 While numerous scholars explain Quranic phrases on violence to be only in the context of a defensive response to oppression; violent groups have interpreted verses to endorse their violent actions and made the Quran's teachings on violence and war a topic of vigorous debate.Charles Matthews writes that there is a "large debate about what the Quran commands as regards the "sword verses" and the "peace verses".According to Matthews, "the question of the proper prioritization of these verses, and how they should be understood in relation to one another, has been a central issue for Islamic thinking about war."