A textual analysis investigating whether the holy Quran is more violent than Bible has revealed that violence and destruction are discussed more frequently in the Christian holy book than in the Islamic text.
It has been reported in Independent.co.uk that Tom Anderson, an American software engineer in an attempt to dispel the often- talk about argument that Islam is an “inherently violent religion,” processed the Holy books so as to find out how often savagery is mentioned.
In a blog post, Anderson put in plain words: “The project was inspired by the ongoing public debate around whether or not terrorism connected with Islamic fundamentalism reflects something inherently and distinctly violent about Islam compared to other major religions.”
Tom used ‘Odin Text’- text analytics software he had developed to analyse New International Version of both the Old and New Testaments as well as an English-language version of the Quran dated from 1957.
His software took just two minutes to read and analyse the three books. By compartmentalize words into eight emotions – Anticipation, Anger, Disgust, Fear/Anxiety, Joy, Sadness, Surprise and Trust.
The analysis found the Bible keep a tally higher for anger and much lower for trust than the Quran.
Mr Anderson summarises: “Of the three texts, the content in the Old Testament appears to be the most violent.
The Old Testament, the most violent, with approximately 5.3% of the text referring to “destruction and killing” — the Quran clocked in at 2.1%, with the New Testament slightly higher at 2.8%.
The holy Quran leads heavily in mentions of mercy — thanks partially to Allah’s title, “the merciful.”
However, he adds: “First, I want to make very clear that we have not set out to prove or disprove that Islam is more violent than other religions.