CAIR and other tireless conductors of Da’wa will never send out copies of the Hadith, unless of course they have carefully gone through them and left only the most anodyne or most impenetrable. They will not distribute, either, the life of Muhammad — that is, the life of Muhammad that Muslims learn about, with the decapitation of the 600-900 bound prisoners of the Banu Qurayza, the murders of Asma bint Marwan and Abu Afak, the marriage to little Aisha, aged nine, the attack on the inoffensive farmers of the Khaybar Oasis, the treachery — “war is deceit” said Muhammad — of the treaty made in 628 A.D. with the Meccans at Hudaibiyyah.
But the Qur’an they do distribute. They know that the recipients will scarcely be able to make their way through a work which is so confused, in parts so utterly incomprehensible (as Christoph Luxenberg and hundreds of other Western scholars have noted), so strange to Westerners in its arrangement, with passages that in English (or French for that matter) sound much milder than they are in the original, and of course, simply unlikely to be read all the way through, with proper understanding.
Take, for example, the Arabic phrase “Jihad fi sabil Allah.” Jihad in the path of Allah. Christian readers will immediately think that is a fine sentiment — just a Muslim version of “walk in the ways of the Lord.” But it isn’t, not at all. Those who know what the word “Jihad” means, and not only from the Qur’an itself, but from the gloss provided both by the Hadith and by the life of Muhammad, the sira that depicts the Perfect Man, uswa hasana, who must be obeyed, and emulated, in all things, will realize that “jihad fi sabil Allah” is a sinister phrase.
The Qur’an is unlikely to be read with proper comprehension, but just to ensure that the unwary Infidel, curious about Islam, is carefully directed, those who distribute the Qur’an are also careful to point out a handful of semi-plausible passages. No pointing out of 9.5 and 9.29 or indeed of Sura 9 at all. Much more 2.256 (“no compulsion in religion”) and 5.32 but without 5.33 (Bush fell for that — one wonders who’s been teaching him).
After all, they have to provide something. They provide the Qur’an, but do what they can to make it a case of directed reading, directed away from the essential meaning of the Qur’an, to a few bits, abrogated by later verses (but why point this out to Infidels?), that offer the thinnest of reeds on which to hang one’s hopes for a “good” Islam somewhere in the middle of all that “bad” stuff. (“But don’t the Jewish and Christian texts say terrible things” etc.) Muddy the waters, keep muddying them — isn’t that what you would do, if you were a Muslim? Of course you would.
So as the waters are muddied, it is our job to clear them. Why not give the Qur’an out yourself? But first, highlight the verses from sura 9 about war. Highlight 4:34 about wife-beating. Highlight the others that have been quoted here so many times (search the Jihad Watch and Dhimmi Watch archives for “Qur’an,” and you”ll find hundreds.) Print these verses out together. Make many copies. Keep them handy, possibly in your car.
When engaging others in conversation — the man at the meat-counter, someone standing behind you, or in front of you, at the checkout counter, the man who sells you the paper, the woman at the drycleaners, the parents with whom you carpool, the people at a party — use your wiles to bring the talk around to the subject of terrorism. Express your unhappiness at the failure of the government and media to speak the truth about Islam, or even to do so obliquely, by ceasing to call this, idiotically, a “war on terrorism” (terrorism is only one tactic, one instrument, of Jihad), but by calling it, not a “war on Islam,” but a “war of self-defense against the Jihad.” And then add (placing Muslims in an obvious bind as to whether or not they should object): “Of course not all Muslims believe in Jihad. Most do not. Most do not want to force Islam on the world, either by arms or by other means. Most are pluralists, and just as they want to enjoy equal rights here, they are doing everything they can to ensure that non-Muslims have equal rights in Muslim countries. But Bin Laden and the extremists are using texts like these to portray themselves as the exponents of the real Islam.”
Bush, given his reputation in Europe and elsewhere for being an ignorant cowboy, is perhaps just the man to carry this off with a straight face.
One becomes a bit tired about lecturing and advising — without being able to bill for consulting services — the grand panjandrums of Washington on what they should be doing. Can you please get on with it, all you well-paid consultants and civil servants in Washington? Readers of Jihad Watch should not have to be doing this for you. We did not volunteer to become the Johnny Appleseeds of information about Islam. We would all like to lead our own, potentially interesting and entertaining lives. Some of us need desperately to make a living. Islamic jihad is a real menace, but it is also rather a bore. Spare us. Please.