Manchester Lad speaks about the Koran

I thought this might be of interest...

'ManchesterLad on June 29, 2015 at 9:34 pm

Good questions John. I'm not an expert but have read a few books on the subject to try and answer the same questions for myself.

Firstly, a very useful site is http://www.koran-at-a-glance.com/ this has an English translation of the Koran arranged in chronological order.The order is important because later verses essentially supercede (abrogate) earlier verses. The peaceful verses in the Koran tend to be earlier on when Mohammed had no power, and the violence dominates the later stages when he was a powerful ruler.

The ordinary Koran has the verses arranged in order of length, utterly unhelpful for anyone trying to understand what it is saying.

So yes, the violent quotes are generally accurate and they appear in the later parts of the Koran.

One other important point I'd like to make, is that the thoroughly understandable attempt to compare the Old Testament with the Koran is not really a valid comparison. The Bible is a set of accounts of events written by men, and it pretends to be nothing else. Although it describes violent events in place never does it openly incite the reader to commit similar violence.

The Koran – in complete contrast – is the direct word of Allah. It cannot be questioned and is not an interpretation of Allah's actions. It contains numerous direct commands to followers of Islam to commit beheadings, to hate, to despise non-believers etc.

A 'good' Muslim is ordered and required to act with extreme violence towards non-believers. These orders come directly from Allah.

So if someone uses the Bible to justify killing they are using their own interpretation, one which would not be shared by many people.

Someone following direct instructions from Allah could kill an infidel and no-one can seriously argue they are not following the religion precisely. A Muslim who does not despise non-believers (for example) would technically be an apostate and could be killed by a good Muslim at any time.

A good introduction to Islam can be read in 'a self-study course on political Islam', on Kindle for about £2. I found that quite a good read.I hope this was helpful.'

From Biased BBC http://biasedbbc.org/blog/2015/06/29/start-the-week-open-thread-43/#comments