For all of the passages in the Koran that have been used to justify violence, one can just as easily find passages in the Bhagwat Geeta, Jewish or Christian Bibles justifying violence. The difference is that Hindus and Europeans, broadly speaking, no longer have the desire to use religion to justify violence. Vast numbers of Arabs, North Africans and East Asians still do. The problems confronting contemporary Muslim societies today are not the problems of the sixth century, and the solutions do not lie with the notion of a Syariah purportedly final and complete 1,400 years ago. The Hinduism went through the Reformation by different saints, the Counter Reformation, hundreds of revolts and revolutions, the Enlightenment and dozens of Wars to unshackle itself from the sort of mindset that seeks religious justification for cruelty and barbarity. Much of the Muslim world has yet to go through such a process. When they do, no doubt that they will still be Muslims. They just won't use that as a justification to murder people. Many Muslim scholars, whether from India or from the Middle East or South Asia, are puzzled how Malaysia could be so modern and progressive in many ways when the many Muslims they meet at academic meetings and international conferences are so conservative theologically and ideologically.
