The Book is also Just a Book

Dear Chowk Moderator

Please enlighten us what Mr Echoboom is trying to say. I does`nt mind even if he is abusive.

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What would have happened if the offender had drowned a Hafiz in the toilet? Would that be considered desecration of the Quran or a just a plain good deed?

I think that’s what the writer of this essay is hinting at.

Re: # 102
The Prophet IS just a MAN. The Quran its self tell Muslims that. It says not to make distinctions between Prophets and that in the eyes of Allah, all prophets are equal.

Only God is divine and prophets are just men, great men but men nevertheless. Born after being carried in the placentas of women for nine months save one called Adam.

Why the Quran cannot be desecrated



Dear Farzana Versey,
Your quote ``Forget about killing myself``, begs me to ask, `WHY you did forget`?.PRAY, why did you?.

Sincerely,

Cayenne

Re: # 48

Lokraj ji thanks for correction. Memory is failing me. It is like as Daag has said

Hosho hawaas taab-o-tawan, Daag kho chukay
Chalnay ka ab sama hai, samaan to gaya

FV-ji,

What next?

``The Prophet is also just a man?``

``Ramzan is also another 30-day weight loss plan?``

I shall await those with bated breath.

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In South Asia and Middle East, nothing moves like `religion in Danger` slogan. Few give a damn when thousands innocent die horrendous deaths. Yet, many rile and riot if even a rumor of religious offence circulates - UNFORTUNATE. Much energy and wealth is spent on EMPTY symbolism than morality and upright citizenship. This affliction is not peculiar to muslims. There are such hijras in Sikh and Hindu communities -though not as notorious.

The article (WSJ) below is for only those whose feelings have been hurt. Sorry for the long cut and paste.

Hypocrisy Most Holy

By ALI AL-AHMED
May 20, 2005

With the revelation that a copy of the Quran may have been desecrated by U.S. military personnel at Guantanamo Bay, Muslims and their governments -- including that of Saudi Arabia -- reacted angrily. This anger would have been understandable if the U.S. government`s adopted policy was to desecrate our Quran. But even before the Newsweek report was discredited, that was never part of the allegations.

As a Muslim, I am able to purchase copies of the Quran in any bookstore in any American city, and study its contents in countless American universities. American museums spend millions to exhibit and celebrate Muslim arts and heritage. On the other hand, my Christian and other non-Muslim brothers and sisters in Saudi Arabia -- where I come from -- are not even allowed to own a copy of their holy books. Indeed, the Saudi government desecrates and burns Bibles that its security forces confiscate at immigration points into the kingdom or during raids on Christian expatriates worshiping privately.

Soon after Newsweek published an account, later retracted, of an American soldier flushing a copy of the Quran down the toilet, the Saudi government voiced its strenuous disapproval. More specifically, the Saudi Embassy in Washington expressed ``great concern`` and urged the U.S. to ``conduct a quick investigation.``

Although considered as holy in Islam and mentioned in the Quran dozens of times, the Bible is banned in Saudi Arabia. This would seem curious to most people because of the fact that to most Muslims, the Bible is a holy book. But when it comes to Saudi Arabia we are not talking about most Muslims, but a tiny minority of hard-liners who constitute the Wahhabi Sect.

The Bible in Saudi Arabia may get a person killed, arrested, or deported. In September 1993, Sadeq Mallallah, 23, was beheaded in Qateef on a charge of apostasy for owning a Bible. The State Department`s annual human rights reports detail the arrest and deportation of many Christian worshipers every year. Just days before Crown Prince Abdullah met President Bush last month, two Christian gatherings were stormed in Riyadh. Bibles and crosses were confiscated, and will be incinerated. (The Saudi government does not even spare the Quran from desecration. On Oct. 14, 2004, dozens of Saudi men and women carried copies of the Quran as they protested in support of reformers in the capital, Riyadh. Although they carried the Qurans in part to protect themselves from assault by police, they were charged by hundreds of riot police, who stepped on the books with their shoes, according to one of the protesters.)

As Muslims, we have not been as generous as our Christian and Jewish counterparts in respecting others` holy books and religious symbols. Saudi Arabia bans the importation or the display of crosses, Stars of David or any other religious symbols not approved by the Wahhabi establishment. TV programs that show Christian clergymen, crosses or Stars of David are censored.

The desecration of religious texts and symbols and intolerance of varying religious viewpoints and beliefs have been issues of some controversy inside Saudi Arabia. Ruled by a Wahhabi theocracy, the ruling elite of Saudi Arabia have made it difficult for Christians, Jews, Hindus and others, as well as dissenting sects of Islam, to visibly coexist inside the kingdom.

Another way in which religious and cultural issues are becoming more divisive is the Saudi treatment of Americans who are living in that country: Around 30,000 live and work in various parts of Saudi Arabia. These people are not allowed to celebrate their religious or even secular holidays. These include Christmas and Easter, but also Thanksgiving. All other Gulf states allow non-Islamic holidays to be celebrated.

The Saudi Embassy and other Saudi organizations in Washington have distributed hundreds of thousands of Qurans and many more Muslim books, some that have libeled Christians, Jews and others as pigs and monkeys. In Saudi school curricula, Jews and Christians are considered deviants and eternal enemies. By contrast, Muslim communities in the West are the first to admit that Western countries -- especially the U.S. -- provide Muslims the strongest freedoms and protections that allow Islam to thrive in the West. Meanwhile Christianity and Judaism, both indigenous to the Middle East, are maligned through systematic hostility by Middle Eastern governments and their religious apparatuses.

The lesson here is simple: If Muslims wish other religions to respect their beliefs and their Holy book, they should lead by example.

Mr. al-Ahmed is director of the Saudi Institute in Washington.

is it OK to use a religious symbol in attempting to gain information which can potentially save lives (of muslims as well)? in this case, the desecration was most likely not done in a malicious way but to obtain information.

Re: # 95
Dost Sahib,
Very well stated and in such a short post. It is true, the US has traditionally supported right-wing Muslim activity against Soviet/Chinese Communist influence. Now the chickens have come hom to roost.

Farzana Versey:

I wish you had not used Daniel Pipes and his quotes in you article.

The views of Daniel Pipes, nominated by Bush to the board of the US Institute of Peace, are well known regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Muslims and Quran in general.

His noble views are presented here : http://www.danielpipes.org/blog

Regards

Nauman Nisar

stuka#94:

``Did Muslim fury start with Iraq? Or did it start with the bombing of Afghanistan? What about 9/11?``

Leftist Muslim fury against the US started with the conspiracry to remove Dr. Mussadaq from Iran. In the Arab world, it started when the US aligned itself with the Muslim brotherhood parties (fore-runner of Al Qaida?) and regressive regismes against Arab nationalism championed by Nasser. Religious muslims, along with the secular ones, turned against the US after its blind support of Israeli occupation and annexation of the Palestinian lands. It has been downhill from there.

``Thus, if Muslim fury is to be examined appropriately and truthfully, then the desecration of the Quran must be analysed together with the violent death of ``at least`` 100,000 Iraqi civilians, the greater majority of them at the hands of the ``coalition``, according to ``the first comprehensive investigation of civilian deaths in Iraq, published in the Lancet,`` and cited recently by respected Australian journalist John Pilger. ``

Who amongst the Non Muslim world even gives a crap about Muslim fury anymore. Muslim Fury is a constant, its just that different reasons are trotted out every few months by interested parties.

Did Muslim fury start with Iraq? Or did it start with the bombing of Afghanistan? What about 9/11?