Many points raised by the author are very valid and there is a need for such Islamic civilians/scholars to come forward and express their views in public.... however, let us also face the fact that holy Quraan like may other religious texts, does contain parts where violence is justified and killing of \"infidels\" is justified. I think Muslims need to do exactly what Christians did in 17th-18th century; to extract out what is not valid in today\'s world. Violence in Quraan is not contextual, to my understanding, the whole Quraan is contextual. When Prophet did not a huge army and he was not in a position to fight the jews and arab pagans, the Quraanic verses say,\"Live amongst them in harmony\" and when the army was built up, even killing of civilians and innocent people of the city was justified by,\"Look! what we have done to the non-believers\".... The fundamental difficulty is that no muslim is ever ready to accept that Quraan could be the words of human beings and not Allah Him/Herself! Anyways, hope some of the moderates will come forward and initiate some discussion on the verses and take some of the \"contextual\" ones out so that they are not misused by the extremists.
RE:Violence and Islam
by monosyllable on Sep 02, 2005 10:52 PM Permalink
I fully agree with Harpreet that whole of Quran is contextual. When Prophet(pbuh)did not have water once for one day to do vazu, the verse suggesting alternative method"tayannum"(cleaning oneself with sand)was revealed. when one of his followers, Umar-Ibn,(subsequently the 2nd chaliph) expresseed his remorse about having killed his own daughter before he had converted,( female infanticide prevalent those days)female infanticide was banned in a verse subsequently. This is my own interpretation that Holy Quran was given by Prophet(pbuh) to cure the ills of the then existing arab society, and forge a unity among frequently quarreling tribes. this met with phenomenal success and later took the shape of arab emperialism. That this was the word of God is as true as christ was born to a virgin or Ganesha had an elephants head. But atleast Quran is the great word of a great man, who used it for social reforms and political unity, and I don't see why accepting it involves a loss of face for the muslim world.
RE:Violence and Islam
by naveed on Sep 02, 2005 12:55 PM Permalink
Mr. Harpreet...before writing that "quran can not be words of god" did u give it even a small thought? do u know that quran has the qualities that not other book has ever had neither will have.Can u memorize even 10 page book word by word but quran 1 400+ page book can be memorised by a 5 yr old word by word.and all the refrences taken from quran about this world have proved to be correct.so Mr before writng such comments try to look in to the things first.
