Ain’t it always the way? These inept, bumbling officials mistranslate these subtle texts, leading them to think (of all things!) that they teach … hatred and violence!
I get this all the time. Muslim spokesmen say: “You are quoting a translation. You can’t understand what is being said except in the original Arabic.” This is an effective tactic, since I can’t very well quote the Arabic on a radio or TV show, and so the non-Muslim looks like an “ignorant Islamophobe” misunderstanding these magnificently nuanced texts. But of course, all this falls to the ground because of the plentiful and readily available texts translated by Muslims for Muslims. Are we to believe that Muslim translators also abused these texts?
As for Leghaei’s notebook, I haven’t seen it, but based on what is below I doubt it is a mistranslation. His notes that I have put in bold type are standard jihad doctrine, echoed in a thousand Islamic sources.
From The Australian, with thanks to Kevin:
A LEADING Islamic cleric was discovered returning to Sydney with a 150-page notebook on tactics for warfare, intelligence and martyrdom, a court has been told.
ASIO translated Mansour Leghaei’s notebook, which focuses on “infiltration, deception tactics, martyrdom and the euphoria of fighting a jihad outside one’s borders”.
Details of the notebook are contained in documents lodged in a Federal Court case brought by Sheik Leghaei to stop his deportation.
ASIO has twice assessed Sheik Leghaei, who runs an education centre and charity in suburban Sydney, as a risk to national security, leading to multiple visa cancellations.
Questioned about spying
ASIO has interviewed the Iranian-born Shi’ite cleric at least three times since he arrived in Australia with his wife and children in 1994….
Peter Hanks QC argued that the court should quash ASIO’s 2004 assessment against Sheik Leghaei or declare it void because of this lack of procedural fairness.
One section of the notebook, which customs officers photocopied after discovering it in his luggage at Sydney airport in 1996, asks: “With whom should a holy war be fought?
“The enemies of Islam are to be categorised under three headings: 1, the infidels who do not accept the Koran as the Book of Heaven. 2, the oppressive and the unjust and whoever takes up arms against the Prophet. 3, heathens living in the Islamic countries who have broken the agreement to pay tribute to the Muslims.”
‘University notes’
Sheik Leghaei says in his affidavit that the notebook contains his handwritten notes from a textbook he read while a university student in Iran.
The notebook relates to the former Iraqi regime’s invasion of Iran, he says. And ASIO’s translation from Farsi and Arabic into English was “seriously flawed”.