Ten Reasons to Burn a Koran—the unexpurgated text

Yesterday, after praising Terry Jones’s thoughtful and persuasive article in which he explained why he and his congregation think it right and appropriate to burn a Koran, I learned to my distress that the article, and indeed his entire site, were no longer accessible—and I, unfortunately, had neglected to make my own copy. (In fact, Jones’s site’s ISP had deliberately removed the site from the Web.) I looked for a blog that had posted the article, but couldn’t find one. This morning, VFR reader Dean E. recommenced the search, and happily found an online discussion board which had posted a verbatim copy of the article, which I have copied below.

I might quibble with various secondary points of Jones’s. But on his primary points, I see nothing to object to. Jones rejects Islam, both because it is radically anti-Christian, and because it is radically dangerous to our Western and American form of society and our liberties. This is exactly the right approach. When he says that “To warn of danger and harm is a loving act. God is love and truth,” he speaks a truth that transcends the blinkered view of today’s liberals (and of the liberals who call themselves “conservatives”), who, at bottom, view Islam as merely a religion like other religions. In reality, Islam is a danger and a deadly harm to us. The idea that we should treat Islam in accordance with a set of abstract universal rules of fairness and tolerance, instead of in accordance with what Islam substantively is, namely, a danger and deadly harm to us, typifies the false and suicidal liberal view of the world.

Ten Reasons to Burn a Koran

On 9/11/10 we are burning Korans to raise awareness and warn. In a sense it is neither an act of love nor of hate. We see, as we state in the Ten Reasons below, that Islam is a danger. We are using this act to warn about the teaching and ideology of Islam, which we do hate as it is hateful. We do not hate any people, however. We love, as God loves, all the people in the world and we want them to come to a knowledge of the truth. To warn of danger and harm is a loving act. God is love and truth. If you know the truth it can set you free. The world is in bondage to the massive grip of the lies of Islam. These are:

One

The Koran teaches that Jesus Christ, the Crucified, Risen Son of God, King of Kings and Lord of Lords was NOT the Son of God, nor was he crucified (a well documented historical fact that ONLY Islam denies). This teaching removes the possibility of salvation and eternal life in heaven for all Islam’s believers. They face eternal damnation in hell if they do not repent.

Two

The Koran does not have an eternal origin. It is not recorded in heaven. The Almighty God, Creator of the World, is NOT it’s source. It is not holy. It’s writings are human in origin, a concoction of old and new teachings. This has been stated and restated for centuries by scholars since Islam’s beginnings, both Moslem and non-Moslem.

Three

The Koran’s teaching includes Arabian idolatry, paganism, rites and rituals. These are demonic, an ongoing satanic stronghold under which Moslems and the world suffer.

Four

The earliest writings that are known to exist about the Prophet Mohammad were recorded 120 years after his death. All of the Islamic writings (the Koran and the Hadith, the biographies, the traditions and histories) are confused, contradictory and inconsistent. Maybe Mohammad never existed. We have no conclusive account about what he said or did. Yet Moslems follow the destructive teachings of Islam without question.

Five

Mohammad’s life and message cannot be respected. The first Meccan period of his leadership seems to have been religiously motivated and a search for the truth. But in the second Medina period he was “corrupted by power and worldly ambitions.” (Ibn Warraq) These are characteristics that God hates. They also led to political assassinations and massacres which continue to be carried out on a regular basis by his followers today.

Six

Islamic Law is totalitarian in nature. There is no separation of church and state. It is irrational. It is supposedly immutable and cannot be changed. It must be accepted without criticism. It has many similarities to Nazism, Communism and Fascism. It is not compatible with Western Civilization.*

Seven

Islam is not compatible with democracy and human rights. The notion of a moral individual capable of making decisions and taking responsibility for them does not exist in Islam. The attitude towards women in Islam as inferior possessions of men has led to countless cases of mistreatment and abuse for which Moslem men receive little or no punishment, and in many cases are encouraged to commit such acts, and are even praised for them. This is a direct fruit of the teachings of the Koran.

Eight

A Muslim does not have the right to change his religion. Apostasy is punishable by death.

Nine

Deep in the Islamic teaching and culture is the irrational fear and loathing of the West.

Ten

Islam is a weapon of Arab imperialism and Islamic colonialism. Wherever Islam has or gains political power, Christians, Jews and all non-Moslems receive persecution, discrimination, are forced to convert. There are massacres and churches, synagogues, temples and other places of worship are destroyed.

(Note: Jones’s article includes a biblical addendum which I will be posting later. For the moment, you can read it here.)

- end of initial entry -

Mark P. writes:

Jones writes:

The Koran does not have an eternal origin. It is not recorded in heaven. The Almighty God, Creator of the World, is NOT it’s source. It is not holy. It’s writings are human in origin, a concoction of old and new teachings. This has been stated and restated for centuries by scholars since Islam’s beginnings, both Moslem and non-Moslem.

I tend to view the Koran as an example of Voeglin’s “immanentizing the eschaton.” God supposedly speaks directly to Mohammed and Mohammed pens the word of God into the Koran. In contrast, the Bible is a catalog of the religious experiences of Believers, not the literal word of God. Isn’t it the case that God is not the source of the Bible and, therefore, the Bible is not recorded in Heaven? This is due to the extreme abstraction of the nature of the Christian and Jewish God, a God that is not knowable, in contrast to the ordinary and traditional religious experience of humankind?

Now, Jones probably means that the Koran is not recorded in heaven because God did not speak to Mohammed, so Mohammed just made the whole thing up. But I am not certain of this.

Andrew C. writes:

You wrote:

The idea that we should treat Islam in accordance with a set of abstract universal rules of fairness and tolerance, instead of in accordance with what Islam substantively is, namely, a danger and deadly harm to us, typifies the false and suicidal liberal view of the world.

Amen.

Robert Weissberg writes:

Let me off an interesting take on the burning of the Koran. According to a very serious Muslim scholar I once knew, the only real Koran is the one in classic Arabic. All others, including modernized ones, translations etc, are NOT Korans.

This has allowed Muslims to deceive westerners. They just offer up sanitized versions, versions with the chapters out of order etc.

So, the question is: will they be burning real Korans? I have not followed this, but somebody must know about what, exactly, is being burnt. I’d guess that it is not all that easy to find real Korans, and even if written in Arabic, this may not be classic Arabic.

Will the Muslims send somebody to certify the Korans before they are being burnt? After all, if people are going to die, they should die for the right reason.

LA replies:

I think this is a point that will have zero impact on the debate and on the significance of the debate.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 09, 2010 03:27 PM | Send