Enter the search function
December 6, 2007What a great idea. A new website has been launched in The Netherlands, where you can read the Bible and the Koran side-by-side, in Dutch, English, and Arabic. They did this so that people can see for themselves what educated people already know full well: the Bible and the Koran are mostly similar to one another. They are both completely outdated, and there is absolutely no reason to assume that the Koran is more hateful or filled with more violence than the Bible - something the right-wing extremist fascists in my country want us to believe.
Enter the search function. Here, you can search specific terms and search strings, and compare results alongside one another. With this power, I did some very interesting (but completely unscientific) comparisons. I did the searches in Dutch (since that’s my native language) but you can do them in English too.
Haat (hate): Bible: 140 hits - Koran: 5 hits
Stenigen (to stone): Bible: 24 hits - Koran: 5 hits
Wraak (revenge): Bible: 46 hits - Koran: 12 hits
War (oorlog): Bible: 228 hits - Koran: 6 hits
God (god): Bible: 4729 hits - Koran: 1921 hits*
* The words God and Allah are interchangeable, searching for “Allah” gives the exact same results as searching for “God”.
Completely unscientific, but interesting nonetheless.
I am speaking as someone who has “found God” through the christianity, so I have a pretty strong bias. Sure, there are irrelivent bits, and I am not totally sold on “the infallible word of God” thing, but it is hard to believe that concepts like not to murder, to love your neighbour, and always be able to forgive, no matter what the crime against you was are outdated. (note: you said “completely outdated”, not partially outdated.) Judging the faith of a large portion of humanity on the views of a fringe subgroup is never really a good idea. It sounds like you have had nothing but bad experiences with christians, which is a real shame. The raging hypocritical self-rightous assholes are the ones that get all the airtime, the rest of us are too busy trying to live what we preach to try and force our faith and morality down other peoples throats.
That being said, the stats are real interesting. I have a friend who converted to Islam to marry his girlfriend. After he told me, jokingly I said “I guess that means we have to fight now”. In perfect serious he replied “The Koran says that the Jews and Christians are protected. It is those that “worship the dirt” that are in trouble” I think the big problem is that the far right nutjobs in Islam rule countries, the far right christian nutjobs havnt managed to take over yet.
Comment by google_ninja — December 7, 2007 @ 12:10 am
I think the big problem is that the far right nutjobs in Islam rule countries, the far right christian nutjobs havnt managed to take over yet.
The great majority of leaders of “the islamic world” are US approved.
Only a small group among them are in any way interested in the “purity” of Islam the way the Salafists and the Wahhabi (in S.-Arabia) see it. Even the Saoudi regime is US approved. Saddam Hussein suppressed all too serious Muslims just as well, in spite of his ‘Islamic’ PR.
The great exception to the rule is Iran/Persia.
The US and the UK have controlled Persia after having got rid of Mosaddegh who was not friendly to a.o. BP. After the revolution, the US and the UK tried to destroy Iran by proxy (supporting Iraq in its war against it). Libya is another exception but its leader is not really far right, nor really very exceptionally “Islamic”. And not very relevant on the larger playground at that.
Maybe you can mention an islamic country that I failed to mention, where the islamic nutjobs truly reign.
the far right christian nutjobs havnt managed to take over yet.
Excusez-moi, to what category then do our friends mr Cheney, Bush and the neocons belong, in your opinion?
Comment by herman — December 7, 2007 @ 8:16 am
By the wat Thom, for the sake of my academic endeavours, not only do these ’statistics’ mean nothing (which you admit), the “Bible” (which is in itself a great variety of texts) is a bit.. bigger than the Qur’an.
You know, in a number-of-words kind of way. ;-)
Comment by herman — December 7, 2007 @ 8:22 am
The problem is that the Koran and the Bible are not comparable - the Koran is just the written law of Islam and the Bible contains two law sets - the one from Moses and the one from Jesus + the biography of Jesus and the prophets, the missions of the apostles, and some text relating to the Jews and the origin of the world and the all the peoples - so its pretty logical to get a lot more hits in the Bible for any concept that is featured in both.
Comment by Dimitar — December 7, 2007 @ 11:29 am
hmm I didn’t read hermans post - I guess mine is a bit redundant.
Comment by Dimitar — December 7, 2007 @ 11:32 am
“They are both completely outdated”
They are not, in my opinion. Outdated are the minds of the people who take thinks literally and behave like it’s 15th century again. This is “mine is better than yours” mentality.
What is so outdated about forgiveness, peace, humility and love?
We’re far, far from what Jesus of Nazareth preached 2000 years ago.
Comment by Stefan — December 7, 2007 @ 4:16 pm
Thom,
it’s not right-wing extremist fascists that find the Qaran scary, cruel and ridden with supremacist ideas. On the contrary.
Anyway, it is the way how these things that are only written are transformed and into real laws that affect people’s lives. And the Qaran is used as a handbook for some of the meanest and cruelest theocratic regimes on this planet. Especially for you Europeans it is time to stop defending this radical form Islam because you help it growing.
Comment by dwave — December 9, 2007 @ 8:55 am
Absurd and in fact unacceptable allegation, dwave. Stop slandering or I’ll see you in court. ;-)
Once you have actually *read* the “Qaran” (btw., there are, these days, web browsers that can check your spelling) we can talk a bit more.
By the way, the “meanest and cruelest” oppressive state on the face of this planet is China, a place that all of us in the West seem to enjoy doing business with. Hast thou another sermon for that? No, they don’t need a ‘handbook’ in Beijing.
Have another Kool Aid while listening to another one of the neocons’ speeches about our new “enemy”.
Comment by herman — December 9, 2007 @ 9:27 am
Court? I though in your nice little peaceful country people get slaughtered on the streets in bright daylight for expressing opinions about Islam. What do you need a court for?
Comment by dwave — December 9, 2007 @ 10:36 am
dwave,
There is a difference between pointless insults and hate speech, and opinions.
Comment by Administrator — December 9, 2007 @ 10:43 am
Thom,
in your opinion, would surah 5.60 classify as hate speech or pointless insult?
Comment by dwave — December 9, 2007 @ 11:28 am
Court? I though in your nice little peaceful country people get slaughtered on the streets in bright daylight for expressing opinions about Islam. What do you need a court for?
One religious fanatic killed one celebrity for calling God a swine. This guy was then locked up for life (no, no early release for nice behaviour there).
Although we are officially a vassal state to the US of A, we didn’t start illegal wars that killed hundreds of thousands.
And although here in the Netherlands, too, people in the government are trying to limit citizens’ freedoms, we are not yet making laws that allow presidents to legally make people disappear. I assume you, as a true patriot, read the Patriot Act?
All in all, I think it is wise to see things in proportions a bit.
Best regards, herman from nice little peaceful country.
Comment by herman — December 9, 2007 @ 12:11 pm
Sorry for that, herman. Probably I got a bit trollish over your comment and I wish to apologize for that. This likeable geek blog is truly not the place for discussing politics with its endless controversies.
We both know that things are not perfectly alright - neither in western countries, nor in Europe, nor where I live. I think it’s better to help to improve that situation and dedicate our energy to make the world a better place instead of wasting it in intellectual quarrels.
Your opinions differ from mine. Fine. I disagree with what you say but I would defend your right to say it.
We should concentrate on issues that we can agree on, e.g. open-source software and geek culture.
Comment by dwave — December 9, 2007 @ 2:26 pm
No need to apologise, but thanks for being cool. :)
I agree we sort of disagree (so far), but I don’t think it is a waste to argue.
Also agree with your Voltairian remark, I hope I didn’t imply I thought otherwise. Although I still wonder if a ‘Theo de Raadt’ style of arguing is productive or not. ;-)
By the way, the guy that was murdered by the fanatic in Holland liked to consistently use the word “goat fuckers” to refer to muslims. With a smile on his face, that is.
They don’t tell you that on tv.
I’m not sure how many people would cry out loud in the US if a white media personality guy that liked to call blacks consistently “f**king niggers” or something, was shot by a crackhead from da hood. Probably the guy would never make it on tv in the first place. (?)
This Islam thing is a rather dominant issue, and it’s good to be a geek but geeks without political opinions are, imho, like diet beer. Since I don’t believe that the US government/the neocons are innocent of 9/11 (and I have plenty of arguments for that) there would be a lot left to argue about. This sort of influences my position on this issue. But Thom here disagrees so I won’t soil his blog with that (do e-mail me if you like).
FTR, I can’t stand most of the self-righteous newborn Muslim types that I meet occasionally, with their superior attitude. But I live in a quarter of Rotterdam where at least 40% of people are from Islamic countries, and all of my muslim neighbours don’t want to have much to do with politics, define Islam as something personal, don’t read a relatively obscure book like the Qur’an (they have the book as a home decoration, sure), and really don’t differ that much from anyone else.
The politicians need Islam for an enemy now that communism is dead.
I’m sure we would more easily find common ground on the GPL, the Eee PC, or KDE 4. ;-)
regards
mail= crazymulgogi, at gmail.
Comment by herman — December 9, 2007 @ 4:18 pm