Study the Koran?

FrontPageMagazine.com ^ | 1/20/04 | Daniel Pipes

[kattracks]

“Anyone concerned with what's happening in our world ought to spend some time reading the Koran.” Andy Rooney, the famed CBS commentator, gave this advice shortly after 9/11, as did plenty of others.

His suggestion makes intuitive sense, given that the terrorists themselves say they are acting on the basis of the holy scripture of Islam. Accused 9/11 ringleader Mohamed Atta had a Koran (sometimes spelled Qur’an) in the suitcase he had checked for his flight. His five-page document of advice for fellow hijackers instructed them to pray, ask God for guidance, and “continue to recite the Koran.” Osama bin Laden often quotes the Koran to motivate and convince followers.

Witnesses report that at least one of the suicide bombers who tried to assassinate Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf last month was reading the Koran before blowing himself up. Hamas suicide videotapes routinely feature the Koran.

And lots of non-Muslims in fact have been reading the Koran. In the weeks after Sept. 11, the book’s largest publisher in the United States reported that sales had quintupled; it had to airlift copies from Great Britain to meet the demand. American bookstores reported selling more Korans than Bibles.

All this, incidentally, was music to Islamist ears. Hossam Gabri of the Islamic Society of Boston, a group tied to a terrorism funder, considers non-Muslims trying to understand the Koran “a very good development.”

But reading the Koran is precisely the wrong way to go about understanding “what's happening in our world.” That’s because the Koran is:

· Profound. One cannot pick it up and understand its meaning when nearly every sentence is the subject of annotations, commentaries, glosses, and superglosses. Such a document requires intensive study of its context, development, and rival interpretations. The U.S. Constitution offers a good analogy; its 2^nd Amendment consists of a just twenty-seven words (“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed”) but it is the subject of numerous book-length studies. No one coming fresh to this sentence has any idea of its implications.

· Complex and contradictory. Contradictions in the text have been studied and reconciled over the centuries through extensive scholarly study. Some verses have been abrogated and replaced by others with contrary meanings. For example, verse 9:5 commands Muslims not to slay pagans until the sacred months have passed and verse 9:36 tells Muslims to fight pagans during those same months. The casual reader has no idea which of these is operational. (In fact, the latter is.)

· Static: An unchanging holy scripture cannot account for change over time. If the Koran causes terrorism, then how does one explain the 1960s, when militant Islamic violence barely existed? The Koran was the same text then as now. More broadly, over a period of fourteen centuries, Muslims have been inspired by the Koran to act in ways aggressive and passive, pious and not, tolerant and not. Logic demands that one look elsewhere than an immutable text to account for such shifts.

· Partial: Holy books have vast importance but do not create the immediate context of action. Reading the Bible in isolation gives limited insight into the range of Jewish and Christian experiences over the millennia; likewise, Muslims have read the Koran differently over time. The admonishment for female modesty meant one thing to Egyptian feminists in the 1920s and another to their descendants today. Then, head coverings represented oppression and exclusion from public life. Today, in the words of a British newspaper headline, “Veiled is beautiful.” Then, the head-covering signaled a woman not being a full human being; now, in the words of an editor at a fashion magazine, head-covering “tells you, you’re a woman. … You have to be treated as an independent mind.” Reading the Koran in isolation misses this unpredictable evolution. In brief, the Koran is not a history book.

A history book, however, is a history book. Instead of the Koran, I urge anyone wanting to study militant Islam and the violence it inspires to understand such phenomena as the Wahhabi movement, the Khomeini revolution, and Al-Qaeda. Muslim history, not Islamic theology, explains how we got here and hints at what might come next.

Daniel Pipes (www.DanielPipes.org) is a historian, director of the Middle East Forum, and author of Miniatures (Transaction Publishers).

---

[LadyDoc]

good post.


It's like telling someone to read the bible, and all he reads is the angry passages out of context...

There are a billion Muslims, and probably only a hundred thousand Ilsmaofascists...

[Diogenesis]

“Anyone concerned with what's happening in our world ought to spend some time looking up to Castro” Dan-"What's the frequency"-Rather, the famed CBS commentator said.

[swilhelm73]

Well, a few minor issues here.

1) The 2nd Amendment is *very* clear in meaning and intent just because modern judges ignore the meaning doesn't change the fact that the RKBA is a fundamental right.

2) Tolerant Islam, historically is Islam that is forced to be tolerant. The most notable examples of such are the Ottoman Turks.

They ruled an empire of Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Sunni, and Shiite religious followers with hostile Christian powers neighboring. The Timiruds under Tamerlane had conquered much of the Ottoman Empire at one point, and lost it almost immediately thanks to Tamerlane's religious extremism and bloodlust. He was known, for example, for creating piles of skulls out of Christians in Anatolia.

The Ottomans, by contrast, allowed an exceptionally lax standard of religious oppression by Islamic standard. This is, specifically, why the Timurids attacked them. With relative religious freedom and by using the religious conflicts between Christian sects to their advantage the Ottoman Empire would last nearly 500 years.

[tkathy]

"There are a billion Muslims, and probably only a hundred thousand Ilsmaofascists..."

Wahabbi Muslims constitute as much as 40% of extremist Islam, and is spreading rapidly over the world through violent madrassas and mullahs that preach murder and hatred and suicide bombers. 40% = 400 million and counting.

[2banana]

.“Anyone concerned with what's happening in our world ought to spend some time reading the Koran.” Andy Rooney, the famed CBS commentator, gave this advice shortly after 9/11, as did plenty of others.

Actually not too bad...
I can have four wives
I can divorce them at any time by saying "I divorce you" three times in a row
I can cheat any time (especially with infidels) but if she does we get to stone her to death
Hopefully, one day and soon, all women will not be able to vote, hold office or buy property
Hashish and opium are A-OK to use
Killing infidels is A-OK
Dying in battle with infidels automatically erases all my sins and gives me 72 virgins in heaven
Marrying a 9 year old is A-OK (just like Muhammad!)

[goldstategop]

The Koran, like the Torah cannot be read by itself. A vast oral tradition recorded in the Hadith and Sunna must be read along with it to fully comprehend every verse. Its ironic how Islam was influenced by Judaism into adopting an oral Koran alongside the written one.

[Ham Hock]

I always keep a copy of the Koran in the "reading room" that way, when I run out of TP I have a backup.

[OK]

Craig Winn, author of the book Prophet Of Doom:

"There is but one Islam, a singular correct view of Muhammad, his religion, and his god. It is the one found in the Qur’an and Hadith. There is no independent record of Muhammad in history from which a variant view may be drawn. The Hadith and Qur’an are the sole repository of information on this man, his times, means, and mission. The Muhammad of Islam, the god of Islam, and the religion of Islam must be as these sources present them. Prophet of Doom is dedicated to exposing Islam’s scriptures and what Muhammad had to say about himself, his ambition, religion, and god.

Islam rises and falls on Muhammad. He is the doctrine’s sole prophet, its lone founder, its god’s singular conduit. Yet the picture the Islamic scriptures paint is not flattering. I analyzed the five most holy Islamic books and spent two years studying Muhammad and his message. What I found was bone chilling. The depiction of the prophet by the most revered Muslim sources is horrendous. Nearly every page reveals behavior that is immoral, criminal, and violent. The five oldest and most trusted Islamic sources don’t portray Muhammad as a great and godly man. They reveal that he was a thief, liar, assassin, mass murderer, terrorist, warmonger, and an unrestrained sexual pervert engaged in pedophilia, incest, and rape. He authorized deception, assassinations, torture, slavery, and genocide. He was a pirate, not a prophet. According to the Hadith and the Qur’an, Muhammad and his henchmen plundered their way to power and prosperity. And by putting the Qur’an in chronological order and correlating it with the context of Muhammad’s life as it was reported in the Sira, Sunnah and Hadith, we also find that Allah mirrored his prophet’s character. Muhammad’s god condoned immoral and criminal behavior. Allah boasts about being a terrorist. He claims to have deceived men, to have stolen their property, to have enslaved women and children, to having committed acts of murder, genocide, and sadistic tortures..."

http://www.prophetofdoom.net/

[Publius6961]

There are a billion Muslims, and probably only a hundred thousand Ilsmaofascists...

You need a math refresher course, doc.
15-20% of a billion is not a hundred thousand.

(not counting overt and covert support by acquiescence.)

[Publius6961]

I always keep a copy of the Koran in the "reading room" that way, when I run out of TP I have a backup.

Ever since I was a young man and read the koran several times (still didn't make sense) I have called it mohammed's (sbuh) comic book...

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

(“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed”) but it is the subject of numerous book-length studies. No one coming fresh to this sentence has any idea of its implications.

Let me see. A well regulated militia [citizens' army by free association], being necessary to the security of a free state [from despots foreign and domestic], the right of the people [individuals] to keep and bear arms [anytime the person sees fit], shall not be infringed [controlled]

I have not had a chance to read the Federalists' Papers or other historical records, but I do remember from American History in the public schools of yesteryear the context that would make sense for the Second Amendment. How the modern socialists have bamboozled the so many to see only a government right is beyond me.

[LS]

I would add, however, that (and most Muslims don't mention this) there is a second "holy book" called the Hadith (9 vols). This is the actual sayings and actions of Muhammad as recorded by his wives and followers, and according to at least one Muslim scholar I have seen, the Hadith's words are to be viewed as "law" and carry the same scriptural weight as the Koran.

Well, well, well. In the Hadith we find out that

Muhammad sinned, and sinned "daily."

Muhammad ordered the torture and murder of several people who stole some of his camels (he ordered their eyes put out with hot nails, their hands and feet cut off, and left in the desert); and gave his consent to one of his subordinates murdering another of his subordinates.

Muhammad denied there was a Son of God (this is in the Koran, not the Hadith).

Far more than the Koran, the Hadith emphasizes war against non-believers, singling out the Jews and Christians.

Muhammad had slaves.

Muhammad had several wives, including a 12-year old.

I think that about does it as far as I'm concerned.

[Steel Wolf]

Just to get a little more acquainted with our enemies, I picked up a copy of the Koran and read it. I'm sure that in 800 AD it was considered pretty sophisticated. In 2003, it's pretty obvious that some dude pulled the whole thing out of his hat. Many people today, given enough time, could probably invent a considerably better religion than Islam.

I will say this: if you're a guy with money, Islam is the religion for you. It's good to be the king under Islamic law. If you're a woman, or not so wealthy, I'd steer clear.