Reading this Atlantic Monthly article
Reading this Atlantic Monthly article about the state of Koranic studies made me recognize anew the freedom we have here in America. Offended folks may protest or try to close an exhibition that's showing Serrano's “Piss Christ.” But nobody shoots the man. In the Muslim world, the mere suggestion that perhaps the Koran isn't the unadulterated word of Allah spoken to Muhammad and recorded verbatim by his followers is enough to get you exiled or worse. Time after time, intelligent, respectable academics have been forced to flee in fear for their very lives after attempting to apply the tools of reason to the Koran.
I have a dozen books on my shelf that approach the study of Christian scripture from every angle. These include a book of Nag Hammadi scroll transcripts that contains early, pre-Canonical versions of New Testament Scripture, and a book that suggests keeping Christianity, but getting rid of God. I don't have to hide these volumes. I can buy as many copies of them as I want from Amazon.com. I don't have to worry that some fundamentalist is going to order the authors' heads cut off. Jerry Falwell might flap his flabby jowls with displeasure. Pat Robertson might close his squinty beady eyes in fevered effort as he prays for the salvation of sinful America. But (with few exceptions that prove the rule) no one's going to get killed.
That's a good, good thing.
My favorite quote from the Atlantic article, uttered by scholar Gerd-R. Puin:
“The Koran claims for itself that it is 'mubeen,' or 'clear.' But if you look at it, you will notice that every fifth sentence or so simply doesn't make sense. Many Muslims -- and Orientalists -- will tell you otherwise, of course, but the fact is that a fifth of the Koranic text is just incomprehensible.”
Highly amusing!
