Well said

Submitted by Olcay (United States), Jun 23, 2011 at 18:12

I agree for the most part about this article. Islam, if it was widely understood, would not be as popular a religion as it is today.

I grew up in Turkey, my parents tried to raise me "religion-less". But Islam was taught at school. Quran was everywhere, prayer was all around, the name of Allah is in everyone's lips. Everyone has a Quran somewhere high and safe, hung on walls in pretty handmade bags, only to be dusted every once in a while. Until I was in college, I didn't know what Islam was really all about. At elementary school, they made us memorize Arabic verses, not knowing what it is really saying. This was called learning the religion !!! It just sounded like a mystical nice tune, coming out of lips of a man with a cape, apparently to look big and intimidating :) And we were intimidated, I remember having confessed to being Muslim at school more than once, even though I was not!

You have to have a particular interest in learning Arabic to learn this religion. Meanings are lost in translation, when you read it in Turkish, it almost sounds absurd in its message. Maybe this is why, anytime someone says daily prayers should be announced in Turkish, religious leaders oppose. If only people could read it, they would also realize that it's mostly like a law book. It lays out inheritance, marriage, trade laws etc. And then every other sentence says " god is great". A lot in it is not applicable to today.

And examples prove, a law book written close to 1500 years ago, cannot really answer today's society's needs. Like the verse that allows a man to divorce his wife just by saying I divorce you 3 times. Now, people are going to be discussing if text messaging this instead would still apply. How absurd!

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".