Don't Burn Quran, Repackage and Update it

If you reform Islam, it would become a whole lot more tolerable

Balatarin
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Don't Burn Quran, Repackage and Update it
by bahmani
08-Sep-2010
 

Here's the funny thing, the Quran if you have read it, is about as perfect as an original religious text gets.

Unlike the various trans-generational translations and transformations of other religious books, the Quran was written in the same original Arabic that is spoken in most of greater Arabia today.

Written as a single poem, it has rhyme, rhythm, meter and everything you need to sing it. In fact the Quran is almost always sung mostly. Sung beautifully.

Understanding the Quran however, is an altogether personal thing. You might read the same verse as I read, and we can both disagree on the exact intent and meaning of it.

For example, (and to stay topical) you can read the verse on what to do about an adulterous woman. You might apply the stoning clause. However I could just as easily apply the clause that requires her to simply deny the false accusation 5 times publicly, and she would be free to go.

To make things even easier to misunderstand or worse, misinterpret drastically, the Quran comes complete with a set of randomly applied, arbitrary hadiths or interpretations of the various verses made by unauthorized, unregulated, or uncertified groups of men who collectively agree to call themselves "religious experts". These run the gambit from highly intelligent western-style and western-educated, to the village mollah. Anyone with a pen or a gun, can interpret the Quran and write up a hadith to explain it, it seems.

The hadiths are at once the same mortal source of utter confusion and clarity of the grand mystery and quiz of an immortal Quran. And there in lies the problem facing Islam in today's modern Western world.

Islam and the Quran with it's semi-official but altogether unofficial hadiths, now finds itself exposed of the many inconsistencies and inherent argument weaknesses, largely unbaked and not-ready-for-prime-time, reeling in an aftermath of entirely misunderstood, disastrously misinterpreted, and taking the indefensible loser position as Western cultural misanthrope.

Islam, as presented, for lack of a better word, and frankly, Islam as told through the current version of the Quran is unpresentable to a modern world in it's current form and fit. Which is why Islam often wants to change the world to fit it.

There are many many many many examples of it, and by it, I mean medieval bizarre rituals and seemingly meaningless interpretations of behaviors that simply do not fit into this Western modern world, in which many decisions are made by the increasingly godless silicon chips we drown ourselves in.

As Islam stands today, one could very easily argue that the integrated circuit violates Sharia law making all technology that uses it Haram. Actually that would make a good fatwa!

For a more realistic example that I won't mention, take the whole hejab and women's rights issue, which as an example of Islam's inability to fairly modify it's position, demands far more examination than I would even dare to undertake.

The one example I will offer up of why Islam needs to change in order to be accepted and survive, is the daily prayer.

Inarguably one of the five pillars of faith in Islam, the daily prayer, funnily enough seems to last all day long making the faithful follower an outcast, and a largely useless and unproductive member of society. If you pray as much as Islam wants you to, you're going to be out of a job in the West. Muslims are only going to be accepted in the West if they are as productive as their infidel counterparts.

The 6 daily prayer times exactly prescribed by an inexactly unauthorized "religious leader" who puts out the schedule online, requires me to pray exactly at the following time, for today (tomorrow's prayer times are different), the time zone I live in, here in the US:

Salat (Prayer) 5:32am
Fajr (Dawn prayer)6:44am
Dhuhr (Mid-day prayer)1:08pm
Asr (Afternoon prayer)4:44pm
Maghrib (Sunset prayer)7:30pm
Isha'a (Night prayer)8:44pm

To fully integrate into this society or to not, requires Western society to change around me the believer. I can handle the morning and night prayers if you let me combine them into one on either end of the day. That works for me. Because it works for everyone. Even if they don't, Christians and Jews and even atheists would do well to pray once in the morning and once at night to clear your head, and if you like, thank god for being all they can be. If they don't already. Islam can even sell that as a highly redeeming value of the package. You can see the TV ad for it.

So, everyone can do a quick "howdy do" in the morning and a "thanks for letting me live today" before you go to bed. No problem. No Argument.

However, even if I could bang them out in my legally prescribed 2, 15 minute daily breaks, and on hour for lunch hour at work, I'm not really able to mingle and socialize and make and maintain friendships with co-workers and such during the day. Being Muslim makes me not have any non-Muslim friends.

So, I am going to have to lose 3 of the day prayers right off the bat. If Islam wants me to stick with it, it is going to have to cut me some slack.

Just to allow Muslims to become part of Monday Night will require some serious re-examination, and more rescheduling.

As you can see, not only is it not easy, it's almost impossible being Green.

As this one simple example of the sheer submission that today's version of a seemingly unbending orthodox Islam shows, if you cannot let the Muslim slide on a few things like prayer, or the hejab, or diet, you are going to further alienate Muslims from Western society and culture. And by alienate I mean appearing to be an actual alien from another planet.

The current view of Islam by very real god-fearing folks in Gainesville, Florida, is proof that Islam is the one who is intolerant. Intolerant of changing it's own very weirdness, as observed by Western culture and society who sees Islam as unwilling to meet it halfway.

However, if you reform and re-interpret Islam and iron out these kinds of wrinkled areas in which Islam grates and grinds counter to the grain of Western society and culture, acceptance and tolerance of it by becomes a whole lot easier.

Sadly, Islam in almost all incarnations suffers from a general lack of humility and worse respect for people and their religions that are far more established than Islam, and have come before it.

Precisely because Islam refuses to adjust itself at this time in history, it appears to be defiant in the face of those who respond by defying it.

The fierce pride by which a Muslim will force his wife to stay at home, and his daughter to wear the arbitrarily prescribed hejab to American public school, is perceived by the Church in Florida as the sin of vanity.

And rightly so.

Because if you think you know, when the truth is that you don't really, actually, you are wrong.

An Islam that refuses to accept the good in other ways, other cultures, and other faiths, and allow the inherent god-given right of the infidel and even and especially the apostate, to choose a path other than Islam, can certainly not demand or even expect to be, included.

Most religious experts in Islam whether they be full IRI certified Ayatollahs, mollahs, muftis, or Brooklyn-bred emams, seem to be inflexible in this area of co-existence.

However this is not unusual in an organized faith, that is desperately trying to maintain and grow membership against hostile market forces, and exactly like any other religion who is unlikely to allow mass departures if alternatives to it become too popular among it's flock.

Too many Kafirs it seems, is never good for the coffers.

Balatarin
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more from bahmani
 
Ashavan

When propaganda becomes fact...

by Ashavan on Thu Sep 09, 2010 01:34 AM PDT

...it turnes to be Islam. There are many tales you have heard since your childhood about Islam, to make Islam untouchable and unquestionable.  Questioning is highly undesired in this religion, perhaps more than any other religion, since you have to submit to Allahs will and have no choice.

Once of this propaganda that Quran is exactly the same Arabic as 1400 years ago and every word and everything is exactly the same and untouched is the biggest bogus in the entire human history.

Just google for seven different versions of Quran and you will find a massive amount of information. There are 7 to 20 authentic different Arabic versions of Quran taught in Egypt to Saudi Arabia and I am not talking about dialects, but in written form.

Second go to museum and have a look at early Qurans written in Kufi and completely unreadable by common people, how the hell do you think thats going to translate exactly as the only version we all know?

Third, with a bit of research and understanding of history, you can easily find out that like Constantine collected all different versions of Bible and united them into one version by destroying all others, so did Osman. When Osman became the The Kalif, people were already turning away from islam after Mohammads death.  There was a need to collect all available sures from Mo into one united book to eliminate the contradictions and stop the fighting between Arabs. He let all the parts written on animal skins or leafs and stones to brought to him and let scholars to discuss whats real and whats unreal.  He then ordered to compile it all together and everything else was burned and destroyed.  We know from Armenian sources e.g. that there was a chapter called "Camel" that is completely missing in todays Quran. Unsual for an animal that is so important to Arabs to be missing, while other chapters as "Cow", "Elephant" exist today. Why has osman ordered to exclude that chapter? No one knows.  Read "After 1400 years" from Dr Shafa, its an amazing scientific book.

Despite all this efforts of Osman to unite all into one version, there are still different Arabic versions of Quran in todays world.

People who make this claims that Quran is unique and has exactly the same wording as 1400, are simply misinformed, simple minded and ignorant about the facts. Just a propaganda to stop questioning Quran.

Ashavan


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Kooshan

It is hard to change Islam

by Kooshan on Thu Sep 09, 2010 12:28 AM PDT

It is hard to change Islam because the genuine qoran is not touchable as
it was the case few thousand years ago with Old and ne testaments.

 

The irony is that quran offers us what we look for in it - Just like the life we live. If we look for love, we shall find and if we look for vengeance, we shall find. The choice is ours. It surely leads us in the right direction unlesswe get fooled by our ego and astrayed mind!

 


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bushtheliberator

dear bahmani,we are watching it happen

by bushtheliberator on Thu Sep 09, 2010 12:17 AM PDT

  Isn't the current struggle in Iran THE most important,and clear cut manifestation of this  Islamic "transformation " ? If the lowly Shia rise to lead Islam's transformation, then I may drop back by to ask you to consider thanking GWB for liberating Najaf.

     It's the year 2010.My own dear church is 95% Black, and

 110% Charismatic .We praise God joyously, & I love them all, even tho some of them seem overly concerned about the  threat of Darwinism, and GREATLY concerned about something called

" the Homosexual Agenda".

I'm sure Islam,as Christianity, is changing>but the change is never uniform,or very fast.


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benross

Ban Islam to do politics, it

by benross on Wed Sep 08, 2010 05:48 PM PDT

Ban Islam to do politics, it will then become a religion of faith instead of a religion of power. It might no longer be 'Islam' though... but who cares.


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Spike

Bahmani

by Spike on Wed Sep 08, 2010 05:08 PM PDT

What percentage of Muslims in the ME do you think are open to any sort of reformation?


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bahmani

seannewyork

by bahmani on Wed Sep 08, 2010 04:54 PM PDT

The green protests in Iran were not a reform of eslam. They were protests against election fraud by the losing side who happened to wear green t-shirts.

We're talking about a global reformation of eslam in which the harsh areas are toned down, and it becomes more modernized. Kind of like your average gay Lutheran pastor is today.

While eslam has a ways to go in that regard, nevertheless, this is what it needs to do if it is going to open up an innocent Gym in Manhattan. And that Gym has to allow an eslamic girl to join in on a pickup basketball game with the boys sans hejab.

Because a hejab-less girl playing with boys in a public gym is actually a right guaranteed by law here.

If eslam wants to deny the girl that right, purely by claiming it has this religious rule against her gender, even if mohammad said it himself (which he didn't) it can't actually do that. At least here in the US.

In Saudi Arabia though, girls playing basketball in public, and/or the possession of a bible is a felony.


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bahmani

Raoul and Spike...

by bahmani on Wed Sep 08, 2010 04:45 PM PDT

To Raoul1955: I'm not asking anyone to reform eslam, I'm just throwing down that this is what it will take in order for eslam to fit into Western culture and society. It is up to eslam to decide to do it or not. I don't actually care.

To Spike: glad you got the reference and link to the Spanish Inquisition and Luther's Reformation phases of Christianity. To me this is exactly where eslam finds itself today, caught between orthodoxy and strict adherence to an outdated model, and a reform movement that has not actually started. Which is uncannily around the same time frame that Christianity went through it. Hopefully this inquisition phase won't last 700 years!


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Spike

Bahmani

by Spike on Wed Sep 08, 2010 04:28 PM PDT

This is the first time I've ever seen any proposal like this and I must say, it's refreshing.  The reformation of Islam would be very difficult, and not without bloodshed.  The Christian reformation triggered extreme violence throughout Europe, but that is mostly in the past.  The last vestiges of that war can be seen in Northern Ireland, which is stumbling at long last towards peace.

 

Good luck and I think here and in Europe you'll have a receptive audience.


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MM

best way to reform Islam is 2 separate from Politics / civil law

by MM on Wed Sep 08, 2010 11:55 AM PDT

Companies in the US are willing to accomodate prayers, for example, in my previous work, a small conference room could be booked 12:00-12:30 by someone for prayers.  However, when someone tries to impose 7th century law of Shari's /Hadith on others, then you gotta draw a line and tell them where to go.

So, as the title says, we got to separate religion and its stone-age laws from civil laws by invoking the UN charter of human rights.


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masoudA

amirkabear4u

by masoudA on Wed Sep 08, 2010 12:54 PM PDT

there is no doubt that ISlam needs it's own renaissance - however a religion which has spread by the force of the sword will not but reform the same way.   I think reforming Islam needs an initial force followed by decades of education. 


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Raoul1955

To 'bahmani'

by Raoul1955 on Wed Sep 08, 2010 10:34 AM PDT

Have you presented your idea to the following governements yet?
1) Saudi Arabia;
2) Iran;
3) Pakistan:
And thousands of islamic imams across the islamic world
I do NOT think that the readers here are able to assist you with this proposal.
Please let us know of how they react to your wonderful proposal
Cheers,


  •  
seannewyork

reform islam?

by seannewyork on Wed Sep 08, 2010 07:52 AM PDT

have you been sleeping the last years.

did you see the reform movement and its complete and utter failure in iran.  that was just to be able to get a couple of freedoms.

no chance.


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amirkabear4u

masoudA

by amirkabear4u on Wed Sep 08, 2010 07:46 AM PDT

it all depends who is doing the repackaging!!!!!!!!!!????

Muslims not allowed to do this but others can.


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amirkabear4u

Sorry dude

by amirkabear4u on Wed Sep 08, 2010 07:43 AM PDT

I do not know where you been all this time, but this is already been done and the result is fanatism. Some call it mistraslation, but it could very well be deliberate additions!!!!!!!!!!  


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masoudA

Repackage?

by masoudA on Wed Sep 08, 2010 06:56 AM PDT

Try to repackage it and you be dead!!!!   That is the very problem with this religion which is nothing like what it was originally intended to be.    The biggest problem with Islam is the fact that it does not comply with the very basics of human rights.  In 1948 after ww2 the world sat together and set some very basic rules to live by and called it the 30 articles of human rights - guess which was the first country rejecting it?   Saudi Arabia - why?  because it was in conflict with ISlam!!  The world wanted to give equal rights to all genders and all faiths - something that the Sharia does not accept.  

Now good luck repackaging Islam. 


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