Yet, often times Eastern scholars will condemn people for this same type of internalized, over spiritualized view of Jihad. No, Jihad is a war against any enemy and opposition to Islam. What I want to do today is look at a very brief comparison of violence, the treatment of women, and rape, and salvation, between Islam and Christianity. When we look at violence in Islam, the first thing we need to acknowledge is that this concept of Jihad is the way by which Muslims bring all things into submission to Allah. All things, all people. “Islam” literally means submission. Submission in all things to Allah (which would be their name for God)/ Part of this would be violence, and actually, we see that Islam has been violent from the very beginning.Islam got its start in the 600s, AD, but by 732 AD, which is only 100 years after the death of Muhammad, Islam had expanded from a small peninsula region in Saudi Arabia, to dominate what remained of the whole old Roman and Persian Empires combined. How did it do this, you might ask? By violence. It's not that today's Islam is somehow a distortion of where it started. No, it's simply a returning to its roots. “Violent Islam” is a repetitive statement, because Islam is by nature, violent. In fact, there are 164 verses in the Quran on Jihad, on holy war. Thankfully, not all Muslims are like this. In fact, many Muslims are not. I would say the majority are non-violent Muslims. However, those Muslims who are non-violent, are inconsistent, because their religion, properly understood, as it was taught from the very beginning, is a religion that enshrines violence, and does indeed enshrine rape at the center of its religious practice. That's a brief statement about Islam. So, what about Christianity? Well, the Old Testament is full of violence. We must admit that. We can't hide that. If you're going to point out the violence in Islam's past, you're probably going to get confronted with, "What about the destruction of the Canaanites?" What about_______ act of violence? What about David's killing of Bathsheba's husband? Well, here's the thing. There's a very different set of circumstances between the violence in the Old Testament, and the violence in Islam.For one, Christianity or Judaism, was traditionally and still is traditionally very peaceful. It does not spread its religious views by violence. There have been those who have been condemned, that have spread or tried to spread Christianity by violence, but that was not taught…