[lit-ideas] Wahhabi Koran: Saudi version

Speaking of Allah and other introjected bad daddy idols, I wonder if 
anyone has seen this article on the Wahhabi transliteration of the 
Koran. It's the Saudi equivalent of US Christian fundamentalist 
quasi-religious hate speech.

Makes me wonder whether the real enemy of human progress isn't 
superstition, but literalism.

Eric
______
[extract of 
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/653wwewi.asp]

Distortions of the text stating or implying that God has condemned the 
Jews and Christians are scattered throughout the Wahhabi Koran. Notably, 
they invert the meaning of the several verses that express respect for 
the "People of the Book," the Jews and Christians.

Thus, verse 2:62 in its authentic form states: Believers, Jews, 
Christians, and Sabaeans--whoever believes in God and the Last Day and 
does what is right--shall be rewarded by their Lord. (The Sabaeans were 
followers of an ancient religion impossible to identify clearly today.) 
In the Saudi English translation, this passage is footnoted to declare, 
No other religion except Islam will be accepted from anyone, although no 
such statement appears in the Arabic.

The standard translation of verse 3:113 reads: There are among the 
People of the Book some upright men who all night long recite the 
revelations of God and worship Him, who believe in God and the Last Day, 
who enjoin justice and forbid evil.

The Saudi translation again inserts verbiage hostile to non-Muslims. In 
the Wahhabi Koran, the upright Jews and Christians turn out to be those 
who convert to Islam: those enjoining Islamic Monotheism and following 
Prophet Muhammad and not opposing Prophet Muhammad. To repeat, where the 
Arabic text actually praises pious Jews and Christians, the Wahhabi 
English version praises only Jews and Christians who become Muslims.

The original verse 5:65 says of the Jews and Christians: If they observe 
the Torah and the Gospel and what is revealed to them from their Lord, 
they shall enjoy abundance.

The Wahhabi edition adds that, in addition to Jews' observing the Torah 
and Christians' the New Testament, both must accept the Koran--that is, 
become Muslims--which nowhere appears in the Arabic text and conflicts 
with traditional Islamic theology. Mainstream Islam treats the Torah, 
the New Testament, and the Koran as different books. Wahhabism, by 
contrast, treats the Jewish and Christian scriptures as primitive 
editions of the Islamic text.

And, inevitably, the Wahhabi Koran adds language aggravating 
Muslim-Jewish controversies. Verse 17:1 refers to the night journey, an 
out-of-body experience in which the Prophet Muhammad was taken on a 
magical steed to a site called in the standard text the farther Temple. 
The Wahhabi translation alters this to stake the Islamic claim to 
Jerusalem. It refers to Muhammad's journey by night from 
Al-Masjid-al-Haram (at Makkah) to the farthest mosque (in Jerusalem).

Contempt for non-Muslims suffuses Saudi translations of the Islamic holy 
book. It is a matter of some urgency, then, that federal and state 
correctional institutions stop allowing the use of the Wahhabi Koran in 
Islamic teaching. Every prison warden in America should examine his 
library and replace this volume with an accurate translation.

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