I have often heard and read of Muslims' accounts of the Koran. To say they are full of praise and admiration would be a gross understatement. The Koran is proclaimed as a work of supreme beauty, of scientific understanding yet to be surpassed even in the 21st century, as well as humanity's ultimate moral and legal guide.
Clearly, on account of its great influence as well as the billing it receives from its advocates, the Koran was a 'must read'.
And what , on reading it, did I find?
I felt I was back in the most dismal of childhood scenes; consigned to the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, being treated to repeated warnings about an imminent Armageddon, when all save those who accept the absolute Truth of the Jehovah's Witness doctrine and live by its edicts, will be slaughtered by God. Sure, Jehovah is called Allah and Armageddon labelled as Judgement Day and the Bible is called the Koran, but the message is the same horrific nonsense. Indeed, if anything, the Koranic message is even worse than that of the Watchtower. Jehovah's Witnesses have, quite arbitrarily, binned the concept of eternal hellfire for unbelievers, whereas the Koran goes to town on the unspeakable torture to be endured forever by all who doubt the Truth of Allah's word as recited to Mahomet via the Angel Gabriel.
Evidence for the absolute Truth of the Koran is not to be found within its pages. There is nothing more than bald assertion underpinned with threats and warnings. Bible stories are recycled ad nauseam. The grisly fate of those wicked folk of Noah's Day and of Pharaoh's army enjoy regular repeats; reminders of how the 'forgiving and merciful' Allah treats unbelievers.
The central and ruling obsession of the Jehovah's Witnesses is the imminence of Armageddon and the Paradise Earth due in its wake. This fantasy land of fruit trees, eternal sunshine and tame carnivores is the exclusive preserve of active and baptised Jehovah's Witnesses as well as resurrected JW thinkalikes from previous ages. The rest of humanity is dead meat. The real world of the present is but a prelude, and a prelude bound with cruel and restrictive rules.
So it is with the Koran. Sure, there are a few rules which, by 7th century standards could qualify as social progress. Women, who had previously enjoyed no legal rights, now had half the rights of men. The dumping of unwanted infants to die in the desert was outlawed, and an early social security system, known as zakat, is introduced. Many other rules and commands, later to be enshrined in Sharia, are, however, barbaric. Cutting off the hands of thieves and the go ahead for slave owners to have sex with their slaves any time they fancy, hardly accord with the UN declaration on Human Rights.
But all this is but temporary. The World to Come is far more important. To that end it is every Muslim's duty to spread the Truth of Allah's word, by force if necessary, throughout the globe whereby to purify mankind so far as possible, before Judgement Day.
So I was faced with a puzzle. How do I reconcile this ridiculous and plainly horrible book with the fulsome praise showered on it by its advocates? Perhaps, for a non Arabic speaker like me, much, if not everything, was lost in translation.
Much of the answer came through a collection of writings by ex Muslims: 'Leaving Islam - Apostates Speak Out', compiled by Ibn Warraq. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Leaving-Islam-Apostates-Speak-Out-ebook/dp/B002IC018Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1439454937&sr=8-1&keywords=Ibn+Warraq-+Leaving+Islam
Most of the contributors grew up with the knowledge that the Koran was humanity's supreme guide to life. Their childhood education had consisted of regular Koranic recitation and of committing great chunks of it to memory. The Koran repetition, however, whatever the reader's native language, had been conducted in Arabic. Its meaning had thus not been understood. When, however, they had read the Koran in their own Punjabi, Urdu, Malay, English or Turkish, the apostates had been as disgusted as I was with the content.
Leaving one's childhood sect in most of Christendom or Jewry is no big deal. It is only in the fundamentalist fringes of the Ultra Orthodox in Judaism, or the Amish or Jehovah's Witnesses in Christendom, that apostates are loathe to come out for fear of being shunned. In Islam, in those countries whose law code is based on Sharia, the penalty for apostacy is death. In those jurisdictions where Sharia does not prevail, apostacy, even amongst the moderate Muslim mainstream, often incurs shunning by friends and family.
Why am I, an outsider and a non Muslim, concerned with this topic? When I hear politicians and others, often in reaction to murder committed in the name of Islam, proclaim that Islam is a religion of peace, I fear that they are dangerously misguided. Many people in Muslim lands crave more support from the relatively free world outside the Umma. They regard the notion that, as inhabitants of another land with another culture, they do not merit the freedoms taken for granted by most of us in 'the West' as demeaning, if not racist.
Please note that my issue is not with Muslims, but with Islam. I have fond memories of many kind and caring members of my childhood Kingdom Hall congregation. It is tragic that they had been ensnared by a mind control cult that cared nothing for them. So it is with Muslims. To be raised in fear of the wrath of Allah is a condition to be pitied, not condemned.
Clearly, on account of its great influence as well as the billing it receives from its advocates, the Koran was a 'must read'.
And what , on reading it, did I find?
I felt I was back in the most dismal of childhood scenes; consigned to the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, being treated to repeated warnings about an imminent Armageddon, when all save those who accept the absolute Truth of the Jehovah's Witness doctrine and live by its edicts, will be slaughtered by God. Sure, Jehovah is called Allah and Armageddon labelled as Judgement Day and the Bible is called the Koran, but the message is the same horrific nonsense. Indeed, if anything, the Koranic message is even worse than that of the Watchtower. Jehovah's Witnesses have, quite arbitrarily, binned the concept of eternal hellfire for unbelievers, whereas the Koran goes to town on the unspeakable torture to be endured forever by all who doubt the Truth of Allah's word as recited to Mahomet via the Angel Gabriel.
Evidence for the absolute Truth of the Koran is not to be found within its pages. There is nothing more than bald assertion underpinned with threats and warnings. Bible stories are recycled ad nauseam. The grisly fate of those wicked folk of Noah's Day and of Pharaoh's army enjoy regular repeats; reminders of how the 'forgiving and merciful' Allah treats unbelievers.
The central and ruling obsession of the Jehovah's Witnesses is the imminence of Armageddon and the Paradise Earth due in its wake. This fantasy land of fruit trees, eternal sunshine and tame carnivores is the exclusive preserve of active and baptised Jehovah's Witnesses as well as resurrected JW thinkalikes from previous ages. The rest of humanity is dead meat. The real world of the present is but a prelude, and a prelude bound with cruel and restrictive rules.
So it is with the Koran. Sure, there are a few rules which, by 7th century standards could qualify as social progress. Women, who had previously enjoyed no legal rights, now had half the rights of men. The dumping of unwanted infants to die in the desert was outlawed, and an early social security system, known as zakat, is introduced. Many other rules and commands, later to be enshrined in Sharia, are, however, barbaric. Cutting off the hands of thieves and the go ahead for slave owners to have sex with their slaves any time they fancy, hardly accord with the UN declaration on Human Rights.
But all this is but temporary. The World to Come is far more important. To that end it is every Muslim's duty to spread the Truth of Allah's word, by force if necessary, throughout the globe whereby to purify mankind so far as possible, before Judgement Day.
So I was faced with a puzzle. How do I reconcile this ridiculous and plainly horrible book with the fulsome praise showered on it by its advocates? Perhaps, for a non Arabic speaker like me, much, if not everything, was lost in translation.
Much of the answer came through a collection of writings by ex Muslims: 'Leaving Islam - Apostates Speak Out', compiled by Ibn Warraq. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Leaving-Islam-Apostates-Speak-Out-ebook/dp/B002IC018Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1439454937&sr=8-1&keywords=Ibn+Warraq-+Leaving+Islam
Most of the contributors grew up with the knowledge that the Koran was humanity's supreme guide to life. Their childhood education had consisted of regular Koranic recitation and of committing great chunks of it to memory. The Koran repetition, however, whatever the reader's native language, had been conducted in Arabic. Its meaning had thus not been understood. When, however, they had read the Koran in their own Punjabi, Urdu, Malay, English or Turkish, the apostates had been as disgusted as I was with the content.
Leaving one's childhood sect in most of Christendom or Jewry is no big deal. It is only in the fundamentalist fringes of the Ultra Orthodox in Judaism, or the Amish or Jehovah's Witnesses in Christendom, that apostates are loathe to come out for fear of being shunned. In Islam, in those countries whose law code is based on Sharia, the penalty for apostacy is death. In those jurisdictions where Sharia does not prevail, apostacy, even amongst the moderate Muslim mainstream, often incurs shunning by friends and family.
Why am I, an outsider and a non Muslim, concerned with this topic? When I hear politicians and others, often in reaction to murder committed in the name of Islam, proclaim that Islam is a religion of peace, I fear that they are dangerously misguided. Many people in Muslim lands crave more support from the relatively free world outside the Umma. They regard the notion that, as inhabitants of another land with another culture, they do not merit the freedoms taken for granted by most of us in 'the West' as demeaning, if not racist.
Please note that my issue is not with Muslims, but with Islam. I have fond memories of many kind and caring members of my childhood Kingdom Hall congregation. It is tragic that they had been ensnared by a mind control cult that cared nothing for them. So it is with Muslims. To be raised in fear of the wrath of Allah is a condition to be pitied, not condemned.
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