Allah and non-Muslims

There is a common belief that Judaism, Christianity and Islam share a religious tradition, going back to the Biblical patriarch Abraham.

Miroslav Volf tells us that Christians and Muslims are taught to "love" their "neighbor." Not quite in the same way, however. Christians are taught to love their "neighbor," that is their fellow man, whether Christian or not. Muslims are taught to love their fellow Muslims and to despise non-Muslims.

The Qur’an teaches them that they, the Muslims, are the "best of people" and that non-Muslims "are the vilest of creatures."

The Qur’an tells them when to make war on non-Muslims, how to treat them when they are conquered, what fiendish ways may be used to remind the non-Muslim of his state of permanent humiliation.

The Qur’an tells Muslims "not to make friends with Jews and Christians" (Quran 5:51), to fight them "until they pay the Jizya (a penalty tax for the non-Muslims living under Islamic rules) with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued" (Quran 9:29), to "kill the disbelievers wherever they find them" (Quran 2:191), "murder them and treat them harshly" (Quran 9:123), "fight and slay the Pagans, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem" (Quran 9:5).

The Quran says that all those who disbelieve in Islam go to hell (5:10), they are najis (filthy, untouchable, impure) (9:28), and orders Muslims to fight the unbelievers until no other religion except Islam is left (2:193). It prohibits a Muslim from befriending a non-believer even if that non-believer is the father or the brother of that Muslim (9:23), (3:28).

The Quran asks the Muslims to "slay or crucify or cut the hands and feet of the unbelievers, that they be expelled from the land with disgrace and that they shall have great punishment in the world hereafter" (5:33). And tells us that "for them (the unbelievers) garments of fire shall be cut and there shall be poured over their heads boiling water whereby whatever is in their bowels and skin shall be dissolved and they will be punished with hooked iron rods" (22:19-22) and that they not only will have "disgrace in this life, on the Day of Judgment He shall make them taste the Penalty of  burning (Fire)" (22:9).

The Quran says that "those who invoke a god other than Allah not only should meet punishment in this world but the Penalty on the Day of Judgment will be doubled to them, and they will dwell therein in ignominy" (25:68). For those who "believe not in Allah and His Messenger, He has prepared, for those who reject Allah, a Blazing Fire!" (48:13).

Then Allah advises Muslims to "strike off the heads of the disbelievers"; and after making a "wide slaughter among them, carefully tie up the remaining captives" (47:4). Allah has promised to "instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers" and has ordered Muslims to "smite above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them" (8:12). and "to strike terror into (the hearts of the enemies" (8:60).

The Muslim Allah has made the Jihad mandatory and warns Muslims that "Unless we go forth, (for Jihad) He will punish us with a grievous penalty, and put others in our place" (9:39). and Allah says "O Prophet! strive hard against the unbelievers and the Hypocrites, and be stern against them.

Their abode is Hell, an evil refuge indeed" (9:73).

These passages do not represent minor points of Islamic difference with Christianity; the moral universe of Allah has nothing in common with the moral universe of the Christian God. After such knowledge, what forgiveness for Miroslav Volf and his claim that Christians and Muslims worship the same God?