Pastor's Blog

The Koran alludes to or retells (with varying degrees of accuracy) many of the stories of the Old Testament. It also presumes to give additional details to many of the stories. In one of them, for instance, Allah enables Solomon to understand the speech of birds and ants (Sura 27:16ff.). There are allusions to the New Testament also. Jesus is mentioned numerous times. He is said to be a virgin-born prophet and a worker of miracles, but he is emphatically not the Son of God. It is doubtful that Muhammad ever had the opportunity to know orthodox Christians or to read from the New Testament itself. Many of the stories about Jesus that appear in the Koran are derived from the writings of heretical Christian groups. For instance, the Koran has the boy Jesus fashion birds of clay and breathe into them the breath of life so that they become living creatures. This is taken from the second-century apocryphal Gospel of Thomas. Spencer gives numerous other examples in chapter 3.

Spencer explains what Muslims believe concerning the origin of the Koran: Muslims believe the Koran is not only perfect, but that it's uncreated. What's that mean? The Koran says that Allah has in his possession the "Mother of the Book" (13:39). And Allah made the Koran "in Arabic, that ye may be able to understand" (43:3) and tells Muhammad that "it is in the Mother of the Book, in Our Presence" (43:4). The "Mother of the Book" is, according to Islamic tradition, the Preserved Tablet, the copy of the Koran that has existed for all eternity with Allah (85:21-22). (pp. 25-26) One wonders, then, how it is that changes could have been introduced in the text. Muhammad received Koranic revelations from Gabriel piecemeal-or, as the Koran itself says, "in slow, well-arranged stages, gradually" (25:32) - for twenty-three years. But Muhammad himself was "unlettered" 97:157), and did not write down his revelations. Before he d...

Quite some time ago I posted my first installment of a review of Robert Spencer's The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran in the PIG series (Politically Incorrect Guides), published by Regnery. At the time I said there were more posts to come. (You thought I forgot, didn't you?) Here's the second in the series. Chapter 2 is entitled "What is this Book anyway, and What's in It?" Spencer does a good job of giving an overview of its contents and a history of its transmission. The word Koran means "recitation" in Arabic - a title that refers to Muhammad's reciting of the eternal divine words that were delivered to him by the angel Gabriel beginning in 610 AD. The first divine command that Gabriel delivered to Muhammad was to "recite" (sura 96). This is why there is an emphasis on the oral recitation of the Koran. Many Muslim males in fact have large portions, if not the whole of the Koran memorized. It is too bad that Muslims show ...

Robert Spencer's book really ought to be read by everyone who thinks Islam is a religion of peace and suitable for civilized society. One of the most atrocious teachings of the Koran is its view of women. It is well known that the Koran allows a faithful Muslim up to four wives. What is not as well known is that he may also resort to "those that his right hand possesses" (i.e., slave girls captured in war or bought with money). The fourth Surah (chapter) deals with women at some length. In it we read this: Marry of the women, who seem good to you, two or three or four; and if ye fear that ye cannot do justice (to so many) then one (only) or (the captives) that your right hands possess (4:3) Apparently, the faithful may even resort to these slave girls if the girls are married. And all married women are forbidden unto you save [except] those captives whom your right hands possess. It is a decree of Allah for you (4:24) And in Sura 23:1-6, we read this: Successful indeed ...

For a lesson in the hazards of not understanding the Koran, let's look at President Obama's June 4, 2009, Cairo address to the Muslim world. Filled with reverential references to the supposedly compassionate teachings of the 'holy Koran,' the speech serves as an abject lesson in the wishful thinking, self-delusion, and political correctness that pervades Western assumptions about Islamic scripture. In praising the Koran's ostensibly peaceful teachings, Obama cited verse 5:32: 'The Holy Koran,' said the President, 'teaches that whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind; and whoever saves a person, it is as if he has saved all mankind.' This sounds peaceful enough, but Obama studiously ignored the next verse (5:33), which mandates punishments for those whom Muslims do not regard as 'innocent'--punishments including crucifixion or amputation of a hand and a foot for those who fight against Allah and Muhammad. (p. 11)

I had owned a copy of the Koran for several years prior to 9/11. I had even read bits and pieces of it from time to time, a sura here and a sura there (the chapters of the Koran are called "suras"). In the main, I found the book to be utterly dull and tedious. Hence my failure to finish reading it. After 9/11, however, I resolved to read through Koran carefully in order to try to understand some of the motivation behind the attacks on our country. At the same time I read a number of other books about the history of Islam. It became increasingly clear to me that the terrorists who attacked us (and those who wish to do so now) represent true Koranic Islam. In the same way there are two types of Christians: (1) those who take the Bible seriously and seek to be faithful to its teaching, and (2) those who cherry pick from the Bible what they want to believe and practice, so it is with Muslims and the Koran. It seems to me that Osama bin Laden and those like him are seeking to tak...