Islam vs. Chistianity

Bob loves to talk about the various acts of murder, violence, and other horrors perpetrated by Muslims and those who profess to follow that faith. Granted, there have been plenty of evil acts committed by those who worship Allah or claim to act in his name.

However, Bob seems to think that Christians are somehow immune from this insane and irrational behavior. Indeed, Bob often remarks with a certain smugness that these behaviors are prohibited by Christianity but actually endorsed by Islam.

But Bob conveniently stays ignorant of the various bad acts committed by Christians and/or willfully doesn't comment on such acts. In the rare instances where Bob does mention such acts, he simply dismisses the perpetrators as not being true Christians. But despite Bob's ignorance, silence, and denial, some Christians do perform despicable acts in the name of their religion. For example, in Nigeria, evangelical Christian pastors are labeling children as witches in order to extort money for exorcisms. As a result, hundreds or thousands of children have been murdered, abused, and abandoned. You can bank on the fact that Bob won't be "reporting" about this anytime soon.

My point here isn't that Christianity is somehow a bad religion that endorses or encourages bad acts. My point is only that if these acts in Nigeria were be committed by Muslims, Bob would be telling you all about it and claiming that Islam is a horrible, violent faith. This hypocritical view serves only to foster hatred and division. Furthermore, by focusing on religion as a sole cause of such violence, it keeps people from focusing on the other reasons why people act in this way. These reasons include poverty, suffering, hopelessness, and social injustice. But there's the liberal in me talking.