5 Things I Didn’t Know About Islam
by The Monkey on 09/22/09 filed under religion
Being raised Protestant Christian (and then transitioning to militant agnostic / atheist), I’ve never been exposed to the Islam religion in depth. I deeply regret this. Until recently I’ve been largely unfamiliar with the reasons behind some of their beliefs and actions that we read about in the news. I decided to start learning more about what it is to be Muslim.
I started watching National Geographic’s “Inside the Koran” (a two-hour documentary) to learn more about Islam, the Koran (Qur’an), and the beliefs of various sets of Muslims. I’ve learned a lot in a short period of time.
Five things I didn’t know about Islam and the Qur’an
- The Koran is God’s word, dictated to his profit Muhammad bit by bit over the course of 23 years until the prophet’s death. Muhammad was illiterate, but his memory was flawless.
- Unlike the Christian Bible, the Koran is not perceived as historical fact but rather a book of ideas to be personally interpreted by the reader. This leads to extreme variation in belief among Muslims, despite all reading from the same text.
- Different Muslim groups disagree when it comes to forms of worship and belief, much more so than different Christian groups. Examples in Islam include everything from where to worship to waging war to wearing a hijab.
- If a Muslim woman wants to go out when she wants (basically exercise free will), it is appropriate for her husband to beat her. This is currently practiced.
About 97% of female MuslimsAbout 90% of female Muslims in Egypt are subjected to circumcision as a child, many against their will. This circumcision is basically genital mutilation and is not condoned by all Muslim scholars. But its practitioners believe this makes a woman more pure than those in the West, who “go out and lay with any man she wants.”
At the time of this writing, I was only about half-way through the documentary (and I likely haven’t fully digested what I have watched).
Ron Low
Sep 23rd, 2009
Your number for percent of Islamic females with mutilated genitals is WAY too high. That might have been cited for a specific region, not globally. The global rate of male genital mutilation (circumcision) is not even that high among Jews, let alone Muslims.
Since genital cutting for either gender is not mentioned in the Qur’an, many Muslims prefer to abide by the Qur’an’s edicts that the body is made perfect by Allah and needs no alteration.
The Monkey
Sep 24th, 2009
Hi Ron, you may be right in saying this number refers to a specific region. The documentary didn’t say explicitly, but I am guessing it refers to eastern practices and not global.
Interesting, uuh, website you have there.
World Peace
Sep 24th, 2009
Dear all
Discover the truth about Islam
http://www.theradiantlight.blogspot.com
Thank you
Ted
Sep 24th, 2009
So does anyone have any concrete evidence?
khany
Oct 1st, 2009
“facts” 2,3,4 and 5 are wrong.
#2 – the qur’an is a book of guidance. it contains historical narrative, prayers, advice and admonition, laws, descriptions of nature, theology, description of nature, human condition, etc.
#3 – there are many muslims groups and there are several differences of opinions between them. however making the claim that muslims are more fragmented than christians is completely unfounded. how does one measure? in fact the articles of belief (god, prophethood, angels, revelation and final judgment) are shared by muslims. the differences are most often in the legal aspects of the religion.
#4 – this argument is inconsistent with the previous one. if the video claims all muslims think differently then it goes on to say that muslims beat their wives for venturing out without permission clearly there is an inconsistency.
#5 – this is another ridiculous claim. firstly female circumcism is a practice in some parts of north africa and the middle east. more than 80 percent of the worlds muslims live outside this region (e.g. in south and south east asia) where this practice is completely alien.
clearly this video should not be used to build one’s understanding of islam.
peace
numreen
Oct 1st, 2009
What can i say? Being a muslim I have never read the 5 things you have mentioned about the Quran and I read it every day. I guess my sense of arabic and english is not as good as yours. When I read the quran I read about women given rights that they did not have until the Quran was revealed. For example women were seen as nothing more than sex objects. They were not considered as equals and the prophet Muhammad pbuh was the first to start women liberation. Your first point:
“The Koran is God’s word, dictated to his profit Muhammad bit by bit over the course of 23 years until the prophet’s death. Muhammad was illiterate, but his memory was flawless. ”
Yes the prophet Muhammad pbuh was illiterate, and yes his memory was flawless. This was a devine gift from Allah swt. But not mention in the Quran. This is a fact that everybody knows yet its not even mentioned in the Quran. Then how can you read this in the Quran? I think your memory is a little flawed don’t you think?
Second point:
“Unlike the Christian Bible, the Koran is not perceived as historical fact but rather a book of ideas to be personally interpreted by the reader. This leads to extreme variation in belief among Muslims, despite all reading from the same text. ”
I again agree with you. However how can the Quran be a historical fact when over 1400 years ago the Quran mention things such as how a sperm and egg is needed to implant a woman and begin pregnancy. The Quran also mentioned that the solar system and planets orbit one another and that mountains are like table pegs. These things were all just recently discovered and an illiterate person would not be able to conceive this idea now as opposed to 1400 years ago. Then how can the Quran be a historical book. Yes it does confirm the past but it also tells the future. This is just to list a few. If you truly read the quran and misunderstood it being the scholar that you are then as human beings is it not slightly possible for other people to misintrepret the quran as well? Don’t follow the extremist islam is a religion of moderation, follow the majority as the prophet pbuh said the majority of my ummah will not error. After reading the quran if your still an atheist well then you can see how different muslims practice islam different. By the way just to correct you so you don’t look stupid infront of a real scholar, the variation in islam came after the prophet pbuh passed away due to a discrepency on who should be the leader of the muslims. It has nothing to do with the Quran or the Pophet pbuh himself. I will continue your other points as well.
numreen
Oct 1st, 2009
Did you guys deleted my post because you were afraid to publish it?
numreen
Oct 1st, 2009
point 3: Different Muslim groups disagree when it comes to forms of worship and belief, much more so than different Christian groups. Examples in Islam include everything from where to worship to waging war to wearing a hijab.
Please read my point 2 as it also applies to this.
point 4: If a Muslim woman wants to go out when she wants (basically exercise free will), it is appropriate for her husband to beat her. This is currently practiced.
Oops wrong again, im a muslim girl actually responding to you from work. I am not beaten or threatened or even discouraged. I am well educated and speak my mind and do what I want. Just like 98% of other muslim women. Don’t judge islam by the minority. A few extremist unfortunately do incorrectly intrepret islam and then people like you, who don’t read the Quran lie saying that you do just further add on the ignorance of the western world.
point 5:
Abut 97% of female Muslims are subjected to circumcision as a child, many against their will. This circumcision is basically genital mutilation and is not condoned by all Muslim scholars. But its practitioners believe this makes a woman more pure than those in the West, who “go out and lay with any man she wants.”
Where do I begin with this. It’s hard to take you seriously when your just pulling numbers out of thin air. I am currently sitting in a room where 50 of the women are muslim. Yet none of us are circumsized. By your defination 48.5 of us should be circumsized. But none are. Let me clairfy this point for you again so again you don’t look stupid in the future. There are some countries in the world who are ignorant of islam but are brought up in an islamic way. Their CULTURE is to circumsize their women not RELIGION. Pardon the caps lock I wanted to make sure you understood the difference between culture and religion.
Anybody can take any fact and twist it the way they want to prove their point. And any idiot reading would believe them. A few weeks ago there was a highly religious catholic man who was arrested for raping, and holding hostage his daughter for 18 years and have 7 children with her. Does that give me the right to say all catholic men or majority of catholic men rape their daughters and have children with them? Come on if your going to make an article public check your facts.
numreen
Oct 1st, 2009
What can i say? Being a muslim I have never read the 5 things you have mentioned about the Quran and I read it every day. I guess my sense of arabic and english is not as good as yours. When I read the quran I read about women given rights that they did not have until the Quran was revealed. For example women were seen as nothing more than sex objects. They were not considered as equals and the prophet Muhammad pbuh was the first to start women liberation. Your first point:
“The Koran is God’s word, dictated to his profit Muhammad bit by bit over the course of 23 years until the prophet’s death. Muhammad was illiterate, but his memory was flawless. ”
Yes the prophet Muhammad pbuh was illiterate, and yes his memory was flawless. This was a devine gift from Allah swt. But not mention in the Quran. This is a fact that everybody knows yet its not even mentioned in the Quran. Then how can you read this in the Quran? I think your memory is a little flawed don’t you think?
numreen
Oct 1st, 2009
Second point:
“Unlike the Christian Bible, the Koran is not perceived as historical fact but rather a book of ideas to be personally interpreted by the reader. This leads to extreme variation in belief among Muslims, despite all reading from the same text. ”
I again agree with you. However how can the Quran be a historical fact when over 1400 years ago the Quran mention things such as how a sperm and egg is needed to implant a woman and begin pregnancy. The Quran also mentioned that the solar system and planets orbit one another and that mountains are like table pegs. These things were all just recently discovered and an illiterate person would not be able to conceive this idea now as opposed to 1400 years ago. Then how can the Quran be a historical book. Yes it does confirm the past but it also tells the future. This is just to list a few. If you truly read the quran and misunderstood it being the scholar that you are then as human beings is it not slightly possible for other people to misintrepret the quran as well? Don’t follow the extremist islam is a religion of moderation, follow the majority as the prophet pbuh said the majority of my ummah will not error. After reading the quran if your still an atheist well then you can see how different muslims practice islam different. By the way just to correct you so you don’t look stupid infront of a real scholar, the variation in islam came after the prophet pbuh passed away due to a discrepency on who should be the leader of the muslims. It has nothing to do with the Quran or the Prophet pbuh himself. I will continue your other points as well.
numreen
Oct 1st, 2009
Wow! Being a muslim I have never read the 5 things you have mentioned about the Quran and I read it every day. I guess my sense of arabic and english is not as good as yours. When I read the quran I read about women given rights that they did not have until the Quran was revealed. For example women were seen as nothing more than sex objects. They were not considered as equals and the prophet Muhammad pbuh was the first to start women liberation. Your first point:
“The Koran is God’s word, dictated to his profit Muhammad bit by bit over the course of 23 years until the prophet’s death. Muhammad was illiterate, but his memory was flawless. ”
Yes the prophet Muhammad pbuh was illiterate, and yes his memory was flawless. This was a devine gift from Allah swt. But not mention in the Quran. This is a fact that everybody knows yet its not even mentioned in the Quran. Then how can you read this in the Quran? I think your memory is a little flawed don’t you think?
numreen
Oct 1st, 2009
sorry i have an entire post ready but this site isn’t allowing me to post, and its coming all mixed up.
Sara
Oct 1st, 2009
Numreen, I don’t appreciate the insinuation that we were “afraid” to publish your post. If you look at many of the blogs posts on this site, you’ll find plenty of comments that disagree with us. Why on earth would we mysteriously delete yours?
Your original posts showed up as spam, which happens occasionally. I would have corrected the problem earlier, but during the week, I’m not able to moderate the posts until 4 or 5 pm (after work). Once I got home today, I went through and approved every new post I saw here.
In the future, please have a little patience.
The Monkey
Oct 1st, 2009
Hi everyone, I am the author of this post. Thanks for your input! I have learned a lot from your comments. I’d like to explain some of my original five bullet points.
#2 is a broooaaaddd statement. I don’t know how anyone can pinpoint it to be wrong. A few commenter alluded to the fact the Koran is a book of guidance and is open to interpretation. This naturally leads to different interpretations among its readers (as with Christianity)… that’s all I’m trying to say. Is anyone reading this a Muslim terrorist? Well then…
#3 I should not have compared Islam to Christianity, to khany’s point. There are differences in every religion. I tried to touch upon a few I had not heard before.
4. This is straight from the episode. Why would I not believe an outfit like National Geographic? I trust they’ve done their research.
5. Again, this came right from the episode. The ‘97%’ has come under fire as well, but why would I make it up? I knew nothing of bullet point #5 until I watched Nat Geo’s show.
The Monkey
Oct 1st, 2009
Please re-read my post. I’ve never read the Koran nor do I claim to have.
The Monkey
Oct 1st, 2009
@numreen – I am glad you stopped by to comment on and correct some things in the post. It has truly been a learning experience… with most of the comments. If you revisit our site, I hope you chose your words differently. You were quite insulting in many cases, despite being inaccurate yourself and offering no sources for your claims (for all I know, you could be stating your own personal interpretation here).
In the future, please read the post more carefully. You’ve taken much of this post out of context (see above, I’ve never read the Koran) and responded rudely. I hope you exercise more ‘blog etiquette’ in the future.
Cheers!
thegrayone
Dec 17th, 2009
I too wanted to learn more about Muslims. I read many web sites. It is a very scary religion. The very name means ’submission’ to the will of God and since He is not around, the man of the house. Men are in charge, completely. Women are completely subservient to the will of the men in their lives.
Look at Muslim web sites (American Muslim, the largest is CAIR) especially the forums where Muslims ask questions of the Mullah for a real eye opener.
Many times they say how the Koran talks about be kind to all men etc. The Koran is talking about all men who are Muslim !! Everyone else is an infidel, not worth the dirt on your shoes !! Look up Dimmini on Google.
Finally, you don’t see crazy, fanatical Christians going around blowing themselves up, chopping peoples heads off and declaring war on the whole of western civilization !!
The best thing I read is if you know someone who is a Muslim you should feel sorry for them. They are living in the past. Like the middle ages. Like the early Christian church before the reformation.
Well, talk is cheap. blah, blah, blah. That’s my two cents anyway.
I could go on and on telling you things that stuck in my mind but I won’t. Most of my reading was done about two years ago.