ThePolitically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)against his father,adaughter against her mother, and a
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law" (Matthew 10:34– 35). If
this pass age were real ly call ing for any lite ral violence, it would
seem tobe infra-familial jihad. But to invokeit as the equivalent of
the Qur'an's jihad passages, whichnumbe r over a hundr ed, is
absu rd: Even the Crusa ders at thei r most vena l and gras ping
did n't invo ke pas sage s like these. Also, given the completely
peacefulmessage of Jesus, it is clear that he meant "a sword" in an
allegorical and metaphorical way, To interpret this text literally is to
misunders tand Jesu s, who, unli ke Muha mmad. did not take part
in battles. It fails to recognize the poetry of the Bible, whichis
everywhere,Per haps awar e of how abs urd suc h New Tes tame nt arg ume nts are ,Isla mic apol ogis ts more ofte n tend to focu s on seve ral Old Test amen t
passages.
"When the LORD your God bring s you into the land where you
are entering to possess it, and clears away many nationsbefo re you,
the Hitti tes and the Girg ashit es and the Amorites and the
Canaa nites and the Perizz ites and the Hivite s and the Jebu sites,
seven natio ns great er and stron ger than you.. And when the
LORD your God deli vers them befo re you and you def eat
the m, the n you sha ll utt erl y des tro y them. You shall make no
covenant with them and show no favor to them" (Deuteronomy 7:1-
2).
"When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall offerit terms
of peace, If it agrees to make peace with youandopens to you, then
all the people who are found in it shallbecome your forced labor
and shall serve you, However , ifit does not make peace with you,
but makes war against you,