But its not a good analogy. Christianity has a violent history, but Christianity of today is not the Christianity of the past. It was forced to get its house in order, it has been castrated and de-fanged. There are still Christian fanatics and Christian bigots, but the power of Christianity is not what it was, and it is subject to the arrows and slings, sneers, ridicule and scrutiny of a self-reflexive culture that has secularised and turns in on its former overlord in the former domains in which Christianity held most total power.
Of course in the developing world, especially in Africa, Christianity does perpetrate pernicious reactionary influence. And of course there are exceptions of influence and persuasion in the bigger picture. But not to acknowledge the state of Christianity today, from how it was in the past, is I feel, quite disingenuous.
Even the debate about the history of Christian violence in relation to Islam is skewed. The history of the crusades, for example, are widely known and condemned by secular societies that previously were the domains of Christian power. Aphrodite can post a clip from a BBC Childrens TV history show, which shows how complete this introspective condemnation is. But there is no similar introspection and condemnation of historical violence perpetrated in the name of Islam and Islamic imperialism. In fact, the mainstream view is to glorify, justify and elevate and romanticise Islamic crusades throughout history. The tendency in the West is to go along with that, for various complex reasons, partly ignorance, partly fear, partly misguided liberal sentiment.
When it comes to using Christianity as a counter example, I think we should be more honest. We should say that Christianity has a violent and bloody and bigoted history, but that its castration and neutering is a good example to how Islam can also be tamed and put back in its kennel, where it belongs. We should also say that the self-reflexivity and honest self-criticism that secularised societies carry out in regard to Christian history is another example for Muslim societies and Identity Politicians to learn from regarding their violent history.
Finally, the existence of Christian bigots and sectarians and fundamentalists in the present day presents another counter-example. On an individual basis, Christianity can be debunked through textual and cultural scrutiny. Christians can leave Christianity without fear of death or violence. Jesus Christ himself can be rejected, criticised and ridiculed, with infinitely more freedom than can happen in the Islamic world with Mohammad and the Quran and Hadith. So on an individual level, away from large historical points, and on the theological level, the existence of a secular space that Christianity has had to demur to, also has to be acknowledged. The historical, cultural and social processes that brought us to this point are valuable and must be considered; as does, in the main, Christianity's ultimate submission to them. Unless you tell it like it is, these lessons don't get applied in other spaces and domains, to other religions like Islam.
Topic: Does Islam mean Peace, or Submission, or a bit of both?