Knowledge of Qur’an refutes extremists

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/05/2017 (3065 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — Right now, there are more than 1.6 billion Muslims on Earth fasting every day from sunrise to sunset. That’s right, it’s Ramadan.

While Ramadan is known for the fasting that Muslims undertake, what many might be unaware of is the other equally fundamental significance and focus of Ramadan — the Qur’an.

Ramadan is the month in which Muslims believe the revelation of the Qur’an — considered to be the verbatim Word of God — began. The Qur’an itself states as much, and declares that Ramadan is a time during which recitation and study of the Qur’an should be emphasized.

That’s why right now all Muslims worldwide, including more than a million in Canada, are reading and pondering the Qur’an daily, verse by verse, chapter by chapter.

At a time when mistrust and suspicion of Muslims is as high as ever in Canada — caused by groups such as the Islamic State, whose heinous attack in Manchester, England, this week has reverberated throughout the world — this might be as good a time as ever for Canadians to open up a Qur’an and see what exactly their Muslim neighbours are studying so intently.

The Qur’an’s overarching declarations that “whosoever takes a life … it is as if he has killed all mankind” (Chapter 5, Verse 33), and that “there is no compulsion in matters of faith” (Chapter 2, Verse 257) lay the axe to every act of terror or violence ever committed in the name of Islam, by the mullahs and their followers.

These two verses alone, if stressed enough in the West, would greatly help to change the perception of Muslims and Islam, as well as fix the misconceptions of misguided Muslims who take their cues more from the corrupt clerics than the Qur’an itself.

It’s this neglect of the Qur’an as a primary source and over-reliance on imams, some of whom may be politically charged, that opens the doors to atrocities like the Manchester attack.

A lot of the misconceptions that persist in the West about Islam spring from attributing the violence and horror committed by terror groups to the Qur’an, when in reality it is due to a sheer lack of knowledge of the Qur’an’s actual contents.

In 2015, the outspoken critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s latest media tour in Canada centred on reforming the Qur’an, claiming that it is the message of the scripture itself which needs to be fixed, not some small faction of extremists who’ve corrupted it.

Commenting on this tour, National Post columnist Conrad Black called the Qur’an “draconian.”

For someone who has read the Qur’an so many times, it’s a little debilitating seeing so much misunderstanding about the Qur’an in the West, where knowledge and inquiry are cherished so much.

But the interesting part is that ignorance of the Qur’an’s actual message is not just a non-Muslim phenomenon. In reality, many Muslims, especially young Muslims, are also unaware of the true message of the Qur’an, relying instead on imams and clerics to teach them whatever spin of it they like.

A Western writer on Islam, Lezley Hazleton, author of “The First Muslim,” states so eloquently in her now world-famous TED talk on the Qur’an that “the fact that so few people do actually read the Qur’an is precisely why it’s so easy to quote — that is, to misquote. Phrases and snippets taken out of context in what I call the ‘highlighter version,’ which is the one favoured by both Muslim fundamentalists and anti-Muslim Islamophobes.”

Bingo.

The solution to both of the competing problems right now in the West regarding Islam — the increase in radicalization and the rise in anti-Islamic sentiment among non-Muslims — is one and the same: knowing what the Qur’an actually says.

Knowing what the Qur’an actually says is a powerful disarmament for any youth at risk of falling under the sway of an ideological recruiter who paints a glorified and falsified picture of a violent jihad that does not exist.

And it’s a powerful eye-opener to those who have misgivings about the Qur’an while having never read it.

You might be surprised to see what you find. Famous singer Cat Stevens once said “when I read the Qur’an further, it talked about prayer, kindness and charity.”

That’s a far cry from terror and violence.

» Ahmed Sahi is a freelance writer and journalist based in the Greater Toronto Area and is a blogger for the Huffington Post. He is former chief editor of Muslim Writers of Canada. His column was also recently printed in the Winnipeg Free Press.