UK Education Secretary: "Fantastic" if every school in England were sent free copies of the Qur'an

And, of course, if any thing happens to even one of those Korans that upsets members of the Religion of Peace, we will have a riots on our hands.

Of course it is a good idea. This cuts down on the amount of toilet paper the schools spend have to buy.

I am truly disgusted that anyone can equate the Koran to the King James Bible. Read only a few verses from each, and you will know the difference.

I suspect that Michael Gove has opened neither book, and so can not, as the saying goes, tell Koran from shinola.

I don't think there's any reason to put the boot into Gove here. He's more or less the only UK government minister with any principles (and yes Aardvark, he knows his Bible, and comments from time to time on religious affairs, e.g. here)

The Telegraph piece is a bit of a stitch-up built around a fairly innocent quote - "if people wanted to put forward proposals to me, philanthropists or others, for distributing great books to school then fantastic".

It's not as if he's proposing that the Government send Korans out on its own initiative (or expense) - as the headline sneakily implies.

Lay off the guy!

We had a copy of The Qur'an in our high school library and everyone thought I was weird for reading it, but I found it interesting and liked its poetry, although I was also appalled by the short biography of Muhammad and early Islam that edition included. I'm glad it was there and I think young people who are intelligent enough to pick up a difficult and controversial text of their own free will, will be able to reach the right conclusions about it and do research on it if they want to (as I did), without guidance from parents and teachers. However, the problem will come if they start teaching it in Englsih Lit or something. Then the whitewashing and brainwashing will begin.

I think it would be fantastic too... if the Qur'an was brought alongside the Vedas, Bible and every other religious text. For reference, of course.

By all means, supply them with korans so they will have something to burn that won't cost them out-of-pocket!

While the KJV Bible is regarded as incomplete by most Catholics, I still keep 2 around the house. I often grab a KJV when I feel in need of spiritual guidance or to study at work, simply because they are of a very convenient size to carry with me. I also keep a Book of Mormon. I've been approached by some congregations for stained glass windows and it's helpful to have references on hand in order to know what is likely to appeal to clients of various faiths. I also have had some pagan-ish references for the same reason, though people inclined in that spiritual direction generally have fairly definite ideas about what they want and don't expect me to have much knowledge of their beliefs.

I keep several copies of the koran, simply so that I might know my enemies better and be able to anticipate their moves. I simply cannot see myself ever working for a mosque or building ANY window that glorifies islam, though I might have prior to 9/11 and a combat tour in Iraq. There has simply been too much blood under the bridge since then, some of it belonging to people I loved.

It should scare the living Mohamed out of Muslims to think that kafirs will be reading the hateful filth of the Koran. But, they think we are as brain-dead as they are! Bring it on let everyone read what Muslims think of kafirs and what Allah has in store for us. Let the reading begin; to be followed by a spirited discussion.

Gove is no idiot. .with the decline in printed newspapers, he's probably banking on the tomes for future fish-and-chips wrappers. ;-)

Why are you guys slamming this idea? It's a great idea IMO. I've said for years what the West really needs is getting the Quran and hadith into the hands of our kids. I would like to see the ENTIRE book as required reading in a comparative religions or social studies class.

The real danger is whitewashing teachers cherry-picking peaches-and-cream verses, or reading out only the nice-sounding parts and stopping before the "but..."

But if the entire text is in little Johnny's hands, it will be difficult to get him to stop reading the "controversial" bits. I say let every high-school kid read the whole book! And then write a book-report on it. How can any Muslim argue against THAT? He can't. And an entire generation of kids will grow up with a healthy understanding of the religion of "peace".

I'm all for school libraries having a copy of the Qur'an. For better or worse (and I think mostly worse), it's had an influence on this world we live in.

Now, I'll admit that slogging through the Yusuf Ali and Dawood translations of the Qur'an (I don't know Arabic) required, as Thomas Carlyle famously said, "a stern sense of duty". But I don't think I'm a worse person for having taken the time and effort.

what a bloody traitor. but then again i think kids need to read the koran for themselves and see the Religion of Pieces for the iron maiden it really is

It would be better if they were also given a copy of the Bible (the original one, not the rewritten one by Muhammad 600 years after Jesus) to compare the Qur'an to.

As long as the footnotes in the edition they distribute don't try to obfuscate the actual contents every school library should have a copy. By "obfuscate" I'm thinking of editions that annotate with 'what this verse means is that men should only beat their wives lightly and symbolically with a toothbrush after exhausting all other possibilities' and 'The term "sister of Imran" is an honorary title bestowed on good Jewish women. Or maybe Jesus had an uncle Imran... look, the point is, Allah doesn't make mistakes!'

''Asked in a radio interview if he would “consider sending out other important texts like the Koran”, he said: “Well if people wanted to put forward proposals to me, philanthropists or others, for distributing great books to school then fantastic.”...''

Important texts like the koran ? Only in the sense a murder manual, or a book on satanism would be important.

''... great books...'' Gove needs to read it himself.

Having said the above, though, the more people who know *exactly* what's in that filthy tome, the better. I just don't want to have to pay for it through my taxes.

If copies of the Quran were to be distributed to U.K schools each should be accompanied by a list of recommended verses to read such as 2:89, 2:98, 3:10,3:18, 3:118, 8:39 and 8:50 etc. Teachers should also be instructed to ensure that all non-Muslims in the class are aware that 'In the eyes of Allah, they are the vilest of creatures' 8:55 and will suffer 4:56 and 18:29.

I think a combo would be best.

N Dawood's translation of the Quran accompanied by Mr Spencer's 'The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Quran' and 'The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades'.

And Mark Durie's 'Revelation? Do we Worship the Same God? Jesus, God, Holy Spirit in Christianity and Islam', is brief, and lucid, and even has all the basic points of 'compare and contrast' summarised in tabular form at the back of the book. I think an intelligent high school kid would find it helpful. Even if they weren't religious, it would work like this: here is this animal 'Christianity' and another animal 'Islam'; they *might* look similar if you don't look too closely, but see: here, and here, and here, and here...

It isn't a proselytising book: I think Jews would find it as useful as Christians, because Durie refers as much to the TaNaKh as to the New Testament, when explaining how radically the Biblical God differs from the 'allah' of the Islamic texts.

Indeed, non-Christians and non-Jews who happen to be, say, Hindus or atheists would find the book useful because it comprehensively explodes the Mohammedan attempt to sucker Jews and Christians by pretending to be some kind of long-lost relative (in order to get their guard down and get a foot inside the door of their house, so to speak); if you are a Hindu or atheist, say, who has Christian friends who are being sucked into 'inter-faith' and 'Abrahamic religion' 'dialogues' with Muslims, get Durie's book, read it so you understand exposition of the bottomless gulf between the biblical faiths on the one hand and Islam, on the other; then give it to those friends to try to wake them up to the scam that is being pulled.

BTW, the book even has a brief, clear discussion of taqiyya, noting that if the Islamic allah is itself described as 'the best of plotters' (or, tricksters), then this does not bode well for the likely conduct of those who worship such a god.

UK Education Secretary: "Fantastic" if every school in England were sent free copies of the Qur'an

It would be fantastic indeed, if they were taught how to read it carefully and critically, so as to understand how jihadists use it to justify violence and supremacism. But that won't happen.
............................

I'm very much torn on this one. Generally, I would like every Infidel to read this book critically—that would be ideal.

But just having the Qur'an around—as a presence—rather gives legitimacy to Islam, as do all the study sessions on Ramadan and superficial visits to Mosques endured by Western schoolchildren these days.

Like most people of my generation, I learned almost nothing about Islam as a schoolchild—there were a couple of references when we studied the crusades during a gallop through the history of the Middle Ages, but that was about it.

This was, of course, hardly ideal.

But to be spoonfed whitewashed and bowdlerized pablum about Islam as a "great religion" is even worse.

It would be wonderful if Infidel children were to actually read that Qur'an with a critical eye—but I fear there will be few takers.