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.”…