Islam: A religion of Peace or Violence?

I've been thinking about this whole debate going on in social media which has my atheist n liberal friends at each others throats. The whole question of------ Whether Islam is a religion of peace or a religion of violence? 

I've come to the conclusion that both sides are wrong in this debate. No religion in itself can be called either peaceful OR violent. Its true that Islam and Christianity are young proselytising religions..ie conversions of infidels are not only allowed but encouraged, thus leading to more wars in their names n forceful conversions. But older religions like Judaism and Hinduism dont convert and they've wrecked untold horrors too...Hinduism through caste system on dalits and Judaism through zionism. ( i suspect the caste system would take the crown in terms of sheers numbers it destroyed).

To this one side will loudly exclaim that 'but there are verses in the Koran which prompt the believers to kill infidels'; while the supporters of Islam will equally loudly say that they can show us verses which show jihad means an internal war with own evils. I have not read the Koran, but I'm sure that all sides will be able to find the verses to support their answer.

Every religion regardless of whether it advocated peace or war ; whether conversions or no conversions in its Holy books, has been converted into both a religion of peace and a religion of war. For every Jesus who forgave his killers; we have the catholic inquisition which tortured n killed thousands of Jews. For every peaceful Buddhist monk like the Dalai lama we have monks who are killing helpless Rohingas in the name of the most peaceful religion. For every Abu Baghdadi who quotes the Quran to torture and butcher millions of humans, there is Abu Eidhi who quotes the same book to run ambulances for the poor of all religions. 

Bottomline, if you are a violent person then you will find a way for religion to justify your violence; if you are a peaceful person you will manage to find verses in your religion which will justify being peaceful. Unfortunately, the hardliners who interpret religion as a weapon of hate and fear always seem to influence and brainwash more people. Why? i dont know. We need to think more about that question. Why does fear and hate attract more humans than peace and love?

As for the oft maligned line about 'terrorism has no religion'...what it means is that terrorism n extremism is present in every religion its not the patent of any one religion..it doesnt mean that the terrorists dont have a religion or they aren't doing it in name of their religions. It is true that Islam is going through period of most flux right now, and there seem to be a lot more Islamicist hard-liners but other religions have gone through the same..just not in our lifetimes.  

Like the Ramayana says.."jaaki rani bhavna jaisi,...prabhu moorat laage tin taisi". (you perceive the face of God based on your feelings).



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