The Difference Between Christianity and Islam

Ran accross this article which describes stoning for adultery as a brutal affair in some Islamic countries. Human rights groups are drafting a resolution to protest the practice. Quoting the article, regarding the case of one Malak Ghorbany,

"Lily Mazahery, president of the Legal Rights Institute in Washington, D.C., had the lead role in drafting the San Francisco resolution, telling WND: 'Malak is receiving the penalty of death for having committed 'adultery,' which, under the Sharia legal system includes any type of intimate relationship between a girl/woman and a man to whom she is not permanently or temporarily married. Such a relationship does not necessarily mean a sexual relationship. Further, charges of adultery are routinely issued to women/girls who have been raped, and they are sentenced to death.'"

I notice that it is only the women who are stoned and that, according to the article, the testimony of the woman only counts for half of that of the man.



Our Judeo-Christian heritage did prescribe death by stoning in the Old Testament for adultery. It too was supposed to treat both the male and female parties equally, and clearly was not practiced that way. But there is a qualitative difference since Christ and the New Covenant.

But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?

"They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

"At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, 'Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?'

'No one, sir,' she said. 

'Then neither do I condemn you,' Jesus declared. 'Go now and leave your life of sin.'" (John 8:1-11)

Islam seems to have a very strict moral code. So does Christianity. But Christianity expresses a sense of redemption, forgiveness, understanding. And Christianity says all are guilty and deserve death, but all can be shown mercy. There is a difference. It needs to be highlighted.