Religious fundamentalism threatens global peace?

Religious fundamentalism threatens global peace!

How often do we hear this?  

And our own president blames Christianity as much as any religion.  Maybe more.

What is the truth though?

Is this statement legitimate?  

What does history really tell us?

Here's one of the things that brought up this topic.  I love to read.  More and more I seem to be reading things that reflect what's going on in our world today.  And it seems like a good way to get things started.  

The other thing is the increasing number of terrorist attacks (am I allowed to call it that - seeing as I'm in California, USA?).  I'm listening to news on an active one in Bangladesh as I'm writing this.  And they're blaming it on some "derailed youth".  This in spite of the words of the people involved.  Somehow, our government can openly blame Christianity for violence - but not Islam.

With that in mind - here's a quote from a book I just finished reading a couple days ago -

"Let our children and grandchildren,” he continued, “see the twenty-first century as the time when all the people of the earth come together, through the United Nations, to prevent the spread of that species of religious fundamentalism that threatens global peace." 
     from "The Resurrection File (Chambers of Justice Book 1)" by Craig Parshall

Yes - it's a book.  It's fiction.  But the quote could easily be found in the news on pretty much any day.

The military career of Muhammad

I thought I'd start off by searching for "wars fought by Muhammad".  It returned a lot of stuff.  One thing I noticed though was something from Wikipedia on "The military career of Muhammad".

That sounded interesting.  They take input from both sides - Muslims and non-Muslims - with some amount of editing.  In fact, both sides are present in the article and one can see both the wars being brought up, as well as attempts to justify those wars.  That's pretty standard stuff.  The attacker always has their reasons.  So here are the paragraphs on "History" from the Military Career of Muhammad, from Wikipedia -

Muhammad spent his last ten years, from 622 to 632, as the leader of Medina in a state of war with pagan Mecca. Muhammad and his Companions had earlier migrated from Mecca to Medina in what is known as the Hijra following years of persecution by the Meccans. Through raids, sieges, and diplomacy, Muhammad and his followers allied with or subdued some of the tribes and cities of the Arabian peninsula in their struggle to overcome the powerful Banu Quraish of Mecca.

They also sent out parties against Arabic-speaking communities ruled under the Roman Empire. Muhammad was believed by the Muslims to be divinely chosen to spread Islam in the world, and Muhammad ultimately permitted warfare as one aspect of this struggle. After initially refusing to accede to requests by his followers to fight the Meccans for continued persecution and provocation, he eventually proclaimed the revelations of the Quran:

"Permission to fight is given to those who are fought against because they have been wronged -truly Allah has the power to come to their support- those who were expelled from their homes without any right, merely for saying, 'Our Lord is Allah'..." (Quran, 22:39-40)"

After the first battle of Badr against the Quraysh, he is reported as having said "We have returned from the lesser Jihad to the greater Jihad (i.e. the struggle against the evil of one's soul)." John Esposito writes that Muhammad's use of warfare in general was alien neither to Arab custom nor to that of the Hebrew prophets, as both believed that God had sanctioned battle with the enemies of the Lord.

In spite of all the questions brought up as to whether Muslims are peaceful or not - whether Islam teaches violence or not - there is, without a doubt, a history of war and conquest that is directly related to historically accurate and factual accounts of Muhammad's own life, and the early days of what we know know as Islam.

The military career of Jesus.

Next - I googled "The military career of Jesus".

Guess what.  There wasn't one.  Jesus had no military career.

This should not be a surprise to anyone who is a Christian - and knows the background of their faith.