Spengler Essay Refused; Now Spengler Forum Is Down

The Asia Times ^ | 2006-10-17 | "Spengler"

[Cicero]

That's a famous one. Muslims don't like to be told that they will only get 72 raisins in paradise.

Also, of course, strict Muslims will simply deny that the Qran was ever written in any language other than Arabic. And it's difficult to refute them. The problem is that this kind of approach is reduced to speculation about what the original text may have said, or even that there was an original text, absent the actual existence of such a text.

The same is true with the New Testament. The gospels may have first been written in Aramaic, but the Greek is what we have. And most Jews in the time of Jesus spoke Greek, the international language of the time, as well as Aramaic, so it could have been the original of the gospels.

Of course it's more of a problem for Muslims, because they believe that God dictated the Quran to Muhammed, word for word, in Arabic, whereas Christians accept that Jesus could have given the Sermon on the Mount in Aramaic, and the Gospel writers could have set it down in Greek or Aramaic. It was not dictated to anyone directly, but God simply ensured that there were no errors in the Bible as it came to be set down--quite a different matter from direct dictation.

So, it may be more fruitful to discuss whether the Quran as it is written calls for spreading Islam with the sword and violence, making forcible conversions and killing those who refuse to convert, and whether that is rational behavior. Or, in other terms, whether a God who is said to demand such behavior can be a good or a rational God. Or is Allah, as Muslims themselves seem to say, a purely arbitrary God of power who gives no fragment of free will or of choice to his human creations.

The God of Christianity allows free choice. And it is generally agreed that the good is what God says it is, but also that God says it is good because it is, in fact, good--a point that Socrates argues with Euthyphro. And the God of Israel also allows choice, as in the great choice set down in Deuteronomy. Choose to obey God and the Covenant, and to be blessed, or choose to disobey God and the covenant, and be cursed. But there is a choice. With Islam there is no choice. Inshallah, everything happens according to Allah's will.