[ExI] Deuteronomy Chapter 13/was Re: Mary Magdelene?

[Dan]

--- On Fri, 6/5/09, Dan <dan_ust at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I'm not so sure.  People claiming to be members of
> both faiths have committed genocides and all lesser
> crimes.  If one were to look for frequencies here, then
> I'm not so sure the data would support either being better
> or worse.  That said, Christians and Muslims living in
> modern secularized societies tend to be, on the whole, more
> peaceful than either living in non-secular societies,
> especially ones dominated by fanatics from their particular
> religion.  The great mass of Muslims -- like the great
> mass of Christians or the great mass of people in general --
> appear to be peaceful under most circumstances.  I mean
> they are not, to my knowledge, carrying out this passage --
> one you're probably familiar with, given your knowledge of
> Islam:
> 
> "If you hear it said about one of the towns given to you to
> live in that wicked men have arisen among you and have led
> the people of  their town astray, saying, "Let us go
> and worship other gods," then you must inquire, probe and
> investigate it thoroughly.  And if it is true and it
> has been proved that this detestable thing has been done
> among you, you must certainly put to the sword all who live
> in that town. Destroy it completely, both its people and its
> livestock.  Gather all the plunder of the town into the
> middle of the public square and completely burn the town and
> all its plunder...  It is to remain a ruin forever,
> never to be rebuilt."
> 
> Are they?

Someone responded off list that this was not from the Koran.  And that person was right!  It's actually from Deuteronomy:

http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0513.htm

(Of course, I used a different translation.)

Does everyone agree that the passage calls for genocide against believers of other religions?  Is anyone here ready to use this passage -- part of both the Hebrew and standard Christian Bibles -- to tar all Jews or Christians as genocidal?*  I hope not!  And, if not, why not use the same logic with Muslims?

Regards,

Dan

*  Granted, almost all members of both those faiths -- and their sects -- can use some form of interpretation to say that this passage is no longer in effect.  My guess is most Jews and Christians are unaware of the passage -- or have not focused on it.  (I bring up the latter because many a Bible-thumper I've met can quote quite a number of verses from the Bible, but usually don't put them together in any rigorous way.  This is why, e.g., the sort of parallel reading of the Gospels shows inconsistencies -- inconsistencies that any serious reader of the Bible would find, but that most simply are unaware of even having read the inconsistent passages.  So why are they unaware?  I can only think that the Bible is long and like most works people are no keeping in mind each detail with a mind to spotting mistakes.  This is no different than, say, someone reading Raymond Chandler's novel _The Big Sleep_ and missing that one of the murders is never solved at
 the end.)