Posted on 06/12/2008 5:29:42 PM PDT by forkinsocket
MUSLIM scholars are working on a plan to find new followers in the Western Isles: they want to translate the Koran into Gaelic.
They hope the £50,000 project will show Muslims' commitment to Scotland and Scottish culture and promote understanding between faiths.
However, the move has received a cool reception from some Gaels, especially in the language's heartland, the emphatically church-going Western Isles.
The project has been set up by a British-based Muslim publishing organisation, the Muslim Academic Trust, which is looking for Gaelic writers and scholars who can help them translate the Koran into the language. So far, they have failed to find anyone who knows Arabic and Gaelic well enough to start work, and are instead considering setting up a translation committee to work on the text using the existing Irish Gaelic edition, along with English translations. Irish and Scottish Gaelic are similar languages.
The Trust hopes to produce two bilingual Gaelic-Arabic editions, a decorative colour edition using Celtic and Arabic calligraphy, and a simpler print edition. The translation and publication is expected to take about four years.
The work is being funded by a donation from businesses in Dubai, and the organisers also hope to receive funding from the Scottish Muslim community.
Abdal Hakim Murad, a Muslim convert and lecturer in religion at Cambridge University – who heads the trust – said: "The Koran speaks of the diversity of human languages as a sign of God's beauty and creative power, and we feel that the specific genius of each language needs to be honoured by Muslims, and that a good translation of the Koran would be an important way of bringing this about."
Murad, also known as Tim Winter, added: "We are very anxious to get this done properly and to the highest standard. Better not to do it at all than for it not to be done well."
Bashir Ahmad, the Nationalist list MSP for Glasgow, and Scotland's first Muslim MSP, said: "We want to make progress with this over the summer."
The move drew a frosty response from the main Gaelic church in the Western Isles. Rev Iver Martin, the minister of Stornoway Free Church, said: "I wouldn't have thought there would be much of a market for this. I'm not sure that a lot of Gaelic-speaking people would be inclined to read it. Of course, Muslims have the freedom to do what they want, but it's worth pointing out that in many Muslim countries, Christians do not have the freedom to freely read the Bible."
But others have welcomed the move. Western Isles MP, Gaelic-speaker Angus MacNeil, said: "It sounds like a good idea. I have never read the Koran, but if they translate it into Gaelic, I will read it."
Peace be upon his arse!
Go ahead, tell the Irish that they can’t have whiskey and pubs...
Damn.
Still waiting for muslims in Mecca and Medina and Saudi Arabia in general to be accepting and welcoming of non-muslims.
Oppose Islamic imperialism.
No need to be unreceptive. This is merely the Western side of the exchange program, while Catholics in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Syria freely work on an Arabic version of the Bible.
There be nae god but allah?
My Mother’s family came from Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides. The thought of Muslims invading that Island is really sad. Hopefully they never will succeed.
My family roots are in the Scottish borders. As an American of Scottish descent, this burns me.
Oh I see a great opportunity...
I think some Gaelic writers and scholars should jump on this one. A few words mistranslated here, there and everywhere would be hilarious. The possibilities are endless, lol.
“..accepting and welcoming of non-muslims.”
Am I missing something? Did hell just freeze over? The likelyhood of Muslims welcoming non-Muslims in Mecca is as remote as the West growing a spine and telling these barbarians to go back to their hellholes.
Will they translate passages about killing infidels and Jews into Gaelic?
William Wallace and Robert the Bruce just sat up in their graves.....
My understanding is that Scots (living in Scotland) are among the most left wing individuals in the Western world so they should take nicely to the Religion of Pieces.
Talk about absolute, complete cultural tone deafness!
Gaelic is spoken now almost exclusively in the Western Isles and Skye and points nearby on the mainland.
The Western Highlands and Islands -- with the exception of a couple of Catholic pockets like Barra -- are the stronghold of the most doctrinaire, hard-core, take-no-prisoners Presbyterians - the "Wee Frees". These guys pretty much adhere to the Two Johns' (Calvin and Knox) ideas on enforcement of religious uniformity, although they haven't burned anybody at the stake lately -- to my knowledge.
Example: George MacDonald Fraser once asked one of his Wee Free soldiers how he could bring himself to kill Japanese on a Sunday. The soldier replied that it was a work of necessity and mercy.
The nitwits from Dubai are walking into a buzzsaw. I'd love to have the popcorn concession.
But this is the Western Isles!!!! These folks are emphatically NOT liberal, certainly not in their religion.
The thing about Ireland is that everyone’s invaded it, and they’ve all become Irish. I just got back from there, and it was wonderful. Everyone always asks, “are you Irish/’, but then you start to realize that they’re all originally French, Germanic, Viking, English, Welsh, Spanish or whatever, but they’re all more Irish than each other. It’s like invading Russia. They just feed you Guiness till you settle down and get over yourself.
I wonder if these Koran beaters know what “pog ma thon” means?
Aside from the area around Mecca and Medina, the "Arab world" was mostly Christian (and part of the Byzantine empire) when Muhammad was born.
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