Islam is a religion of peace.

Yes, an interesting topic for another debate which I would gladly be a part of. I ascertain that my use of the word Christianity in the same sentence as religion is in no way some kind of misunderstanding of what Christianity is. I used Christianity as an example, not because it was the first comparable religion that came to mind but because I had a suspicion it was a camp that you belonged to. Now that you have identified yourself as such, it will be much easier for me to convey my points. I don"t know much about CS Lewis, but I do know a lot about William Lane Craig, and your admiration of him is somewhat disturbing. Describing homosexuality as a sin and unnatural is an example of how he tried to teach "how the world ought to be". Science is about throwing out superstition and personal beliefs and accepting the cold hard facts, for that reason the idea of a religious scientist seems paradoxical. I would again like to make it clear that I am not here to defend any religion, I think they are all equally bad in different ways. I am here to put an end to this facile nonsense of one religious group claiming some kind of special right to judge other religions as "peaceful" or "not peaceful". Of course the practicing of a religion is mainly down to an individual"s interpretation of its teaching. I hope you don"t mind but I"m going to ignore the part where you ask how an individual can practice a religion in a peaceful or not peaceful way as I already gave an answer in my opening argument. I would like to jump to your very interesting point that you made near the end of your first rebuttal; "This is why God is here as a foundation. You decide if a religion is peace based on its teachings, core beliefs, doctrines, and the life of its figurehead i.e Muhammad. Once you interject your own beliefs into the religion you are not practicing it. For an example Qu'ran 9:29 teachings to fight and kill unbelievers. If I'm a Muslim and I see this verse but I deny it and choose to ignore it I am NOT practicing the teachings." This is indeed incredibly interesting, first of all you say that God is here as a foundation. My first question would be which God are you talking about? The God of Christianity, the God of Islam, the God of Jupiter, the God of Zeus, Thor perhaps? If your saying that God is the foundation, then you better chose your God very wisely. I love the example that you use, saying that denying verses in the Quran means you are not practicing Islam. Interesting that you believe this is the case as I"m sure there are many passages in the bible which you and the majority of Christianity chose to ignore or sweep under the carpet. Here"s a few of my personal favourites; Exodus 21:20-21 " "If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished, but he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property." Ephesians 6:5 - "Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ." Deuteronomy 22:28-29 - "If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay the girl's father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives." Leviticus 20:13 " "If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads." Do you deny these verses or do you base your "objective morality" on these teachings? If you answered yes to either question, then you are in no position to criticise the morality or peacefulness of another religion. I do not defend any violence in any religion, what I am arguing is that no religion is inherently peaceful or not peaceful. What I was getting at is you can"t single out any one religion because you believe their practices to be hateful. To do that you must criticise all religions in the same way. Again and for the final time, you must have misread my argument. I do not ascertain that Islam is a religion of peace, in the same way I do not ascertain that any religion is. The people who were responsible for the crusades weren"t truly Christian? Talk about selectiveness, which you have criticised yourself several times. The crusades were endorsed by all the leaders and figure heads of religion at the time, but no they probably weren"t "true" Christians. Can"t you apply the same logic to the evil acts carried out in the name of Islam? Or does it not work like that? You have a strange interpretation of the crusades. It was a case of Christians killing in the name of God, slaughtering the unbelievers and fighting for land they had no right to. Your right though, Islam is definitely a religion of Evil and Christianity is a religion of Good. The bible includes several verses on the killing of innocents, one I believe I included earlier about the fate of homosexuals. Christianity is now very relevant in this argument as you are asserting your religion over the religion of Islam. Of course you have cherry picked, you have selected passages which only represent the questionable teachings of the Quran, you haven"t included any of the good moral teachings. That is the exact definition of cherry picking and again I must reiterate that the same can be done for any religious text. The verses you represent from the Quran are indeed immoral teachings and are very worrying. I put it to you though that the verses I have represented from the Bible are far more offensive and immoral in exactly the same way. If you denounce Islam as immoral and not peaceful, you must do the same for Christianity. I"m tired of religious groups trying to ascertain that their religion is divine and good and others are evil and vindictive. Absolute nonsense.