Muslim blind faith

From Opinion Journal BY IRSHAD MANJI

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Sound familiar? In the days following September 11, Muslim spokespeople mouthed the mantra that the Koran makes it absolutely clear when jihad can and can't be pursued, and the terrorists unquestionably crossed the line. To quote a Muslim American scholar who typified this perspective, Allah "says in unequivocal terms that to kill an innocent being is like killing entire humanity."

Wishful whitewashing. The Koran verse that's cited as "unequivocal" actually bestows wiggle room. Here's how it fully reads: "We laid it down for the Israelites," meaning those who believe in one God, "that whoever killed a human being, except as punishment for murder or other villainy in the land, shall be regarded as having killed all mankind." Sadly, the clause starting with "except" can be deployed by militant Muslims to fuel their jihads. That's precisely how Nicholas Berg's executioners justified their travesty.


Which means religion is no innocent bystander in the violence perpetrated by Muslims. Just as moderate Christians and Jews acknowledge the nasty side of their holy texts, modern Muslims ought to come clean about how our sacred script informs terror. One can argue that certain passages are being politically exploited--and, indeed, they are. The point is, however, that they couldn't be exploited if they didn't exist.

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Moderate Muslims, like moderate Christians and Jews, shouldn't be afraid to ask: What if our holy script isn't perfect? What if it's inconsistent, even contradictory? What if it's riddled with human biases? As an illiterate trader, Prophet Mohammed relied on scribes to jot down the words he heard from God. Sometimes the Prophet himself had an agonizing go at deciphering what he heard. What's wrong with saying so?

What's wrong with not saying so is this: If we Muslims can't bring ourselves to question the peaceable perfection of the Koran, then we can't effectively question the actions that flow from certain readings of it. All we'll be doing is chanting that the terrorists broke the rules, without coming to terms with where they got their concept of "the rules" in the first place. In which case, we'll only be sanitizing what we don't want to hear.

That's no way to address Islam's intellectual lethargy, or the moral dereliction that goes with it.

Muslims question the Koran? It will never happen for to do so Muslims would be admitting that their religion is just like any other religion - flawed. They would forever give up the notion that Islam is "the" superior religion.