The Qur’an actually is a book that changed the world. So is Mein Kampf. But Coelho obviously means, and was understood to mean, that the Qur’an changed the world for the better.
Now note Coelho’s tortured thought process when he is challenged. Someone tells him that the Qur’an “is the source of violence and murder,” and Coelho responds: “Not true. I am Christian, and for centuries we tried to imposed our religion by the force of the sword – check ‘cruzades’ in the dictionary…We murdered women – calling them witches, and we tried to stop science – like in the case of Galileu Galilei. So, it is not to blame a religion, but how people manipulate it.”
No one denies that Christians have done evil. Coelho apparently assumes that the evils he lists (leaving aside whether or not his list is accurate, and to what extent) are not justified in the Bible, since he concludes, “it is not to blame a religion, but how people manipulate it.” He thus apparently assumes that since Christians were violent and murderous, and yet Christianity should not be blamed, that therefore the violence and murder that Muslims are perpetrating regularly today in the name of Islam is not justified in the Qur’an. But there is absolutely no reason why this would be so. The Bible and the Qur’an are different books. If people committed violence in the name of Christianity and that violence is not justified in the Bible, that fact doesn’t tell us a thing about the Qur’an and whether or not it exhorts believers to violence and murder.
Coelho’s logical leap here, unfortunately, is one that he shares with millions of other people in the West.
And yes, the Qur’an sure did change the world, all right.
“Paulo Coelho defends Quran as ‘book that changed the world,'” Al Arabiya, August 17, 2015:
Internationally bestselling author Paulo Coelho has publicly defended Islam and the religion’s holy book, the Quran, on his official Facebook page.
Earlier this month Brazilian author, Coelho, posted an image of the Quran on his Facebook page with the caption ‘Exhibition “Books that changed the world,” which received major attention on the social network, gaining over 36,000 likes and more than 3000 shares.
However one Facebook user, under the name Hiba B Dakkak, commented “Really!!! This book is the source of violence and murder.”
Which Coelho replied to, saying “Not true. I am Christian, and for centuries we tried to imposed our religion by the force of the sword – check ‘cruzades’ in the dictionary…We murdered women – calling them witches, and we tried to stop science – like in the case of Galileu Galilei. So, it is not to blame a religion, but how people manipulate it.”…
Jay Boo says
Oh what a convoluted path they walk to keep stinking piles of sharia from sticking to the soles of their shoes.
Jan III Sobieski says
Paulo Coelho is a sophist fool and needs to move to Syria right now.
EYESOPEN says
Agreed. Note also that izlam has been making huge inroads in South America for the last 10 or 15 years. He was quick to say he was a “Christian” (sound familiar); but he refuses to accept the fact that people – some who claim to be “Christian” – do bad things all the time. Jesus Christ never advocated for His people to rape, maim, torture, and murder. I’m sure when the time comes, He will say: “I never knew you.”
kay says
Re: “Note also that izlam has been making huge inroads in South America for the last 10 or 15 years.”
Huh? ? What ? ? Someone please explain. In English por favor.
I know there are some immigrant Muslim communities in Brazil. I saw something a couple weeks back.
But what is the overall story here? Are there any real analyses of this? To say “huge inroads” is kinda shocking to me. I did not expect anything like this. What I see is the following:
http://www.islamawareness.net/LatinAmerica/brazil.html
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Brazil
“A recent Muslim source estimated that there are close to 10,000 Muslim converts living in Brazil.[12]”
Please say more if possible than casually lay out such a major statement about a whole continent. Brazil should suffice to characterize the overall development of Islam in South America. I would definitely expect far far more pagan / voodoo activity in Brazil than Muslims and converts. And quite frankly, I would see West African / Caribbean voodoo type animal sacrifice/ magic as a major improvement over jihad and Sharia. Even tho I can’t stand that other stuff either.
Voodoo is very bloody, but they do bad things to animals ( mostly ) rather than people. Islam is all about doing really really bad things to people and treating them like animals.
TX.
Marken says
Generally I think you are right Kay, there are a lot of Arabs in Brazil but they migrated there generations ago citing ‘religious persecution’ for the reason they left the middle east and guess what? They were not Muslims but Christians, whether today’s generation of Brazilians knows this I couldn’t say. Currently Brazilians are protesting against Dilma, resisting her communist tenancies, I haven’t found any areas in the northeast Brazil where Islam is rooted, never saw a berka in Brazil, that would be humorous considering the beach culture, it is still not a PC country and a true melting pot but still situations can change quickly and I haven’t been there in 3 years. My guess is the average Brazilian knows nothing of Islam at all and that millions of todays Brazilians have a heritage of fleeing Islamic violence no different than today. was bombed but no one was killed and that may or may not have been jihadists.
ICH says
Im betting hes afraid and thinks this will win him brownie points
EYESOPEN says
I think you are spot-on “ICH”!
Ren says
Brazilian author Paulo Coelho defends Qur’an as “book that changed the world”.
Yeah, in a bad way!
Jack Diamond says
Obviously he didn’t open it and read it.
mortimer says
Obviously, Coelho did NOT read the Koran. There is violence and hate on every page. Open it at random. See for yourself.
IQ al Rassooli says
It is OBVIOUS that Paulo Coelho knows as much about Muhammad’s Quran and the Bible as a Pig’s knowledge of the science of personal hygiene (i am unfortunately insulting the pig!)
The most relevant item that escapes the limited intellect of these so called Authors, Professors and Intellectuals is the following FACT:
No human being can find a SINGLE verse in either the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament INCITING the followers of Moses or Jesus to Slaughter, Plunder, Rape, Subjugate, Humiliate or EXTERMINATE those who do NOT follow their creed
On the other hand any human being with TWO Brain Cells of logic will find hundreds of such verses in Muhammad’s Quran & Sunna.
This despicable moron brought forth the usual mantra of the CRUSADES!
Well, the Crusades were in response to unremitting 350 years of Islamic JIHAD against Christians!
Furthermore, just because the Crusaders wore the Cross, did not make them true Christians since besides slaughtering innocent Jews, they also slaughtered innocent Christians!
On the other hand, every single Jihadist shouts ‘Allahu Akbar’ while butchering unarmed and unsuspecting civilians sincerely believing this would bring him close to his demonic god called Allah
This disgusting so called author should be challenged in PUBLIC and humiliated for uttering such despicable nonsense
IQ al Rassooli
Kafir & Proud!
mortimer says
Agree: “so called author should be challenged in PUBLIC and humiliated for uttering such despicable nonsense”
Paulo Coelho’s remarks show a total UNAWARENESS of the Sunna and its supreme importance.
The Sunna actually takes precedence over the Koran, but few Westerners realize that!
Coelho does not even KNOW there is a Sunna. Islamists must be sputtering as they laugh at him.
IQ al Rassooli says
Thanks mortimer
You are absolutely correct
95% of Muslims too have no realization that without SUNNA, there is NO Quran
Muhammad’s Quran is only the skeleton while the Sunna is the flesh that gives it its features
Without Sunna his followers would not know how many times to Prostrate and what to RECITE
They would not know about the details and implications of hundreds of verses without the Sunna
Luckily for non Muslim humanity, the very Sunna that explain the Quran to his followers is the same that shows beyond a shadow of a doubt how Evil, Despicable and Demonic Muhammad was so that we can utterly demolish their myth that Muhammad was a decent Man of Peace!
IQ al Rassooli
Kafir & Proud!
Shmooviyet says
Does Coehlo believe he’s assuring he can walk the streets with no fear of being hacked to pieces?
Obviously unaware a CYA statement like his is no guarantee of safety.
Martin Vink says
We keep hearing that Christians have done evil but it is not true. Between 600 and 1600 the Bible was closed. The Clergy occasionally read it in Latin but the Laity were forbidden to read it at all. The translation of the Bible or any attempt at that was punished by death. The Church restrictions were like sharia law. Millions of Christians were killed by the Church. Albigenges, Waldenses, Hussites, Hugeunots etc all ended up on the scaffolds or stakes.
That was the Church but it was not Christianity. Christianity was rediscovered by Luther. The Roman Church is closer to Islam than it is to Christianity. Rosary beads, relics, icons and rituals are used to compensate for biblical revelation and a personal relationship with Jesus.
mortimer says
Vink, your comments are unnecessarily uncharitable. All Roman Catholics admit that the Church was politically an arm of Europe’s ruling families and bent its doctrines to their needs. It took centuries to disengage from that control.
The Crusades began as a call to defend Byzantium, but ended in a fool’s errand to hold indefensible littorals from Gaza to Anatolia.
Medieval Europe made the same mistake we are making today. They assumed we can defeat Islam militarily while it is the DOCTRINE that we must defeat.
Coelho is blathering hot air…and who knows why?…he is utterly unacquainted with Islamic doctrine, but present himself as an expert.
How haughty, arrogant, overconfident and conceited can you get?
Billy Wright says
No, we don’t all ‘admit’ that.
The Middle Ages saw a long-running struggle by the Church to assert its independence from secular rulers, eg the investiture crisis and the Concordat of Worms, Henry II and Thomas Becket etc.
But Church doctrine was never, ever bent to suit anyone’s needs and has remained the same since Apostolic times.
Radegunda says
“Medieval Europe made the same mistake we are making today. They assumed we can defeat Islam militarily while it is the DOCTRINE that we must defeat.”
Actually, it’s quite a good thing that some medieval Europeans, from Charles Martel to Jan Sobieski, knew that Islam had to be resisted militarily. It’s unfortunate that many Christian rulers between those two heroes were too preoccupied by their quarrels with one another to be sufficiently attentive to the Islamic threat.
A “war of ideas” is far from enough to beat back the Islamic menace. The main mistake our leaders are making today is not that they use military force, but that they dissociate the military threat from its ideological origins.
ecosse1314 says
Not closed…..really are you unaware that literacy to the masses is only a 20th century phenomena. There were no queues in 7th century Scotland to read the bible in Gaelic or even Anglo-saxon………..orv8th 9th 10th 11th etc
Radegunda says
Literary rates grew considerably with the advent of the printing press in the 15th century, and when the Bible was translated into various vernaculars, there was a great interest in it among people who didn’t know Latin.
There was also much consternation over this development among ecclesiastical leaders, who worried that common folk would draw “incorrect” lessons from the biblical text. In fact, the vernacular Bible was the inspiration of various heterodox movements, some of them quite radical. Even Luther was dismayed when laypeople who started to read the Bible came to conclusions he disagreed with.
Jan Aage Jeppersen says
That`s why Luther said: “We are all priests” and “it is not for people to know who the true believers are.” 😉
Martin Luther adduces a general priesthood in Christendom in his 1520 letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation in order to dismiss the medieval view that Christians in the present life were to be divided into two classes: “spiritual” and “secular”. He put forward the doctrine that all baptized Christians are “priests” and “spiritual” in the sight of God:
That the pope or bishop anoints, makes tonsures, ordains, consecrates, or dresses differently from the laity, may make a hypocrite or an idolatrous oil-painted icon, but it in no way makes a Christian or spiritual human being. In fact, we are all consecrated priests through Baptism, as St. Peter in 1 Peter 2[:9] says, “You are a royal priesthood and a priestly kingdom,” and Revelation [5:10], “Through your blood you have made us into priests and kings.”
ecosse1314 says
Luther????…..oh dear oh dear oh dear. Seens you don’t like the RCs
somehistory says
Christians tell the truth. This guy is not telling the truth. “By their fruits, you will recognize them ( Matthew 7:15-20).”
Hard to believe that he is a *best-selling author.* There is no defense for that unholy book.
voegelinian says
The PC MC, and his more robustly caffeinated older cousin, the Leftist, tends to think in terms of abstract platitudes that do not adjust much (or at all) to data. Thus when Paulo Coelho is thinking about Religion, and when he’s prompted to think on the Comparative Religions question of Islam vis-à-vis (or vs.) Christianity, he leaps for the abstract template and disregards data that might nudge him to entertain a new perspective and even, perchance, to think outside the box.
Thus, Paulo’s abstract template rigidly tells him that All Religions are The Same. And one way in which they are the same is that they are all benign, and that the behaviors of their practitioners do not, and should not, reflect upon our judgement of the religion in question. Were someone to show him the evidence that in fact the holy texts of Islam are different from the holy texts of Christianity in ways crucial to the question of whether one promotes hatred of, and supremacist violence against, the Other — and that thus one must readjust one’s template that insists that “all religions are the same” such that we open our minds to the novel, and disturbing, fact that in certain ways, Islam is substantially different from Christianity (and from most if not all other religions), Paulo would be unable to process this; for; to the Leftist (and to a slightly lesser extent to the PC MC), defense of the pre-fab paradigm is the primary priority.
Thus, more or less something like: “All religions are the same — so this supposed evidence you are bringing to me must be wrong, and I must figure out a way to circumvent it…” And so they do, availing themselves of every logical fallacy in the book — tu quoque (or perhaps more precisely, ego quoque, to which we saw Paulo have anxiously impulsive recourse in his memo-like litany of Christian sins of history), red herring, straw man, goalpost-moving, burden-shifting, equivocation, ad hominem…. et cetera ad Islamonauseam…).
On the “Ego Quoque” variation of the tu quoque:
http://hesperado.blogspot.com/2012/07/eqo-quoque.html
voegelinian says
A more direct link to the “Ego Quoque” fallacy:
http://glossaryhesperado.blogspot.com/2008/05/logical-fallacy-of-tu-quoque-and-ego.html
mortimer says
Paulo Coelho is not entitled to create his own facts.
Ayatollah Coelho (who hasn’t read a book on Islam nor any Islamic source text) is an instant expert on Islam without the least inkling of his intellectual vacuity in so doing.
He should read the Sira and hadiths before commenting on Islam. He should read a book on the Crusades before commenting on them.
Mohammed is the only authority on Islam. Mohammed said that jihad is the ‘original religion’ of Islam.
Jihad is warfare against disbelievers.
Brasileiro says
Que vergonha esquerdistas exportando suas maldades pelo mundo, agora só falta a MariaDoRosário, chegar na ONU, para dizer que os membros do Estado Islâmico são pobres vitimas da opressão da elite branca, opressora, fascista e preconceituosa. O Estado Islâmico ,se depender desta gente, terá sua legitimidade reconhecida pela ONU, e nas escolas aprenderemos que eles lutam pela liberdade e são autênticos heróis, vitimas desta sociedade capitalista .
Angemon says
Translation:
What a shame leftists exporting their evilness through the world, all that’s left now is for Maria do Rosário (note: a member of the Brazilian Communist Party) to go to the UN and say that the members of the islamic state are poor victims of oppression from the white elite, oppressive, fascist and bigoted. The islamic state, if it depends on these people, will have its legitimacy recognized by the UN, and in schools we’ll learn that they’re fighting for freedom and are true heroes, victims of this capitalist society.
mortimer says
Dhimmis like Paulo Coelho are helping the Leftarded cultural Marxists to spread Muslim MELODRAMA…all the while the terrorist vipers silently sneak up on the West ready to strike!
Coelho is lulling the Western victims of Islam to sleep!
Andrei says
Paulo Coelho: You should study the history especially medieval history islamic. The cruseders started after over over 5th century islamic invasion . In this 5 century they(silamic) In the assault of Thessalonia in 903, 22,000 Christians were divided among the Arab chieftains or sold into slavery. In Sultan Alp Arsalan’s devastation of Georgia and Armenia in 1064, there was immense slaughter and all the survivors were enslaved. Almohad Caliph Yaqub al-Mansur of Spain raided Lisbon in 1189, enslaving some 3,000 women and children. His governor of Cordoba attacked Silves in 1191, making 3,000 Christians captive. The contemporary Turkish, Byzantine and Latin chroniclers are unanimous in recognizing that during the campaigns conducted on behalf of the unification of Greek and Latin Romania and the Slavic Balkans under the banner of Islam, as well as during their razzias on Christian territory, the Ottomans reduced masses of inhabitants to slavery. The Ottoman chronicler Ašikpašazade relates that during the expedition of Ali pasha Evrenosoghlu in Hungary (1437), as well as on the return from the campaign of Murad II against Belgrade (1438), the number of captives surpassed that of the combatants. The Byzantine chronicler Ducas states that the inhabitants of Smederevo, which was occupied by the Ottomans, were led off into bondage. The same thing happened when the Turks of Menteše descended upon the islands of Rhodes and Cos and also during the expedition of the Ottoman fleet to Enos and Lesbos. Ducas even cites numbers: 70,000 inhabitants carried off into slavery during the campaign of Mehmed II in Morée (1460). The Italian Franciscan Bartholomé de Yano (Giano dell’Umbria) speaks about 60,000 to 70,000 slaves captured over the course of two expeditions of the akinðis in Transylvania (1438) and about 300,000 to 600,000 Hungarian captives. If these figures seem exaggerated, others seem more accurate: forty inhabitants captured by the Turks of Menteše during a razzia in Rhodes, 7,000 inhabitants reduced to slavery following the siege of Thessalonika (1430), according to John Anagnostes, and ten thousand inhabitants led off into captivity during the siege of Mytilene (1462), according to the Metropolitan of Lesbos, Leonard of Chios. Given the present state of the documentation available to us, we cannot calculate the scale on which slaves were introduced into Turkish Romania by this method. According to Bartholomé de Yano, it would amount to 400,000 slaves captured in the four years from 1437 to 1443. Even allowing for a certain degree of exaggeration, we must acknowledge that slaves played an important demographic part during the fifteenth-century Ottoman expansion. IN SPAGNE THEY TOOK 30.000 GOT GIRL SLAVERY.
Angemon says
a) Whatever dictionary he’s using (I’m guessing it’s the Bil Clinton approved version) is clearly flawed because the Crusades weren’t about converting people to Christianity.
b) Even if the Crusades had been about converting people to Christianity, does that mean muslims are entitled to do that nowadays?
mortimer says
The Crusaders didn’t have any intention of converting Muslims, but of removing them from the pilgrim route to Jerusalem. The idea was not militarily coordinated nor militarily doable.
Islam’s wars are wars of conquest, genocide AND of conversion.
Islam cannot be defeated militarily, because every Muslim is vigilante jihadist in theory. We need to destroy the theory of Islam.
Jaladhi says
Why did the crusades stop without completing the job??
silvergreycat says
*… Of the many reasons for the failure of the crusades, three require special consideration. In the first place, there was the inability of eastern and western Europe to cooperate in supporting the holy wars. A united Christendom might well have been invincible. But the bitter antagonism between the Greek and Roman churches effectually prevented all unity of action. The emperors at Constantinople, after the First Crusade, rarely assisted the crusaders and often secretly hindered them. In the second place, the lack of sea-power, as seen in the earlier crusades, worked against their success. Instead of being able to go by water directly to Syria, it was necessary to follow the long, overland route from France or Germany through Hungary, Bulgaria, the territory of the Roman Empire in the East, and the deserts and mountains of Asia Minor. The armies that reached their destination after this toilsome march were in no condition for effective campaigning. In the third place, the crusaders were never numerous enough to colonize so large a country as Syria and absorb its Moslem population. They conquered part of Syria in the First Crusade, but could not hold it permanently in the face of determined resistance.
…In spite of the above reasons the Christians of Europe might have continued much longer their efforts to recover the Holy Land, had they not lost faith in the movement. But after two centuries the old crusading enthusiasm died out, the old ideal of the crusade as “the way of God” lost its spell. Men had begun to think less of winning future salvation by visits to distant shrines and to think more of their present duties to the world about them. They came to believe that Jerusalem could best be won as Christ and the Apostles had won it “by love, by prayers, and by the shedding of tears.”*
source… http://www.lordsandladies.org/end-of-medieval-crusades.htm
voegelinian says
An additional factor to supplement the explanation supplied by silvergreycat from the lordsandlades website (which seems to concentrate unduly, if not exclusively, on Christian factors), is the remarkable fanaticism & ferocity of the Mohammedan armies, which we would be reasonable to suppose was far, far fiercer than the (even then) more civilized Christians.
IQ al Rassooli says
mortimer
100% agree that one cannot defeat Islam militarily
It should be defeated on the battlefield of knowledge
I have my thoughts but would like to hear from you HOW to accomplish this
IQ al Rassooli
Kafir & Proud!
voegelinian says
Why must we always think in terms of Either/Or? This enemy has to be fought on many fronts: in terms of war of ideas, counter-espionage (against Islamic taqiyya), and violently to protect our societies from those who plan to mass-murder us and destroy our infrastructure and destabilize our societies.
The war-of-ideas theater of this world war, however — pace the Counter-Jihad Softies with a soft spot in their hearts for multitudes of Muslims whom they deem “victims” of Islam — should not be an operation directed at Muslims, since it would be unrealistic to think that a critical mass of Muslims will jump Islamic ship and join us to help defeat Islam; but rather should be directed at our fellow Westerners: a civil war of ideas: a war that must remain civil.
A Civil War of Ideas, Part One
http://hesperado.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-civil-war-of-ideas-part-one.html
kay says
Re “100% agree that one cannot defeat Islam militarily…It should be defeated on the battlefield of knowledge…I have my thoughts but would like to hear from you HOW to accomplish this”
I know how to do this. It is an enormous amount of work, a massive grass-roots effort and a tremendous civil challenge.
A lot of it has to do with hammering on Islam in social media.
Much of the effort has to be invested in high school age kids to teach them basic history and philosophy and the broad outline of Islam.
We can’t actually say in the public schools that “Islam is bad, genocidal, fascist” etc. But real books and materials by Andrew Bostom and Bill Warner are 100% legitimate.
We have to win in all the schools, colleges and universities of all kinds.
We have to get the broad groups of Christians to mobilize, if only for the plight of Christians in the Middle East as a starting point.
We have to get the women and feminists everywhere committed to counter-jihad.
We have to fight for freedom of speech.
We have to fight for Europe on all levels.
We have to shame and crush the Islamists and their collaborators in all the public squares.
We have to insist that elected representatives defend free speech and reject Sharia compliance. And hammer all the time on elected representatives so they really get the story and how serious jihad and Sharia are for the West. Ignorance cannot be an excuse. And hound public authorities to handle “sensitive issues”, like Brit Pakistani sex rings in England.
We have to target and bring down Islamist ringleaders by force of law, as when France recently kicked forty imams from their country.
We have to shut down waves of immigrant population to the West,
We have to close Europe off to Turkey.
We have to devolve Europe and allow European countries to defend themselves.
We need to build a progressive pan-European anti-Islamic movement and defend it.
We have to fight back CAIR and the Organization of Islamic Co-operation. In particular, we must fight for the high ground at the United Nations and insist that the UN Declaration of Human Rights win over Sharia, blasphemy laws and Sharia compliance.
We have to support and defend brave and honest supporters of civilization like Geert Wilders and Pamela Geller. And promote them on three continents.
We have to understand this is all out civilizational warfare and that we must all work together to defeat the common enemy. So we have to build GENERAL community networked infrastructure for counter-jihad and share resources and promote each other’s good work.
We have to publicize major resources and build accessible communication on-ramps.
We have to reach the public and make sure they really know that there is only one kind of Islam, the Islam of Sharia, jihad and Islamofascism. And that our cause is the cause of freedom, civilization, and humanitarian concern for all of humankind.
The above certainly does not cover everything. But it does cover much of the necessary counter-jihad strategy. Everything depends on commitment, co-operation and an integrated global strategic model / set of priorities. Thanks for asking.
“Sam, Geert and I are all neighbors, because we all live in the same civilization.”
Bill Warner exposes ultimately political nature of Islam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWUoAgVxXGc
“The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or sect, a party or a class. It is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity.”
— Anna Julia Stewart
gravenimage says
I don’t believe Islam can be completely defeated militarily–but if Infidels are sufficiently knowledgeable, Islam with the judicious use of military force *can* me contained.
We’ve done it before–never perfectly, but so the West was largely free from threat. We can do it again.
Joseph says
Yep that book sure changed my life, after a week I realized that I like Charmin toilet paper much much better and I will never go back again. The Koran is just too scratchy, no matter what you do with it.
Cecilia Ellis says
LOL!
Purushottam Deshmukh says
Respected Ms Cecilia Ellis M’am,
Lol is an apt expression to define Paulo Coelho’s perception of the Qur’an. He, it seems to me, is a writer in logic. Logicians are jugglers playing with the words with no avail. For example, the liberal arts such as cinema, drama, music, painting, etc have no place under ISIS. Does it mean the monsters have understood that arts are imitations of imitation? This is the very basis of Paulo Coelho’s logical interpretation of the Qur’an. Coelho looks to be a guy who never had a loving hug from anyone. Or, if he had, it would have deception in it. Sophisticated post-modern writers deconstruct and subvert all kinds of hierarchies in their literary pieces. But subversion remains simply on pages. They do not deconstruct anything within. This is what makes this man eulogize an utterly dehumanizing book!
gravenimage says
Logic is not the problem here–a lack of logic is.
EYESOPEN says
{;o)))
Cicero says
In case people are not aware the active Islamists have a firm foothold in South America.
From the islands of Trinidad as well as the land mass of Guyana the muslims have been penetrating the Latin American countries in their own inimitable fashion.
Only a few months ago nine muslim families from Trinidad were detained by the Venezuelan government for promoting “dawah” without the relevant visa.
Veneuelais adjacent to Brazil. ergo…….
gravenimage says
True, Cicero. Al Qaida, Hizb’allah, al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya, Islamic Jihad, and other Jihad terror groups have an expanding beachhead in the lawless “Triple Frontier” on the borders between Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay.
They are largely involved in drug dealing and arms smuggling, and the “Zakat” from this goes to fund violent Jihad all over the world. There is a large population of Lebanese Muslims there, and they do a lot of funding the Jihad against Israel.
Jaladhi says
Fools come in dime a dozen when it comes to Islam!! Fools like Coelho come even cheaper than that!!! LOL…
Stephanie says
Idiot & Brazilian author Paulo Coelho,
BETTER_Justice#1, 24:2 “FLOG adulterers with 100 stripes”
5:38(-40) “AMPUTATE thieves hands” without anesthesia
vs. German Constitution Art 2, 2
http://192.96.206.71/quranic-amputations-to-sadist-allah.html
AnneM says
Rather it is the Bible that has changed the world. For this, it is the best selling book of all time.
Paul says
The guy has no idea what he is talking about. In that case, he ought
to shut up because he’s making himself looking very ignorant. If he
does actually know the truth, then his sucking up to Muhammadanism
is even worse given the unspeakable treatment towards his co-religionists
at their hands. Some ‘Christian’ he is. Try explaining to the Islamic State how
they have somehow got it wrong and how they’re “manipulating” their ‘religion’.
Good luck with that!
Paul says
“making himself look…”
Mirren10 says
I left Mr Spencer’s comment on Coelho’s fb page.
It won’t change *his* mind, since he’s a wishy washy leftist ( how his saccharine rubbish has garnered the accolade of ‘genius’ says a lot about some people’s taste) but it may cause someone to think.
Shmooviyet says
Oh, yes, that word “genius” is thrown round quite often these days, alongside the ever-increasing “icon”. Usually in reference to some leftist author, poet or politician.
duh_swami says
When Christians act up it is in spite of Christianity, not because of it…When Mahoundians act up it is because of Islam, not in spite of it…Any questions?
Huck Folder says
Works for me.
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
No questions, things are pretty clear at this end.
I don’t think the Holy Prophet Mohammed ever preached about turning the other cheek. At least I ain’t seen that. Maybe the popular writer Paulo Coehlo can look that up. If it’s there.
gravenimage says
Brazilian author Paulo Coelho defends Qur’an as “book that changed the world”
………………………
It did indeed–especially for the estimated 270 million who have been butchered in its name over the past 1400 years, as well as all the untold millions who have also suffered from its oppression and cruelty.
Would it surprise anyone here to learn that Paulo Coelho’s genre is Magical Realism?
And this is not the first time he has whitewashed Islam: here’s a cutesy fantasy written from the point of view of a Muslim pilgrim to Mecca:
“I don’t want to offend you (Islamic tradition)”
http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2011/02/03/i-don%E2%80%99t-mean-to-offend-you-islamic-tradition/
Never mind that none of the ideas in this piece–the forgiveness of god or man’s mercy to others–has anything whatsoever to do with Islam.
Huck Folder says
Didn’t “Hope and Change” change the world?
(Some say that the big zero said: “Dope and Chains.”)
Canto28 says
When people try to deflect criticism of Islam by referring to the Crusades I refer them to the time lapse map of jihad versus the Crusades; the latter is almost nothing in comparison:
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
That’s an interesting presentation. Bill Warner not the slickest of talkers, which is maybe not surprising given that he’s a scientist. But it looks like he does good work. I watched a couple of his other videos on your link, and had the same positive impression.
kay says
Dr. Bill Warner is brilliant, effective and a foremost asset and leader in counter-jihad. He’s not just okay. He is indispensable in this fight. If all I did was promote and defend Bill Warner all over the map then that would be a meaningful contribution.
Th combination of Warner and Andrew Bostom is what works. And there are other very very major contributors, very sharp and dedicated heavy hitters. But together Warner and Bostom tell the big story. They did the background research and no one anywhere can break their comprehensive case evidence.
If I were an Islamist I would lose sleep over the work of Warner and Bostom and people who put their work forward. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are extremely sharp lawyers, but even together they can’t go up against Warner and Bostom. If I did not have Warner and Bostom in my toolkit my effectiveness would be reduced by half.
With Warner and Bostom I can easily smash Noam Chomsky and Reza Aslan. Easily. With Warner and Bostom in hand ( plus weeks of intensive debate prep ) I can hope to fight back and even clobber the great enemy Tariq Ramadan. No kidding. It’s possible.
But Maryam Namazie, Douglas Murray, the late Christopher Hitchens ( died 2011 ) et al apparently do not reference Bostom ( published 2008 ), nor Warner.
Sam Harris references Bostom but not Warner. This greatly surprises me. See
http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/christian-terrorism-and-islamophobia
Acts17 Apologetics references Warner. See
http://www.answeringmuslims.com/2012/09/dr-bill-warners-lecture-why-we-are.html
A good master list is this:
Islam on the Net From WikiIslam, the online resource on Islam
http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Islam_on_the_Net
They reference Bostom and Warner and tons of valuable stuff.
For public fights I would bring a number of resources, including several Christian and ex-Middle Eastern / ex-Muslim sources. Still, for several reasons, Bostom and Warner are my top two. They are foundational, and I bring in other resources on top of the foundation they lay.
Here’s a powerful example:
Confused Islamic Apologetics By Andrew G. Bostom
http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=11869
Now that is AWESOME. In short, Bostom and Warner beat Clinton and Obama. And even Tariq Ramadan. Beating Tariq Ramadan is doable and of highest importance.
cs says
That is a classic.
kay says
Re Coelho : “So, it is not to blame a religion, but how people manipulate it.”
This is a major author. And a completely clueless one.
It’s really hard to figure out how people like him get everything wrong. He at least could have gone to the Wikipedia pages on Islam first. He could have learned the words “jihad” and “sharia”. The track record for Islam, Sharia and jihad is consistent over 14 centuries. Somehow Coelho doesn’t get that, and lots of other people have the same problem.
I skimmed thru 2 of Coelho novels, both pathetic and vapid. What a waste of paper.
Just as I came to this post I was wrapping up the last minute of a talk by Hitchens.
Hitchens explains Islam and why it is so STUPID.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCHHfBeu0QE
This Hitchens video has over 500,000 views. That is reason for hope. I will leverage it a LOT.
Certainly the Koran changed the world. But so did the Bible ,and so did Marx. What this fool Coelho should have said to be reasonable and half intelligent is that
“There are some books which have changed the world, among them the Koran, the Bible, Marx, Mao’s Little Red Book, Plato’s book on Socrates, Aristotle and the Dhammapada.”
Of these books, Socrates, Aristotle and the Dhammapada are philosophical.
But Coelho is shallow, ignorant, pseudo-philosphical and pseudo-mystical. You’re still way better off with Socrates and the Nichomachean Ethics.
Nichomachean Ethics Book V:
“The ‘Just’ will be the lawful and the equal, and the ‘Unjust’ the unlawful and the unequal.”
We’ve gone so far backwards from Aristotle and Socrates, from John Stuart Mill and John Locke.
Now the unlawful and unequal want to rule the world.
ISIS WARNING: Horrifying map of target countries it wants to dominate in Europe by 2020
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/597254/ISIS-Map-Europe-Terror-Organisation-Andrew-Hosken-Caliphate-Abu-Musab-al-Zarqawi
The terrifying rise of ISIS in East: Terror horde recruits tens of thousands to its sick cause in south-east Asia
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3193971/The-terrifying-rise-ISIS-East-Terror-horde-recruits-tens-thousands-sick-cause-south-east-Asia.html
It’s civilization versus Islam, and there is no middle ground and nothing to negotiate.
“Most noble is that which is most just.”
— Nichomachean Ethics Book I
Am also going with Tyrion Lannister, who knows how to rally the troops. Politics isn’t where you stand on the issues; politics is how you live your life. Three minutes of Tyrion Lannister are worth far more than two whole books by this deluded shallow flake Coelho. Sharp actions – even a few – speak louder than many ignorant words. Talk is cheap. “The object of each separate act of bravery is honor.” – Nichomachean Ethics, p 212, Dover Edition.
GoT 2×09: Tyrion’s Rally Speech
Shmooviyet says
@Kay: Thank you for your great posted comments and suggested selections!
K. from Germany says
I knew what a fool he is since reading The Alchemist, which I couldn’t refuse as it was a gift from a dear person. Of course this implies the assumption that his belief system is not totally at odds with what he portrays in his most successful book, but I found that unlikely. Statements like the above serve to confirm this. Silly man.
As a sidenote, there is enough occultism and theosophy in the Nazi writings (besides “Mein Kampf” mainly the more philosophical “The myth of the 20th century” by Alfred Rosenberg) to bring them on par with the Quran which has a lot more real-world politics in it than anything that could actually be called religious. If Islam is a religion, then National Socialism is, too.
cs says
Paulo Coelho is a very popular writer, who does not even know how to write, he practices a sort of water and sugar literature full of cliches. Trouble is, a lot of people take him seriously but he is a beyond moronism. This does not surprise me the least, he has been to Iran and praised a lot the regime, for him everything that is bad has a beautiful gem inside, and this sort of crap, he is a satanist actually. This is not widely commented, but people know it.
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
The [Holy Ko-Ran] actually is a book that changed the world. So is Mein Kampf.
Yeah, and Adolph had one book in his cell when he wrote his book. Guess which book that was.
Coelho should consider shutting up and just going dark on everything. There is no need for him to push mass murder and world takeover in the name of peace. It’s embarrassing… and dangerous.
abad says
Coelho is not too bright.
If he cannot even distinguish the Old Testament from the New Testament (the Four Gospels actually form the core of Christian teaching, not the OT) and its role in Christianity then he really has problems.
He has even bigger problems in not knowing that the Quran, unlike the Bible, is NOT divided into the Old and New Testaments, has only one author (Muhammad) and offers no new message of hope for the human race.
He seriously needs to take some Bible and Biblical history lessons.
Idiot.
Mo says
@ abad
“He seriously needs to take some Bible and Biblical history lessons.”
Exactly! And he’s some sort of celebrated author! I am glad I learned this about him. Someone this uneducated doesn’t need to be writing books. Or rather, he can write them, but I have no interest in reading them.
Mo says
““Not true. I am Christian, and for centuries we tried to imposed our religion by the force of the sword – check ‘cruzades’ in the dictionary…We murdered women – calling them witches, and we tried to stop science – like in the case of Galileu Galilei. So, it is not to blame a religion, but how people manipulate it.””
A follower of Christ would not say such nonsense because followers of Christ don’t do such things. And what does he even mean by trying to “stop science”? What idiocy. Without the Judeo-Christian worldview, scientific inquiry itself wouldn’t exist! If the world was random and had no fixed laws, it would not be able to be studied in the first place! Where do people think such laws came from? Time and chance? Please!
I bet this guy has never cracked open either a Bible OR a Koran!
Lia Wissing says
If Mr Coelho is a Christian he’s an inordinately dense & unread one.
High School Certified says
Just proves again what a dangerous spot the world finds itself in right now. Useful idiots abound as they did when Hitler and his Nazis were on the move supported by most of the well ‘educated sophisticated elite’ many of whom found a welcome refuge for losers and genosidal maniacs in Brazil. This edjamacated useful idiot obviously is clueless about the history of the world. Half boiled ‘facts’ and infuriatingly the half truths and outright lies straight from the cake hole of any tired old so called ‘educated’ peace loving Muslim jehadi. Imagine what these ignorant fools would do with our libraries and media if they succeed. Has this creature ‘read up’ on anything he goes mouthing about. Jesus is this what passes for an author in Brazil. Stay there.
JIMJFOX says
Unless and until the Koran is exposed and examined on the MSM, buffoons such as Coelho will go on showing their ignorance and lies.
WHY do they do it? Surely they can’t be as stupid as they appear?
Steven says
an effort for selling more of his books in mohammedan countries ? or for becoming more attention ?
cs says
Indeed he sells well in some of those countries.
ALilWacked says
Um, Mr. Paulo Coelho, The Crusades were not about burning witches. They were wars fought to push back moslems raging wars, and ravaging Christian populated countries, forcing their ways upon them. His research falls very short.
Karl Mallinger says
Islam is the only proselytizing religion of which ITS FOUNDER ALREADY has used violence in order to spread it. This is unique.
Of course this alone does NOT prove other religions like Christianity, Hinduism oder Buddhism to be true.
But it proves Islam to be certainly wrong.
Maybe Paulo Coelho should to acknowledge this as a fact.
mach37 says
It needs to be repeated, as several others have noted, the Crusades were a desire to restore Christian access to the Holy Land, which had been overtaken by Muslims; as well as a response to Muslim expansion into Europe. Any atrocities by Crusaders were no worse than what Muslims were inflicting on the Infidels.
voegelinian says
Not only that: Muslims in their expansion throughout the Middle East and across North Africa in those first three centuries from the 7th forward had massacred then oppressively subjugated Christians throughout those areas; for, since the 4th century, a new Christian civilization — a Christian Roman Empire — had slowly taken root and began to flourish here and there throughout the Ecumene. As Gibbon recounted in his later volume of his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Roman Christians fought numerous battles against Muslims in various places of the Middle East and North Africa.
jo says
Esse homem é uma vergonha pro povo brasileiro. O povo brasileiro nao apoia terrorista. E é por isso que nos estamos lutando para tirar do poder o partido que esse homem apoia, que é um partido comunista, que apoia terroristas.
Angemon says
Translation:
That man is a disgrace to the Brazilian people. The Brazilian people do not support terrorists. And that is why we are fighting to remove the party that man supports from the Government, they are a communist party, who supports terrorists.
gravenimage says
thanks for the translation, Angemon.
kay says
Re Shmooviyet says @Kay: Thank you for your great posted comments and suggested selections!
kay says: You are most welcome, Shmoo. Good name.
Part of it is serendipity, or luck. But I feel very much in the groove. My basic idea is to build a story, share resources, emphasize the overall picture, and hammer on the bad guys over on youtube and other frontline fora. Synergy and leverage, in other words. A strategic approach.
I was attacked once on Jihad Watch – not challenged, but attacked – for being “anti-Christian” some months back. I just posted for the Belfast pastor James McConnell, taken to court for hate speech by the local Islamic center. Now it is a major test case. He’s on my side because we both do radical free speech. All for one and one for all, that’s the principle.
Have now supported the Bangladeshi free society organizers, including an unnamed Catholic there, and honored some free speech intellectuals who got snuffed. We are all in this together. So we have to tell the big story, and back it up, and sell it.
Trying to shut down the Catholic pastor in Belfast Ireland, and also murdering four free speech activists ( ! ! ), those incidents ARE concrete and compelling. My part is to build as many bridges as I can. Your support anchors the bridge I built. This is a real go-to place. If I stick something worthwhile here then it certainly reaches people but I can’t estimate the outreach.
Theory says that effective sharing in a good and diverse cohort is multiplicative. I am a very determined social strategist and I go for global impact. This is for me a calling, a vocation. Here’s to all the good guys and girls out in the wild who go break the fascist narratives, raise consciousness, and empower the public. We lose some really good people but the work goes on. Love and struggle.
Book: “Sharia-ism Is Here: The Battle to Control Women and Everyone Else” by Joy Brighton
http://www.investigativeproject.org/4941/shariah-ism-is-here-the-battle-to-control-women
Terms that were mysterious challenges in Scrabble 20 years ago, such as “dhimmitude,” “da’wa,” “zakat,” “jizya,” “taqiyyah” and the many faces of apostasy are laid out not only with explanation, but documentation of when and how they are used…
Dennis says
I read several of P Coellho’s books. I can’t imagine why he is popular. As a philosopher he stinks. You can’t take seriously what he says about the Quran. Most likely he has only briefly read it.