Religious hate speech from the Bible and the Quran

The challenge of having freedom of religion and the way both the Bible and the Quran deal with difference makes the idea of legislating against hate speech from religious leaders and their followers an almost impossible task.

The two ideals are almost diametrically opposed.

“… in the eyes of science, the very existence of God is an untestable hypothesis yes (and very unlikely ever) to be empirically demonstrated. Likewise in the words of religious dogma, God is untouchable, existing as he does in a different dimension.” (Alpha God, P57)

Let’s take a quick journey through those holy books and an excursion into other ancient religions to determine why religious conflict has been an issue as long as there have been religions. It is noteworthy to understand that Judaism was first of the religions formed, having its origins at the very beginning of ‘history’, likely to struggle with the hate speech laws, second is Christianity in its various guises formed a mere 2000 or so years ago, and the last is Islam, with the Quran as its holy book, was the ‘newest’ founded about 1400 years ago. All three religions trace their origins to the biblical ‘father’, Abraham, the same one whom God promised all that land, still being disputed in the Middle East.

As far as it can be determined, the first books of the Bible, the books of Moses; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers were written after the fall of the Babylonian Empire. This is sort of alluded to in the Book of Daniel and the subsequent books of the Minor Prophets. The Judaic religion, indeed story of creation, of Noahs Flood, the Ten Commandments and subsequent minor laws have their origins in Babylonian/Mesopotamian folklore.

The ‘writing on the wall’, (Daniel 5) tells the story of a mysterious human hand appearing out of nowhere to inscribe on the wall of the of a banquet hall where all the wise men of the Empire and the nobles were feasting using gold goblets stolen from the temple in Jerusalem when the Babylonians captured the Israelites and brought them, with the temples treasures to Babylon. The seat of power was in the ancient city of Ur.

It is thought that the banquet was part of a conference to determine whether there were many gods or if there may be one supreme god, and then, magically the words MEME, MEME, TEKEL, PARSIN appeared on the wall. Only Daniel, who was not one of the elite in the banquet room but was invited to translate the words since no one else had a clue translated the words to mean:

God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end
You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting
Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.
(Daniel 5; 26-28)

The fall of the Empire saw migrations to the east, where the ‘many gods’ side of the debate fled to form what is now Hindu, and the one god people moved west to the Sinai Desert and the shores of the Mediterranean, settling ‘between the river and the sea.’

All of that is speculation, but seemingly having an element of truth through the findings of archeological works in Iraq, where inscriptions on the walls of the remnants of Ur show as series of laws, including on the entrance to the ancient city, five laws inscribed for those entering to see. Other findings have included ancient poems describing the days of creation, the plans of a vessel farmers who lived by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers used to keep their families and animals safe when the rivers flooded, which happened occasionally.

So very probably, Babylonian/Mesopotamian folklore was the basis of a narrative expounding the power of the creator god, the giver and controller of life, and the god who promised the land to the invented people, Abraham and his descendants, to be resurrected by the minor prophet Nehemiah and his followers about 2500 years ago.

The book of Nehemiah tells of the story of Prophet, Nehemiah, being permitted to return ‘to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it.’ In chapter 4, the people who lived there got a bit upset that their land, their city was being taken from them and so the city was rebuilt, the tools required for the job were the sword and the trowel, the sword to protect the builders and the trowel for the work of the masons, rebuilding the city.

The story of why and how that land of Judah came to be the burial place of Nehemiah’s ancestors is explained in the books of Moses, and includes so many texts condoning violence, drawing a distinction between ‘God’s People’ and others who stood in their way.

And so the exceptionalism of the settling people, the Jewish people ‘returning’ to their promised land is dependent on believing the promises made in the fabricated history of the Books of Moses, and that special relationship between God and God’s People gives license to genocide and the enslavement of women as the ‘promised lands’ are seized or protected.

I am tempted to list the texts which promote violence, infanticide, genocide, but the list is long, but when we start, say with Noah’s Flood, all humanity bar Noah and his family and flocks were drowned, when the Pharaoh would not let Moses lead his people out of slavery, the first born children of all Egyptians were killed, then came the Exodus and the book of Daniel where the savagery of conquest is laid out, condoned, ordered by the same god who had declared ‘You shall not kill’ when the tablets of the law were introduced… Meaning, you shall not kill god’s chosen people, but any one else is fair game. Those same tablets of the law mentioned that other people’s wives (and husbands) are not to be played with, no adultery, and a woman’s virginity was sacred… unless the women were of an enemy which stood in the way of taking the lands god promised, then the women, especially virgins, were to be taken as war trophies.

One example from Numbers 31; v17-18 as the Israelites prepare for a battle:

“Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man lying with her. But young girls who have not known a man lying with her, keep alive for yourselves.”

Judaism is alive and flourishing and re-enacting the violence of exceptionalism in reclaiming the promised lands, the biblical Israel, promised in the fabricated history of the Books of Moses.

The role of women in religion, especially the ‘purity’, the exalted virginity, where a bride is only worthy if she demonstrated her virginity before being passed from the father to the bridegroom, and the strongest example is that of the immaculate conception when god impregnated the young betrothed Mary, the virgin gave birth to the son of god.

Joseph had to wait a while.

In the New Testament, apart from the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, which consider the birth, life, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, the remaining books document the birth and growth of Christianity, and the struggles covering the first hundred or so years after Christ. Much of those books focus on the difficulties of the new religion, leading to the promises in the Book of Revelations, where the suffering is deemed worthwhile because of the promise of eternity with god, in the New Jerusalem.

The message of Christianity, as expounded in Matthew 28 with the final words attributed to the risen Jesus, before he ascended into heaven was:

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Verses 19,20).

A passage in Luke sends a clear message that rejection of disciples proselyting in any town, and later in the times of colonial expansion, ‘It shall be more tolerable on that day for Sodom than for that town.’ (Luke 10:v12), recalling that God killed every person in Sodom by raining down burning sulpha upon the city. (Genesis 19; v 24-25).

The first couple of centuries were pretty difficult, the new church suffering persecution as it worked essentially a mission of easing suffering and hunger, living a life of faith and being socially active as they preached, and lived the gospel of love. But that all changed when the new religion was adopted as the state religion under the rule of Constantine the Great in AD 312, and using the cross as a power symbol, on battle flags and shields, empowering the church, which became the Roman Catholic Church, and with that power came the corruptions where the church instead of being a force for good became a political body, accumulating riches beyond measure, reinterpreting scriptures for their benefit and as god’s new chosen ones, persecuting Jews for being the murderers of Christ, a persecution which ultimately led to the hatred which was manifest in the Holocaust.

Awaiting the ‘second coming of Christ’ is dependent, according to the Apostle Paul in the book of Romans, on Jews accepting Christ, converting to Christianity, and the restoration of the State of Israel, this being the foundation of Christian Zionist’s support for Israel in its conflict with Palestinians. When the land of Israel is cleared of non Jews, the stage will be set for Armageddon; the final battle before the return of Christ.

The call to ‘make disciples of all nations’ became an important commandment during the period of European colonisation and Empire building, with the power of better weapons, diseases and a fervent faith that god is providing for them, the ‘conversion’ of indigenous populations became a murderous affair. Pretty much for men, convert or die, their women would be sex slaves for the colonisers.

Muslims were the last of Abrahamic religions to be formed. Again, we have a book which claims divine origins, dictated by an angel, Gabriel, to the chosen one, the Prophet Muhammad, to write the Quran. Again, the exceptionalism of being chosen by God to be the prophet to lead a chosen people on the path to paradise, and again, drawing a distinction being those who do not embrace that faith and the faithful.

To list the texts which promote exceptionalism and its opposite, the damned, is not really possible but here are a couple of examples:

“And the Jews say: Ezra is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they turned away.” (Quran 9:30)

“Slay them wherever you find them.” (Quran 9:5)

So the problem in looking at hate speech is that each of the major religions have texts which promote hatred of the other religions, each, if faithful to their creeds will promote their sense of exceptionalism, their being their god’s people, charged with the the responsibility to faithfully do His will, as they interpret their holy books, and that seems to condone killing the unfaithful who may mock the religion or its people, who may spit at the chador wearing woman.

So how do we allow freedom of religion, which is a fundamental human right, and yet allow teachings which foster hatred of other religious adherents?

This is surely a slippery slope, one which may well have caused the murder of 15 Jews at Bondi, one that seeks to silence protests against the atrocities of Gaza and the West Bank. And one which allows the hatred of women, endorses a misogyny which turns a blind eye to the abuse women face, which discriminates against people of diverse gender identities. So many of the hate speech tropes have their origins in religion and religious teachings.

The pressure to hold a Royal Commission has seen a greater emphasis on one area of hate, antisemitism, giving that precedence over the many other expressions of hate we see daily in our social media feeds, we read it in the mainstream press and other news sources.

The terms of reference need to be very broad to have any impact on eliminating hate speech.

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