Re: The Crusades
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Does Judaism have a concept truly parallel to the Islamic concept of jihad or holy war?
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See below. You more or less ask the same thing 5 times in this post.
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Does the Torah or Old Testament advise Jews to take not friends from amongst the infidels, but rather to make war against them, until the infidels are subjugated, and they pay the special poll tax in subservience?
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It apparently does advocate violence often, in numerous places, as theOnceandFutureKing points out.
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Did Moses personally lead many armies of conquest, engaging in plunder, slaughter, and the taking of slaves as booty, as did Mohammed?
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To my knowledge, no -- but this isn't necessarily what you're arguing. You're claiming that the totalitarian and violent nature of Islamic states is due to (and due soley to!) the fact that the Koran calls for them to live and rule in such a way.
Similarly, you should openly condemn Judaism for demanding that its adherents to live in a similarly violent manner -- so that, specifically, anytime Jews commit acts of violence, you attribute it SPECIFICALLY and SOLELY to the fact that they're Jews, and that this is their inherent nature, as laid out in the Old Testament.
I think such an argument is clearly fallacious and patently false -- and OBVIOUSLY so; so I question why anyone would make a similar argument about Islam, given that they would NEVER consider such an argument about Judaism to be legitimate.
Given that such arguments aren't made about Judaism, or about Christianity -- but that they're posited consistently here on this forum and elsewhere about Islam -- I think that leads ChrisAlgers and others (myself included) to question the motives of those who propose such theories; particularly in light of the intense and almost fanatical way that those who propose such theories are intent on defending them, in light of logical and coherent evidence to the contrary.
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Did the followers of Judaism, through the centuries, take over large swathes of land by force, killing, converting or subjugating the inhabitants as they spread? Does the Torah or Old Testament advise them to do so?
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These two questions are more or less the same thing you asked above.
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