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another Christian reads the Quran

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rafsta:
Unlike the Bible, the Quran is not a collection of books or stories, but a collation of utterances supposed to have come from Allah through Mohammed. Consequently it is very repetitive - so much so that it can start to feel hypnotic after reading a lot at once.

The Quran begins by saying that we can all live together in peace, and sounds like universalism (all religions are one type thinking). However it very soon becomes apparent that this is not so. Islam is a very exclusive religion. Only muslims are accepted.

At the heart of Christianity is Jesus. Or put another way, Jesus is the heart of Christianity. The Quran does not say very much about him. Most of his life is skipped, and what is recorded is very much different to the Bible and reads like some-one wanted to deliberately minimise and downgrade his importance.

The Quran states that just minutes after being born Jesus made an eloquent speech in which he strongly iterates that he is a muslim.
This directly contradicts the biblical accounts, in which the birth of Jesus is heralded by others as the fulfilment of prophecy and he does not make any speeches.

The death of Jesus is not recorded in the Quran - it is not believed that he died. While this can appear to be an attempt to make him appear very holy, it is really about removing the central message of the gospel. It also fits with Mohammed's agenda of using arms and force. A prophet who was slain by the opposition was not a role model he wanted to put in front of people. He was looking for recruits who were willing to fight to achieve or defend his objectives.

There are a number of changes to biblical stories in the Quran. It reads like a type of plagiarism, in which characters and story outlines have been taken from elsewhere and then amended to suit the motives and designs of the author. An example of this is changing the story of Isaac and Ishmael. In the Quran it is Ishmael who becomes the chosen one, and thus those descended from him are the chosen people. The Jews are referred to as "the people of the book", and it is purported that they did not obey Allah - therefore they are not chosen and if they do not convert to Islam will suffer a dire eternal fate.

This leads to another interesting point. For while there are those who may find descriptions of hell in the Bible difficult, the descriptions of those who are "thrown face first" into the fire in the Quran are far worse. Christians and Jews are especially singled out in connection with this.

The story of Joseph is very altered. In the Quran he is not thrown into jail after being falsely accused of attempted rape as the Bible relates. The Quran has him immediately vindicated and all the women of the court apologise to him. Again Mohammed did not want a story in which a man appears denigrated or without victory at any time. The parallel theme of women being innately untrustworthy and irresponsible runs throughout the book. Women are both idolised as pillars of virtue on the one hand, and viewed as troublemakers who must not be trusted on the other. Thus the Quran states that a husband should beat his wife for "trouble-making". The Quran does not contain the women of faith found in the Bible. There are no Ruths, Esthers, Deborahs, or Marys of Magdala in Islam.

It is known that Mohammed married a much older widow, and that he had twelve wives. It is not difficult to see how his own predispositions are added into the Quran, so that a man may have more than one wife - the Qu'ran specifies he may have up to four wives. Or as a colleague said to me, "so it was O.K. for men to be lustful then".

My biggest question in reading the Quran was whether or not it supported jihad in the way we have seen it expressed through terrorism. I had heard leaders of nations, including the US, saying it does not. In fact, it does. There are passages which advance self-defence. There are also passages that advance offensive measures against anyone opposing Islam, which Mohammed was spreading through force and manipulation. Muslims are told to fight opponents of Islam "wherever they are". The demands on his followers were extreme. The Quran allows for two options in conflict - victory or death. Surrender is unacceptable, and is a sin against Allah. In other words, a man must fight on even if the mission is suicidal. A martyr will go to paradise. It isn't hard to see how this has been developed by terrorists in the modern day context.

http://allthings2all.blogspot.com/2004/09/why-i-read-quran.html

rafsta:
Infinite, how can you worship a false God ? how can you study a book that a man created to help him wage war and helped him create dedicated soldiers ?

rafsta:
more importantly, how can you support a book which condones violence ?

follow your own beliefs, not some book written by some dude.

ZILLA THA GOODFELLA:
haha I already knew every word of that article, I just don't like arguing about this shit no more, you'll never see the end of it with Muslims.

J Bananas:

--- Quote ---follow your own beliefs, not some book written by some dude.
--- End quote ---
thats a pretty bold statement coming from a Christian, maybe even too bold.

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