ImGod

Unfortunately, like the bible, some of the Koran says be good to others, some of it says do this or go to hell, and some of it can be used to justify the atrocities of man in the name of spreading religion.

If the god of Abraham wanted to build and reinforce a tolerant and healthy community of people he should have written a book of guidlines in extreme clearity. Most of the meaningful parts of the bible and the Koran that relate to this concept could have been written in just a couple of pages.

butswana

I read "History of God" a few months ago. She tried to get Islam off the hook early on. It didn't work for me, it just pissed me off. She takes the all religion is good angle.
600 pages of bend-over-backwards philosophical bullshit. If you weren't an athiest before reading this book, you will be afterwards.

DMB

Have a look at <a href="http://www.secularislam.org/Default.htm" target="_blank">this site</a> if you want inside criticism of islam. I would suggest that Why I am not a Muslim by Ibn Warraq (published by Prometheus) is a good read on this subject.

bubby

I guess I'm threading on thin ice here (please dont hurt me ), but I actually prefer the Qur'an over the Bible - as far as the theology goes.

I like the simplicity of the religion that is described in the Qu'ran; believe in God, be nice and give to charity, is basically all it takes to be a muslim.
No priests are needed and one is not born a sinner. You are directly responsible to Allah for your actions.

I also like the dialogs between the muslims and the "unbelievers". There are relatively speaking far less verses I find offending in the Qur'an than in the Bible. The stuff that refers to biblical events and profiles are also interesting - the links between the bible and the Qu'ran is something I would like to learn more about.

The Qur'an is a bit repetitive and since the cultures and religion it represents are completely unfamilar to me I think I miss out on much.

I find judaism (OT) too ancient and complicated, and christianity (NT) to vague. So if I had to pick an Elohim-based religion I would take islam...

hinduwoman

What I object to Miss Armstrong is the way she tries to whitewash Islam and Muhammad. According to her (this is an article I read by her, not the book)the condition of pagan Arabia was awful. women were degraded and miserable, there was no peace and security, there were no ethics. Muhaamad came and fixed all that.

That is the biggest bullshit I ever read. Muhammad got his start by raiding merchant caravans --- is that peace? However she insists that it was only in selfdefence, when the Hadis contradict her.
As for women, the less said the better, though he stopped female infanticide, the condition of women became worse under him.

B. H. Manners

I have not read the book by Armstrong, but I wonder what her opinion was of the Koran when she got to the point where it says that husbands can administer corporal punishments to their wives?

David Bowden

I speak under correction, since I don't have either book in front of me, but I think Armstrong claims that Islam set limits on what previously had been wanton abuse - thus, corporal punishment was somehow a regulated family discipline-tool, better than what women typically had under the old polytheism. She also describes male-female relationships as generally improving under "authentic" early Islam.

I would certainly call this "whitewashing," since she doesn't squarely address the need for a broad Islamic enlightenment on this issue, and since she doesn't mention a lot of the evils committed in the name of Allah from Islam's formative period. But I also have to keep in mind that Armstrong is writing to portray Islam sympathetically for a western audience predisposed to think of Muslims as towel-headed terrorists; she's not writing to criticize, but to better inform us of Islam's understanding of itself.

So from her we get a picture of Islam as an appealing step up from its context, as it may well have been (for its willing converts). Unfortunately, not many Muslims have stepped up beyond Mohammed's morality, and Islam's treatment of women (among other issues) does deserve criticism. Karen Armstrong's books just aren't the place to go for that criticism.

I feel responsible for diverting this thread towards Armstrong and Islam in general, and away from the OP's discussion of the Koran; I apologize for this and hope for posts more on the Koran itself. jojo-sa, are you available for comment?

-Wanderer