Can't see the forest for the trees - reply to Jason

Submitted by David John (United States), Mar 14, 2006 at 11:36

Come, come, Jason; you're not suggesting that all the barbaric practices of Islam originate in hadiths and fatwas only and not in the Koran itself, are you ? That's going too far.

True, the practice of stoning for adultery has no Koranic justification, the punishment there recommended being 100 lashes; sura 24.2-4 'the woman and man guilty of fornication, flog each of them with 100 stripes; let not pity move you in their case.' Tradition has it that it was Aisha, the prophet's wife, who remembered that there had been a sura recommending stoning but it had got lost, only to be reinstated by later hadiths. But other than that .....Amputation, see sura 5.38 'as to the thief, male or female, cut off his or her hands.' Crucifixion, sura 5.33 says 'The punishment of those who wage war against God and His Apostle, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land.' Women to be immured for the offence of 'zina' - sura 4.15: ' If any of your women are guilty of lewedness, take the evidence of four witnesses from amongst you, and if these bear witness, then keep the women in houses until death release them, or God shall make for them a way.' On jihad see suras 9.5-6; 4.76; 8.12; 8.32-42; 2.256.

Some samples: 'Kill those who join other gods with God wherever you may find them.' (9.5-6) 'Fight then against them till strife be at an end, and the religion be all of it God's.'

I like your comparison of the Jesuits and the Inquisition with the Wahabis and Al Qaida. And when you mention evil, is not this the crux of the problem with the Koran, that it is completely devoid of ethics, of morality. There is no 'good' or 'evil' as abstract concepts, the only 'good' being blind obedience to obscurantist rules and regulations while 'evil' is anything that challenges or disobeys...

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