"ISIS is not Islamic

[robvalue]

You're right yes, the Old Testament is horrific. It's the most appalling collection of atrocities I've ever seen. So much so that Christian apologists (those that argue in its defense) spend a lot of time making excuses for why it doesn't really mean what it appears to mean, or why it doesn't apply anymore.

The New Testament is a lot better in some ways, it is generally more peaceful, although not as much as people generally seem to think. However, Jesus brought with him the idea of Hell to Christianity, the most evil thing I could imagine. So that makes Jesus actually worse than Yahweh (Old Testament God) in my opinion. At least Yahweh generally just killed people for petty reasons, he didn't set up a system where they were tortured indefinitely after death.

The Quran and the Hadiths (the Islamic texts) are really nasty too. I don't know as much about them, but I know they tell stories about a guy who is supposed to be the hero but is actually a delusional barbarian, responsible for thousands of deaths. The books spend a lot of time making it clear that anyone outside the religion is so bad as to deserve to be sent to a "Fiery Doom" (generally considered to be Islamic Hell). The texts also provide inspiration for Jihad.

Going back to interpretations, I would be very happy if atlas said, "I consider ISIS to be very bad representatives of Islam and horrible people. They don't stand for what I think Islam should be about." That would be awesome and I'd fully support it. But instead just saying they are not Muslims is to bury your head in the sand. People kill each other over interpretations of this book. And guess what? Allah just talked to me and said the Quran is all wrong and not his word. I'm the only true Muslim now. Are you calling Allah a liar?

There is no entrance requirement for being in a religion, nor is there anyone who can kick you out of it. If you say you're in that religion, you're in it. To say otherwise is literally religious oppression.

Here's another interpretation of the Quran: it's fictional nonsense, vaguely based around some historic events. Now my interpretation stands up a lot better to scrutiny than "it all happened as it is written". So clearly, no one gets to say what the "true interpretation" is, because there isn't one. It's just a book.