How did Judaism - the non- orthodox kind - become one of the most progressive and open of religions, considering their holy text is so violent?
There is a textual basis for non-violence in both orthodox and non-orthodox religions. The Old Testament is not the only book Jews use, both Jewish movements use other books that interpret the OT in terms of non-violence In Islam however, there is the Koran and Hadith and violence is integrated into the religion (the more observant, the more violent) in our modern world. There are 1.6 billion Muslims There is no rank and file in Islam .How do you get all those people to reform? I can't see it being done from within in the modern world .