I see major differences between the Islamic faith and the Christian Faith. How tolerant is the Muslim faith? How does it compare to the tolerance of the Christian faith? Are they both equally intolerant of anything outside their faith? I don't think so.
To be a good Muslim you must accept the Koran without quesion. To be a good Christian, you are allowed to question, seek, and sift the scriptures to gain understanding. Questioning is allowed.
The Koran says if you decide to leave Islam after having believed, you deserve death. Sounds pretty serious to me and very intolerant. How does that compare with Christianity?
First of all, contrary to many, you don't leave Christianity. Ya, I know. I did hear about the famous author who recently declared she left Christianity (the RC faith) but that's just not a biblical concept. You can leave any Christian denomination but that doesn't mean you leave the faith if you didn't have it to begin with. To say you have left Christianity is to say you left YOUR idea of Chrisitianity. The Apostle John said it best when he said "they left us because they were not of us."
To be a Christian means to be "born again" into the faith. It's a spiritual birth that you just don't walk away from. It's like being born physically. You don't stop being a human because you decide to. So to say you're no longer a Christian is like saying, I'm no longer human. I've decided to be an animal instead. You may act like an animal but in reality you are not. Same as saying you're a Christian. You may act like one, sound like one but in all reality you're really nothing more than a counterfeit. It eventually gets found out. It doesn't stand up to the genuine Christian criteria test. So they leave.
Anyway, in the Christian denominations, you are free to declare you are no longer Christian without fear of being killed for it unlike the fear instilled in the Muslim to Christian belief switch.
According to Islam if you are homosexual you should die. They hate homosexuals and want them destroyed. How does this compare with the Christian faith?
Certainly we know the Christians are against the homosexual lifestyle but they are equally not for condoning their death just because they are. In fact, the Christian's duty is to love and help the homosexuals like they would any other person they would meet along the way. You can love someone but yet not condone their behavior. That's what the Christians are called to do. There is truth to the "love the sinner, hate the sin" motto. It is a biblical concept.
The Koran orders the belief that women are subservient to men. Woman have no rights, or very little rights depending on where they live. In many cases they are treated worse than slaves.
How does this compare to Christianity? Everyone knows the one little verse in Ephesians that says that women are to submit to their husbands. Isn't this the same? No. It's made very clear in scripture that women are equal with men. God has given them different roles and one of the roles for men in scripture is that they are to be leaders of their families and the churches. But that doesn't mean subservient as the Islam religion teaches. In context men are to love their wives as Christ loved the church. For order sake, everything has an order to it. Anything without a head is dead and anything with more than one head not only is abnormal but chaotic.
According to the Christian faith, woman are to be under the leadership of their husbands as the husbands are under the headship of Christ. Everything is to be done for the best interest of the one you're leading. It's to be done with love and best interest in mind. Christ did a great deal of elevating women when he walked the earth.
The Koran tells its followers not to be a friend of the Christian or Jews. In fact, it instructs them to kill the infidels (anyone outside of Islam). They are also to lie to those not of their faith to gain approval before they destroy them. How nice. Talk about a wolf in sheep's clothing.
How does Christianity compare? We are to go out into the world, being good examples with the goal to win them to Christ. We are instructed very clearly NOT to lie but to be bearers of the truth. While we are not to be unequally yoked (in marriage or business) with unbelievers we can be friends with non-believers without fear of going against biblical principles. Certainly we are NOT to kill anyone. The instructions are, tell people the truth and if they accept you've gained a brother. If they don't accept, move on. Certainly don't preach them to death.
There is no freedom in the Muslim faith. It's all about bondage and fear. The followers are to do what they are told and not to stray from their truth or they or their family will be punished severely.
In the Christian faith it's all about freedom. We've been set free. He conquered our soul, invaded the frontier of our lives and set us free. For the Christian our D-Day was way back during the time when a little baby came into the world to set the captives free. Just like on D-Day the first ones who recognized this were the enemies. The captives had no idea their deliverer had come, but the enemy did.
The demons did everything they could to stop Him meeting him on the shores of Galilee doing everything they could to stop him from setting the prisioners free. Even in the beginning they tried to kill him before he could even walk and talk. When that failed, they later put obstacles in his way, ridiculed him, tried their best to kill his character and eventually managed to pull off his death mistakenly thinking they had finally won. They're still at it even today, trying to influence mankind that they don't need any such deliverer keeping people in bondage even now. Not unlike the Muslims who are doing it in the open. The only difference is one is above ground (physically) and one isn't (spiritually).
To me the real question is why is the American government so tolerant of the Islamic system when they are anything but tolerant of us? Why is the American government so intolerant to the Christian faith when it was founded on Christian principles to begin with?
Could it be, as scripture puts it, that in the last days evil would become good and good would become evil.
I think so.