Source: French to English Tester Published on: 2026-05-04
Source: The Conversation – in French– By Marc-Antoine Pérouse de Montclos, research director, Institute of Research for Development (IRD)
Hermitage Museum (Saint Petersburg, Russia)/Wikipedia
Both the Quran and the Bible contain many passages that can be interpreted as direct calls to commit violent acts. Is it possible — and is it desirable — to limit their dissemination, especially among young people? Should they be accompanied by a specific notice? Or should one rely on the readers’ capacity for discernment?
In aop-edpublished byle Figaro, about forty personalities, including Élisabeth Badinter and the sister of Samuel Paty, have called for the ban of about ten books described as Islamist and for their removal from the platform ofPass Culture, access system to cultural activities set up by the French government for young people between 15 and 20 years old.The incriminated booksare, in this case, for the most part, alreadyavailable online for free.
But one of them, theMuwatta, particularly draws attention. It is indeed a text written by Malik ibn Abbas, an imam of the 8th century at the origin ofMaliki doctrine. However, this current of thought constitutes one of thefour canonical schools of Sunni Islam, along with the Shafi’i, Hanafi, and Hanbali schools. Additionally, theMuwattais considered the oldest treaty of Islamic jurisprudence and one of themain sources of reference for hadiths, the words of the prophet.
Specific Passages from the Quran and the Old Testament
The petitioners accuse Imam Malik ibn Abbas of calling for murder, legitimizing stoning, and justifying the act of “beheading” apostates. On this basis, one could just as well consider restricting the circulation of the Quran. Thefifth verse of the chapter of Repentancedoes indeed invite to exterminate the polytheists: “Kill the idolaters wherever you find them,” he commands.
“When you meet the unbelievers, adds the fourth surah, kill them until you make a great carnage.”
The mujahideen will only be better rewarded. The third surah thus specifies that “forgiveness and mercy await you […] if you die or are killed fighting in the path of God.”
By continuing to read the sacred texts of the Abrahamic religions, one realizes, however, that the Bible is no less bloodthirsty. The Old Testament, in particular, is full of numerous details on how to sacrifice animals and develops a very militarized vision of the world by comparing the believer to a soldier or a mercenary. According to the count of certain authors, it would includebetween 600 and 1,700 incidents related to acts of violence.
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Literalism or the dangerous temptation to read texts “literally”
The Lord thus has an “arsenal” from which He can draw“the weapons of his anger”. The Book of Job specifies that “power and terror belong to God,” while the angel of the Eternal departskill 185,000 Assyrianswho wanted to attack the Jews.
In theFirst Book of Psalms, the Lord is a weapon of combat serving a xenophobic and supremacist struggle that aims to enslave foreign and unbelieving peoples. He pursues His enemies, reaches them, annihilates them, and “breaks” them. He “exterminates” those who hate Him, “crushes them like dust,” and “tramples them like street mud” to place Israel “at the head of the nations,” subjugate other peoples, and obtain the obedience of the “sons of the foreigner.”
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A God without pity?
The God of the Old Testament is all the more resolute because He does not want to have “pity on any of these wicked unbelievers.” In theBook of Isaiah, for example, he dips his sword in the “blood of lambs” to punish peoples doomed to extermination and to unleash his anger “upon all nations.”
“He delivers them to slaughter. Their dead are discarded, their corpses emit stench, and the mountains melt in their blood.”
In theFirst Book of Samuel, the Lord commands the people of Israel to go punish the Amalekites, a tribe of nomads accused of having tried to hinder the departure of the Hebrews from Egypt. The memory of this cursed race must be erased and none spared:
“You shall put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle large and small, camels and donkeys.”
In the Book of Jeremiah, God commands todestroy “the sons of the East”, in this case the populations of the Arabian Peninsula. He urges to plunder their tents, their camels, and their herds until their land becomes a “den of jackals, a desert forever” :
“No one will live there, no man will dwell there.”
The Egyptians and their Ethiopian and Libyan allies are not spared either in theBook of Ezekiel. Their cities will be devastated and their territory is destined to become a desert for forty years.
Of all the sacred texts of the Abrahamic religions,The Old Testament is actually the most violentif one believes counts according to which it would contain 5.3% of words referring to killings or destructions, compared to 2.8% in the New Testament and 2.1% in the Quran.
So what should be done? Should the Bible also be removed from municipal libraries and the Pass Culture platform?
What solutions – and are they needed?
The signatories of the editorial of theFigaroblame the authors of Islamist works for not having “exegesized hadiths or surahs to present what, at one time, constituted the basis of a dated, ancient religious practice, that of the Arab-Islamic Middle Ages, a warlike, expansionist, colonialist, and slave-holding society.”
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The multiple meanings of the word “jihad”
Following this reasoning, should only versions of the Bible containing explanatory notes be published to guarantee “a critical distancing,” or should a warning be inserted to inform the reader that some passages may be shocking? After many tribulations,Tintin in the Congohas, for example, beenreissued in 2023with a foreword explaining the colonial prejudices in effect at the time of the first publication of Hergé’s album. Indeed, it had been strongly criticized for its racism and xenophobia. In 2010, a Belgian citizen and the Representative Council of Black Associations (Cran) had thus unsuccessfully requested that its sale be banned. In some bookstores in the United Kingdom, from 2007, the album had been moved from the children’s shelves to the adult comic book section.
The Quran and the Bible are also books that continue to be sold, and not just sacred texts revered by believers. It is obviously important to contextualize them to have a finer understanding. But they cannot, in principle, be corrected or expurgated.
For the public authorities, the situation is all the more inextricable because it is not their place to interfere in the debates of theologians in order to impose one exegesis rather than another. All things considered, it is therefore better to leave theMuwattaon the Pass Culture platform, to recognize “the dark side of the Bible” and to learn to live together with the legacy of an extremely violent past.
Marc-Antoine Pérouse de Montclos does not work for, advise, hold shares in, or receive funds from any organization that could benefit from this article, and has declared no affiliation other than his research institution.
–ref. What to do with violence in sacred texts? –https://theconversation.com/what-to-do-with-violence-in-sacred-texts-279958