Misunderstanding the Quran
In my article Mistranslating the Qur'an, I listed three kinds of Muslims depending on how they read the Qur'an:
- An innocent Muslim dupe who has limited knowledge about the Qur'an.
- Someone who knows precisely how to hide from non-Muslims the barbaric portions of the Qur'an - those portions as practiced in real Islamic nations such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
or
- A well-meaning, knowledgeable Muslim who cannot bear to see the true face of Islam and mistranslates the Qur'an in the most favorable light possible because he cannot believe his religion to be evil.
or
Today we will discuss category 1, Muslims who never read the Qur'an, or having read it, simply misunderstand what it means. These are generally harmless Muslims.
But first, I need my readers to consider the following Chinese joke in order to understand the concept of a simple misunderstanding.
Chinese Wedding Night
A young Chinese couple gets married. She's a virgin. Truth be told, he is a virgin too, but she doesn't know that.
On their wedding night, she cowers naked under the sheets as her husband undresses in the darkness.
He climbs into bed next to her and tries to be reassuring. 'My darring,' he whispers, 'I know dis you firss time and you berry flighten. I promise you, I give you anyting you want, I do anyting - juss anyting you want. You juss ask. Whatchu want?' he says, trying to sound experienced and worldly, which he hopes will impress her.
A thoughtful silence follows and he waits patiently (and eagerly) for her request.
She eventually shyly whispers back, 'I want to try someting I have hear about from odda girls.... Numbaa 69.'
More thoughtful silence, this time from him. Eventually, in a puzzled tone he asks her....
'You want...... Garlic Chicken wif snow peas?'
Yes, even Chinese can be confused about their own culture. So it is with many Muslims.
They read the Qur'an but do not understand what they read. They read Sura 3:30: "Allah is Compassionate towards the people," and then go about life with the mistaken notion that Allah is compassionate toward all of mankind which of course is patently untrue. The people referenced in Sura 3:30 are Muslim people only. One only has to skip two verses to get to Sura 3:32: "Allah does not love the infidels."
A simple misunderstanding.
Of course there are many Muslims who understand the Qur'an perfectly well: that Allah does not love unbelievers and even more: that unbelievers must be subjugated, converted or killed.
Fortunately, most Muslims cannot read, and of those that can read, the majority cannot understand the original Arabic, and many of those who do understand Arabic close their eyes to the evil they read.
Unfortunately, that still leaves millions of Muslims who do understand the Qur'an.
Fortunately, 99% of them do not live in Western countries.
Unfortunately, this still leaves many infidels who live in Muslim countries where they are hacked to death, burned, beheaded, and buried alive.
