The Quran And Context

Or, if you are going to cite something, try reading more than just one sentence.

Apparently, there's a meme going around, trying to convince people that Islam is a peaceful religion. I won't go into how laughable this is on it's face to anyone who has any grasp of a) the history of Islam or b) Islam in theory and practice. I'm just going to focus on the verse that is being sent around. It is part of Quran 5:32. The verse (or a variation) is:

"...whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land - it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one - it is as if he had saved mankind entirely..."

Well, that seems pretty nice, doesn't it? Don't kill anyone unless they kill another person or if they "corrupt" people. Of course, then you read the rest of 5:32 and 5:33 and it becomes a little less "nice."

5:32 - Because of that, We decreed upon the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land - it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one - it is as if he had saved mankind entirely. And our messengers had certainly come to them with clear proofs. Then indeed many of them, [even] after that, throughout the land, were transgressors.

5:33 - Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment,

5:34 - Except for those who return [repenting] before you apprehend them. And know that Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.

This was written because of sectarian clashes between Muslims and Jewish tribes in Arabia and the conquest of the Levant (including Jerusalem) by Arabian Muslim armies in the mid-7th Century CE. Basically, the Jews were being warned that Allah was sanctioning retaliation against them for either physical attacks or for "corruption" of Muslim populations with, one has to assume, Judaism. So, even early on, Islam was not friendly to competing belief systems.

The problem for the modern world is that it can also be applied to anyone who harms Muslims either psychically (war) or spiritually (corruption). And that is what the Islamists say they are doing; retaliation for perceived physical harm and attempting to destroy the "corruption" of Western civilization. Far from demonstrating how peaceful Islam is, this is one of the justifications for unlimited war with the rest of the world until they "repent" - i.e., convert or accept the subjugation and destruction of non-Islamic civilization in order to end its corrupting influence.