On Sunday night, Time for Peace played host to Hector Avalos, associate professor of religious studies, in the Gold Room of the Memorial Union. The topic for the night was “Violence and Religion.”

After seeing Avalos and William Lane Craig debate the resurrection of Jesus — a debate I felt our associate professor won — I was very interested to hear what Avalos would say in regard to violence in the name of religion. To paraphrase his statements, Avalos believes violence due to religion will necessarily follow the existence of any religion. I will not delve into the sound reasoning behind this argument. If you wish to learn more about Avalos’ point of view, he is in the process of writing a book on the topic.

Instead, I’d like to talk about the religious violence that is not often talked about or acknowledged. When the topic of religious violence is brought up in our country, too many only think of Sept. 11 or the terrorism happening overseas in Israel. Too many equate religious extremist with Islamic followers. Too many choose to ignore the religious terrorism that happens on our soil carried out by Christians.

A quiz on FaithandValues.com asks the participant to decide which of the five statements it lists “would tend to indicate that Islam is inherently violent.” The statements call for the killing of those who blaspheme their god, curse their parents and worship idols. Prophets who pretend to speak the words of other gods will also be put to death. The obvious answer to the quiz is “All of them,” something every college kid knows from multiple-choice quizzes.

Surprisingly, this is not the answer. All of the passages listed were from the Bible, not the Quran. Avalos also noted some especially violent Biblical passages.

Islam has its militant extremists, as does Christianity. Both religions have only a small minority of followers who could fall into this category. With terror attacks happening overseas on a daily basis, it’s easy to look at Islamic extremists and make hasty conclusions about the religion they claim to represent.

Islam has Hamas, and Christianity has the Army of God. One Army of God member, Paul Hill, killed a doctor who performs abortions and two of his “accomplices.”

From prison, Hill wrote about his personal crusade. “God had opened a window of opportunity, and it appeared that I had been appointed to step through it,” he recounts. In his writing “I Shot an Abortionist,” Hill goes on to explain how he committed premeditated murder. All of this happened in his god’s name.

A Defensive Action Statement was released by another pro-life group in which they “declare and affirm that if in fact Paul Hill did kill or wound abortionist John Britton, and accomplices James Barrett and Mrs. Barrett, his actions are morally justified if they were necessary for the purpose of defending innocent human life. Under these conditions, Paul Hill should be acquitted of all charges against him.”

Almost 30 signatures of anti-abortion advocacy leaders around the country appear after the statement. This includes the signature of an editor of a Christian publication in Des Moines.

On Dec. 10, 2003, Frederick Clarkson detailed the conviction of terrorist Clayton Waagner in his writing “The Quiet Fall of an American Terrorist.” Waagner was responsible for multiple anthrax threats directed at abortion clinics across the nation.

In the fall of 2001, Waagner made the FBI’s 10 most wanted list. In fact, three of the 10 most wanted were anti-abortionists that year. A letter was written by another Army of God supporter in response to Clarkson’s analysis.

“Unrepentant baby murderers, sodomites, adulterers, man stealers, pedophiles, rapists and the like should indeed cringe in the shadows at the presence of a God-fearing man, even as they would cringe before Jesus,” wrote Chuck Spingola. “I often weep over the persecution of the Christian terrorist in this country.”

Avalos pointed out that violent thought and act by a group is often directed at outsiders; it’s easy to scapegoat them.

For some Muslim Arab extremists, the United States is the scapegoat. For some Christian American extremists, the United States is the scapegoat. Both are religious groups, both are extremists. Let’s start looking at each group through the same lens.