The fundamental difference between the God of the Bible and the Quran: It’s real world impact
There is a not very well known framework that underpins the Christian and Islamic worldviews and is responsible for the disposition of adherents of both religions towards outsiders and non-believers in the context of their faiths.
Jesus on the sermon on the mount teaches,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven…
(Matthew 5:43–45)
So let us break down the above teaching.
“You have heard it said…”, notice this was never anything they got from the Torah or the Mosaic Law. Who had been saying this then? Jesus Himself had said earlier and in the same context in the same sermon that His audience’ righteousness had to exceed that of the Pharisees and the Scribes (Matthew 5:20) in order for them to get into His kingdom.
So the implication is that it was the Pharisees and the scribes who were “saying” these things. Jesus in another encounter rebuked the Pharisees for adding to the word of God and making it of no effect with their traditions (Matthew 15:3–9) thus lending credence to this.
Jesus however says His followers are to love their enemies. Why? So that they could be sons of their father God in heaven. Followers of Jesus are to love their enemies because God Himself loves His own enemies. As Paul writes,
“ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
(Romans 5:8)
Not only that, God loves each and every human being on the planet, including those who are the enemies of Christians, the very people God orders them to love. As Jesus said in arguably the most popular Bible verse on the planet,
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
(John 3:16)
The implication of this worldview is that you have to love people especially those who you disagree with or who disagree with you. You love people because God loves them. You love people because Jesus died for them as much as He died for you.
In Islam however, the love of Allah is not general or unconditional. Allah over and over again proclaims his hatred for unbelievers. The love of Allah is contingent upon one thing,
“Say, [O Muḥammad], “If you should love Allāh, then follow me, [so] Allāh will love you and forgive you your sins. And Allāh is Forgiving and Merciful.”
Say, “Obey Allāh and the Messenger. But if you turn away — then indeed, Allāh does not like the disbelievers.”
(Surah 3:31–32)
Consider this dynamic, Allah does not love people unless and until they follow Allah and his prophet. Allah does not forgive people their sins until they follow Allah and his prophet. Weirdly, the way to love Allah, surprise surprise is to follow Muhammad but I digress.
Now, there is already a paradigm of hate in this framework. The adherent to Islam is aware his god does not like those who do not believe in him. He is aware there is no forgiveness for a person who does not follow Muhammad.
As if this is not clear enough, Allah repeatedly dehumanizes those who do not believe in him and his prophet. In the very first chapter of the Quran, the prayer which Muslims are supposed to pray every day, a line of it reads
“Guide us to the straight path -
The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, not of those who have earned [Your] anger or of those who are astray.”
(Surah 1:7)
According to Islamic commentaries and tradition, “those who earned your anger” are the Jews and “those who are astray” are Christians. According to Ibn Kathir,
“The path of the believers is knowledge of the truth and abiding by it. In comparison, the Jews abandoned practicing the religion, while the Christians lost the true knowledge. This is why `anger’ descended upon the Jews, while being described as `led astray’ is more appropriate of the Christians. Those who know, but avoid implementing the truth, deserve the anger, unlike those who are ignorant. The Christians want to seek the true knowledge, but are unable to find it because they did not seek it from its proper resources. This is why they were led astray. We should also mention that both the Christians and the Jews have earned the anger and are led astray, but the anger is one of the attributes more particular of the Jews.”
Again, non-believers in Allah are deemed to be the worst of creatures in the Quran,
“Indeed, they who disbelieved among the People of the Scripture and the polytheists will be in the fire of Hell, abiding eternally therein. Those are the worst of creatures.”
(Surah 98:6)
So to sum it up, the adherent of Islam (i) has the knowledge that his god hates those who do not believe in their prophet (ii) prays multiple times a day a prayer asking their god not to make them like the cursed and stray people who do not believe in their god and (iii) has the mentality that those who do not believe in their religion are the worst of creatures, worse than dogs and worse than pigs.
What kind of societal impact do you expect this sort of mentality and worldview to produce? One where people are killed without remorse for any perceived insult to their worldview? One where people who do not adhere to their worldview are hated, dehumanized and despised? One where even a family member who turns away from the religion is killed by members of their own family (i.e. honour killings)? All of these are consistent with what we see in regions where Islam is the dominant worldview.
And this is consistent with the express directives of Allah in Surah 9:29–30. Worse still Allah completely makes up an excuse to plant hate in the hearts of his followers for Jews. “The Jews say Ezra is the son of Allah”. A position no Jew on the face of the earth has ever held!
But again, I digress…
The mentality is different between Islam and Christianity because the God in both worldviews has a very different stance and posture to those who do not believe in them. The Christian is told to love because God loves while the adherent to Islam is told his god has nothing but hate and contempt for those who do not believe in him.
Draw your own conclusions on which is a better framework.