There is no question that professing Christians have committed atrocities in the past, most notably during the Crusades and Inquisition, but in doing so, they fundamentally violated both the teaching and example of Jesus. In contrast, professing Muslims who are committing atrocities around the world can find ample justification for their behavior in both the teaching and example of Muhammad.

I don’t deny that pockets of fringe “Christian” groups can be found that espouse racism and violence, but they are not mainstream in any country today, nor do they have the support of any major religious bodies.

In contrast, Islam has a plethora of such groups, from Hamas in Gaza to Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, from the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan to al-Qaida worldwide, and from the ruling Muslim majorities in Iran and Sudan to the followers of fundamentalist Muslim preachers in American and the U.K.

And in the most conservative Islamic countries, a deadly riot could be set off by the mere accusation that Muhammad had been blasphemed or the Quran defaced. There are no parallels to this in any Christian-based country in the world.

Here are some clear contrasts between the faiths.

First, while the Christian faith has biblical principles for living and can look to Old Testament law for ethical precedents, it does not have a comprehensive legal system. In contrast, Islam has Shariah law, with all its draconian punishments and requirements.

Second, in countries where Christianity is the dominant faith (which doesn’t mean, of course, that all the people are truly Christian), there is widespread religious liberty and certainly no death penalty for conversion to another faith. In contrast, in countries where Islam dominates, conversion to another faith is normally illegal and in many cases punishable by death.

Third, since there is no Christian equivalent of Shariah law, there are no Christian judges imposing religious sentences on the populace. (Often, there is little or no difference between a religious court and a secular court in Muslim nations.)

Consequently, it is impossible even to countenance a “Christian” judge or court imposing a sentence on a former Christian that would resemble what the Sudanese, Islamic judge has recently imposed in the case of a Christian woman who has been sentenced to 100 lashes and the death penalty for her alleged apostasy and adultery. (The adultery charge comes as a result of her being married to a Christian man, which the courts do not recognize as valid since her father is Muslim.)

Fourth, the Great Commission is a call to make disciples of all nations, bringing people under the lordship of Jesus through prayer, teaching and practical service. In contrast, the goal of Islam is the submission of the world to the Muslim faith (Islam means “submission,” rather than “peace”), and while Islam also relies on prayer, teaching and practical service, it can be spread at the point of the sword.

Fifth, there is a fundamental contrast between the example of Jesus and the example of Muhammad, for Muslims, the perfect model of a man. And so, while Jesus did not resist being crucified, laying down his life for the sins of the world, Muhammad fought retaliatory wars, at times beheading his enemies. Is it any wonder today that Christians are being beheaded by Muslims?

Sixth, there is a fundamental contrast between the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of Muhammad. While it is true that the words of both Jesus and Muhammad can be misinterpreted to suit people’s own agendas, the fact is that Jesus taught non-violent resistance, making famous sayings like “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).

In contrast, the Religion of Peace website notes that, “The Quran contains at least 109 verses that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers for the sake of Islamic rule. Some are quite graphic, with commands to chop off heads and fingers and kill infidels wherever they may be hiding. Muslims who do not join the fight are called ‘hypocrites’ and warned that Allah will send them to Hell if they do not join the slaughter.

“Unlike nearly all of the Old Testament verses of violence, the verses of violence in the Quran are mostly open-ended, meaning that they are not restrained by the historical context of the surrounding text. They are part of the eternal, unchanging word of Allah, and just as relevant or subjective as anything else in the Quran.”

Of course, when we speak like this, we are branded Islamophobes and told that we are misinterpreting the Quran and Islamic tradition. And to be fair, there are, in fact, Muslim theologians and intellectuals who argue that true Islam teaches tolerance, and countries like Indonesia, the world’s most populous Islamic nation, are certainly different than Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia.

That being said, there is a reason Boko Haram and al-Qaida and the various terrorist groups responsible for the murderous attacks on citizens in America in 2001 and Spain in 2004 and England in 2005 and India in 2008 and China in 2011 and Kenya in 2013 and Nigeria in 2014 – just to name a few – are all proponents of fundamentalist Islam. And they find their justification in the teachings and example of Muhammad.

A Christian equivalent to this simply cannot exist without repudiating the teachings and example of Jesus.