http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/020710.php
http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=A00F3895-42BB-4A7D-9FA5-4A19F3286EAD
| Symposium: A New Koran? |
FrontPageMagazine.com | Friday, April 18, 2008
The organization Muslims Against Sharia is creating a new Koran with the violent verses removed. How legitimate and wise is this action? There is an effort in Turkey, for instance, to also revise Islamic texts. What real hope can these acts offer to bring Islam into the modern and democratic world? To discuss this issue with us today, Frontpage Symposium has assembled a distinguished panel.
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Finally, Abul Kasem’s question is highly pertinent and brilliantly put: "Mr. Yuksel, please tell me why must I not trust the most celebrated exegetes of the Koran, such as Jalalyn, ibn Abbas, ibn Kathir, Maududi and so on? Are you claiming they are inferior to you, or that they did not understand the Koran?"
To this, Mr. Yuksel answers only by telling us that he has answered this question elsewhere. Great. But in a symposium discussing the reform of Qur’anic ideas and Islam in general, it would have been nice if he had deigned to favor us with his wisdom on this all-important question. And his ridiculous finger-pointing Bible quotes, which are used today by no Jewish or Christian group to justify violence, have already been well answered by Jamie Glazov. But they put the coup de grace to any hope I might have had that we will see any real reform effort coming from such quarters.
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/010398.html
Spencer's decisive rejection of Islamic reform
A symposium at FrontPage Magazine discusses an effort to create a new Koran with the violence removed. Robert Spencer, who participated in the symposium, rousingly rejects the notion that large numbers of Muslims would ever accept such a revised Koran. He writes:
Many strange things have happened in history and I would never say that Islamic reform is absolutely impossible, but Westerners are extraordinarily foolish when they harbor any hopes of it actually happening on a large scale. We need instead to focus on efforts to defend ourselves both militarily and culturally from the jihadist challenge, and to continue to call the bluffs of pseudo-reformers who intend ultimately only to deceive Western non-Muslims--many of whom are quite anxious to be deceived.That we need to defend ourselves from the Muslims, not try to change the Muslims into something like ourselves, has of course been the central focus of my own writings on the subject.
