I will have more to say after work, but here’s something to chew on:
The Holy Koran tells us, “O mankind! We have created you male and a female; and we have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another.”
The Talmud tells us: “The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting peace.”
The Holy Bible tells us, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”
The people of the world can live together in peace. We know that is God’s vision. Now, that must be our work here on Earth. Thank you. And may God’s peace be upon you.
Why is it that Obama could easily find references to peace in Jewish and Christian texts, but the Koran quote does not contain the word “peace”? I’m not the Islam scholar. But that conclusion makes me wonder if there are any quotes from the Koran using the word “peace” that don’t restrict it to Muslims only.
Interestingly enough, this “koran” quote and the one about he who saves an innocent life is as if he saves the world come from paraphrases of the Talmud. I bet that whoever wrote those lines for the President was careful not to mention that. Notice how in the latter quote, he was careful to put in “innocent life” unlike the actual Talmud statement which says one life. That way the murders of the
JewsIsraelis can be allowed as by definition they are not innocent. Similarly the terrorists by definition are “innocent” so that all Israeli acts of self defense violate that quote.He sounds like a somewhat less eloquent version of Bill Clinton.
As usual, that line about saving one life omit the very next verse:
5:33 Those who wage war against God and His Messenger and strive to spread corruption in the land should be punished by death, crucifixion, the amputation of an alternate hand and foot or banishment from the land: a disgrace for them in this world, and then a terrible punishment in the Hereafter, 34 unless they repent before you overpower them: in that case bear in mind that God is forgiving and merciful. (The Qur’an, Oxford UP, 2004)
Which to my untrained mind indicates that “innocent” life means “Muslim” life. I admit to having scant knowledge of Islam, but if Islam even has the trope of the lion lying down with the lamb or every man under his fig tree, as Christianity and Judaism do, I would be interested in seeing it. “Peace” in Islam means “peace under Islam.”
The attempt to show the essential commonality and brotherhood of the Abrahamic faith founders on fact. For that matter, the Abraham of the Koran is not recognizable as the Abraham of Genesis.