Brutal texts in the Bible vs the Koran

I read the message boards at Hannity.com on a regular basis. It is populated by Conservatives, Republicans, Liberals, Democrats, atheists and religious types.

Here's part of a thread from today.

This is an excerpt from the Koran

Quote:
[9.29] Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Apostle have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.

Can anyone defend how Islam is a peaceful religion?

and the response of course was:

Deuteronomy 13:6-10:
If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, "Let us go and worship other gods" (gods that neither you nor your fathers have known, 7 gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other), 8 do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him. 9 You must certainly put him to death. Your hand must be the first in putting him to death, and then the hands of all the people. 10 Stone him to death, because he tried to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

In other words, like the rest of the country, the folks at Hannity are divided on whether or not a Mosque should be built at Ground Zero.

I was involved in a discussion about this very thing (brutality in the Bible vs the Koran) on another message board, in which I pointed out that Christianity indeed went through a barbaric period, but has "changed" and is today more civilized. If some loon kills their wife or husband on orders from God, the rest of Christianity decries them. A lot of sects are letting in women and gay priests.

But what apparently attracts people to Islam is that it is "unchanging." Islam will never, ever, ever let women or gays do anything in that religion. And they got to stone people to death 400 years ago and they get to stone them to death today.

If you draw a sacreligious picture of Jesus sitting on a rocket or something of that nature, you may get some angry comments, but that's all. Draw a picture of Mohammed, and you'll get beaten to death.

General thoughts on the Mosque
According to some, the Mosque is actually of the Sufi sect, which is totally non-violent, as opposed to the sects of the Muslim extremists that go around stoning and killing people.

I can only fall back on my own standby - as a woman I dislike Islam intensely and it frightens me that there are actually women - Western women - who are converting to it voluntarily! But then, fundamental Christianity also emphasizes the subjection of the woman to her husband. Such women wear overly modest clothes...but I don't think they have to wear burkhas.

Another point about the mosque is of course, will it be tax free, as a religious edifice? In this day and age when New York is bankrupt, do they really want to give up the possibility of tax money from a business being there?