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Holy Amnesia: Is the Bible more violent than the Qur’an?
Actually I think analyses like these are pointless exercises in exegesis. There isn’t any defensive value to such a “tu quoque” approach and it just gives total jafis like Andrew Bostom another chance to spout their nonsense.
Bibles seized as Malaysia minorities fear fundamentalism.
Authorities in Malaysia have seized more than 20,000 Bibles in recent months because they refer to God as “Allah,” Christian leaders said Thursday.
The seizures have fed fears among minority groups, which see signs of encroaching Islamic fundamentalism in the predominantly Muslim but multi-racial country.
“There is a growing sense of Islamic assertion, yes,” said the Rev. Hermen Shastri, general-secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia. “There is some concern.”
The Bibles were written in the country’s official language, Malay — in which the word for God is “Allah,” as it is in Arabic. However, Malaysia’s government says the word is exclusive to Islam.
For awhile, the Pharisees became “the Intellectuals” in the new conservative Bible.
Book of Mark, Chapter 3, Verses 1-6:
Jesus returned to the synagogue, and noticed man with a crippled hand. The intellectuals watched Jesus to see if he might catch and accuse him of healing on the Sabbath. Jesus told the man with the crippled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” Jesus asked the intellectuals, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: doing good or evil? Saving a life, or killing one? The intellectuals did not answer.” Jesus looked at them, feeling anger and pity for the hardness of their hearts, and said to the injured man, “Open your hand.” He then opened and held out his hand, and it was as good as new. The intellectuals then fled from the scene to plot with Herod’s people against Jesus, and plan how they might destroy him.
Since Kyle at Right Wing Watch reported this on October 5th, the Conservapedia editors have edited it again and replaced “Intellectuals” – first with “elites” and now with “Liberals.” I’m sure rigorous concern for accuracy guides their every flip-flop.
The liberal blogosphere is abloom with trenchant insight (and jokes) about the conservative Bible. I post this here for the mortification of the ever-vigilant Christianist stalkers who troll the Islamic blogs, awaiting an opportunity to wallow in their keenly felt sense of victimization.
Suggested conservative revisions from Salon:
Matthew 5:3-5: Blessed are the GOP, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn the death of Christmas, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the children of the rich, for — once Congress finally eliminates the Death Tax — they will inherit the earth.
Matthew 5:17: Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come to force trial lawyers to stop filing trivial lawsuits every time someone gets hurt and won’t take responsibility for themselves.
Matthew 5:21-22: You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, “You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.” But I tell you that a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do, so git ‘er done.
What a wonderful way to throw light on the hypocrisy and religious distortions that have resulted from mixing right-wing politics with religion in America.
Some more suggestions for the new conservative bible:
“And Sampson slew the Philistines with a jawbone of a stegosaurus”
“Jesus turned the water into napalm and laid waste to the Samaritans for what the Egyptians hath done”
“Woe be unto the Nazareth Post, for we countethed 13 million people at the Sermon on the Mount.”
“Go thou now and bomb the shit out of the swarthy”
“Jesus spake, ‘I hope those foreign bastards don’t translate my English into Greek.’
“And the Holy Spirit spake unto Mary, ‘Hast thou seen mine bald eagle etchings?’”
“Suffer the little children so their detained parents will talk.”
Some red meat for Shams: In the news cycle today is word of a bible project to eliminate ‘liberal bias.’ The Conservative Bible Project sets forth the following guidelines:
1.Framework against Liberal Bias: providing a strong framework that enables a thought-for-thought translation without corruption by liberal bias
2.Not Emasculated: avoiding unisex, “gender inclusive” language, and other modern emasculation of Christianity
3.Not Dumbed Down: not dumbing down the reading level, or diluting the intellectual force and logic of Christianity; the NIV is written at only the 7th grade level[3]
4.Utilize Powerful Conservative Terms: using powerful new conservative terms as they develop;[4] defective translations use the word “comrade” three times as often as “volunteer”; similarly, updating words which have a change in meaning, such as “word”, “peace”, and “miracle”.
5.Combat Harmful Addiction: combating addiction by using modern terms for it, such as “gamble” rather than “cast lots”;[5] using modern political terms, such as “register” rather than “enroll” for the census
6.Accept the Logic of Hell: applying logic with its full force and effect, as in not denying or downplaying the very real existence of Hell or the Devil.
7.Express Free Market Parables; explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning
8.Exclude Later-Inserted Liberal Passages: excluding the later-inserted liberal passages that are not authentic, such as the adulteress story
9.Credit Open-Mindedness of Disciples: crediting open-mindedness, often found in youngsters like the eyewitnesses Mark and John, the authors of two of the Gospels
10.Prefer Conciseness over Liberal Wordiness: preferring conciseness to the liberal style of high word-to-substance ratio; avoid compound negatives and unnecessary ambiguities; prefer concise, consistent use of the word “Lord” rather than “Jehovah” or “Yahweh” or “Lord God.”
[Insert pithy quip here]
Straw poll: how many Muslims who read, comment or post on Talk Islam have also read/studied the Bible (and which one did you read/study)?
Conservative Bible project cuts out liberal passages.
Lo and behold, the Bible has gotten too liberal, according to a group of conservatives. And it needs a little editing.
That’s the inspiration behind the Conservative Bible Project, which seeks to take the text back to its supposed right-wing roots.
Yes, even scripture is not orthodox enough for the modern conservative. Not that it’s the fault of the author(s), exactly. The group cites a few reasons why the Bible is too progressive: “Lack of precision in the original language … lack of precision in modern language” and “translation bias in converting the original language to the modern one.”
So how can the Bible be conservatized? The group has proposed a Wikipedia-like group editing project. Some of the ideas would only bring the translation closer to the original. But others would fundamentally change the text.
Based on the different English translations of the Quran I’ve seen, I’d say something like this has been going on for awhile in Islam (without removing any actual passages, so far as I know).
Since a translation of the Quran isn’t the same thing as the Quran, the ’sinless’ opportunity for taking license abounds…
Given that the Fathima Rifqa Bary case is bringing up apostasy again, unfortunately right during a time when muslims would rather be focusing inwards, its probable that the community response to the case is more muted than it would be. I note that in her video she claims that her parents are bound by the Qur’an directly to kill her for apostasy, which is of course flat-out wrong – there isn’t a single verse anywhere in the Qur’an that calls for death for an apostate (and in fact, quite the reverse, ie 2:256). One could easily contrast this with the Old Testament and point out Deuteronomy chapter 13, verses 6-9:
6 “If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, 7 of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, 8 you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; 9 but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.
the point here is that if Christians and Jews are not “religiously obligated” to kill apostates (like columnist Robert Novak) despite such a clear Biblical injunction to do so, then why are muslims bound by a mere hadith to do the same?
Yes, honor killings exist, but they are an aberration. Young impressionable Fathima reduces her parents to mere automatons who must follow their programming, and makes no allowance for human conscience or even simple paternal and maternal love. The injustice she does to them is grave and I hope she realizes this someday.
Using the Bible to find oil in the land of milk and honey:
John Brown, a Christian from Texas who formed Zion Oil and Gas in 2000, recently raised $21 million to continue his search for oil in Israel. According to an MSN news report, Brown is using passages from Genesis and Deuteronomy — verses that detail God’s ancient blessing on the tribes of Asher and Joseph — as his inspiration and guide for drilling in Israel. He expects black gold will be flowing within a few months. “There’s no maybe — it’s going to happen,” commented the 69-year-old Texan. In a France 24 report, Brown explained, “What started as a faith journey became more proof positive in that we have seismic and scientific evidence to back up what we’re doing . . . It’s the geology confirming the theology.”
I’ll be speaking at a conference in May 2009 at Riverside Church in NY. The event is called “Forensic Scriptures: What the Qur’an Reveals about the Bible.” If you are in the area and would like to attend, you can enter “Friend of Hussein Rashid” under the “position” field to receive a $100 discount on the registration page. Make sure you also check the “affiliate” price.
Illustrated Stories from the Bible that are NSFW.
Chronological Bible sparks debate.