Would the Guardian ever publish a piece like this about the Bible and young people converting to Christianity? Of course not.
Has Islam really “long been vilified by western media”? Of course not. In reality, the establishment media in the West has for years had rules forbidding any association of Islam with terrorism, even when the terrorists themselves made the association, and have engaged in a thoroughgoing obfuscation of the motives and goals of the terrorists.
Have these women read and understood such passages of the Qur’an as 2:282 (devaluing women’s testimony), 4:11 (devaluing women’s inheritance rights), 4:24 (allowing for polygamy and sex slavery), 4:34 (allowing for the beating of disobedient women), and 65:4 (allowing for the marriage and divorce of prepubescent girls)? Almost certainly not.
“Young Americans are picking up the Qur’an ‘to understand the resilience of Muslim Palestinians,’” by Alaina Demopoulos, Guardian, November 20, 2023:
Megan B Rice loves reading. She started a romance novel club on the instant messaging platform Discord and posts book reviews on TikTok. Last month Rice, who is 34 and lives in Chicago, used her social media accounts to speak out about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
“I wanted to talk about the faith of Palestinian people, how it’s so strong, and they still find room to make it a priority to thank God, even when they have everything taken away from them,” she said in an interview.
Some Muslim followers suggested she might be interested in reading the Qur’an, Islam’s central religious text, for more context on the faith. So Rice, who did not grow up religious, organized a “World Religion Book Club” on Discord, where people of all backgrounds could study the Qur’an alongside her.
The more Rice read, the more the text’s contents aligned with her own core belief system. She found the Qur’an to be anti-consumerist, anti-oppressive and feminist. Within a month, Rice took the shahada, Islam’s official profession of faith, bought hijabs to wear, and became a Muslim.
Rice is not alone in wanting to experience the Qur’an. On TikTok, young people are reading the text to better understand a religion that’s long been vilified by western media, and to show solidarity with the many Muslims in Gaza. Videos under the hashtag “quranbookclub” – which has a modest 1.9 million views on the app – show users holding up their newly purchased texts and reading verses for the first time. Others are finding free versions online, or listening to someone sing the verses while they drive to work. Not all the people reading the Qur’an on TikTok are women, but interest overlaps with the #BookTok space, a subcommunity where mostly female users gather to discuss books.
Zareena Grewal is an associate professor at Yale who is working on a book about Islamic scripture and religious tolerance in American culture. She said that this TikTok interest wasn’t entirely unprecedented.
After 9/11, the Qur’an became an instant bestseller, though at the time many Americans purchased it to confirm biases they held about Islam being an inherently violent religion. “The difference is that in this moment, people are not turning to the Qur’an to understand the October 7 attack by Hamas,” Grewal said. “They are turning to the Qur’an to understand the incredible resilience, faith, moral strength and character they see in Muslim Palestinians.”
That’s what made Nefertari Moonn, a 35-year-old from Tampa, Florida, pick up her husband’s Qur’an. Moonn considered herself spiritual, not religious, and described her husband as a non-practicing Muslim. “I wanted to see what it was that made people call out to Allah when they stared death in the face,” she said. “Seeing passage after passage resonated with me. I began to have such an emotional attachment to it.”
Because of this, Moonn also decided to take the shahada, becoming a Muslim revert (a term some Muslims prefer for joining the religion)….
pfwag says
More proof that today’s “young Americans” are devoid of rational thought.
VOWG says
It has become impossible to educate people. Ignorance is considered a virtue these days.
bagsgroove says
What’s the matter with muslims ? Would they rather worship a false god, rather than the one and only real God who created all of us, even the muslims and the rest of the universe. God must be capable of great patience that he hasn’t come to the point of destroying all the rotten parts of humanity. If they love hatred, they haven’s seen any yet. Wait until God shows his anger !
Hoi Polloi says
“Megan B Rice loves reading [trash while learning nothing of value and] started a romance novel club” [which she then followed up by indulging a delusional and romantic notion of a violent supremacist ideology].
“I wanted to talk about the faith of Palestinian people, how it’s so strong, and they still find room to make it a priority to thank God [for all the Jews allah allowed them to savage] even when they have everything taken away from them” [by those they call Jew dogs, especially those Jewish babies who deserved it all and more] she said in an interview.” /s
All while deluding herself they won’t gang rape her next. Those converts are real winners. Prisons, asylums, and bodice-ripper fantasy clubs seem to be particularly fertile hunting grounds.
Mike says
the young Americans are the useful idiots
If Islam is able to take control
Just look to Spain right NOW
Sharia Laws are no joke
we get no time outs no do overs
The young Americas
will be the one of many that will be ate first
B says
“ Would the Guardian ever publish a piece like this about the Bible and young people converting to Christianity?”
Or about the Torah and Jews?
Mo says
Hey, at least they’re reading it! Maybe it will wake them up.
B says
The piece these converts (sorry – “reverts”) probably don’t know is that it’s easy to join – leaving is another story.
CogitoErgoSum says
Do these people know that the Quran is not arranged in chronological order? Do they know that Surah 9 is the second to last of Allah’s messages to Muhammad and it abrogates most of verses concerning peace and tolerance that came before it? Do they even know what abrogation is? Do they know that if they make excuses to avoid fighting the Infidels, Allah considers them to be hypocrites no better than the Infidels?
Muhammad counted on his followers being morons and his followers are still morons to this very day.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Memo to those “young Americans”: Get the Critical Qur’an. I can bet that you’re not bright enough to decipher the translations of Pickthall or Yusuf Ali or Arberry. Robert’s book is written in modern, if academic, English, so you should have less problems following it
Troybeam says
It is not the Koran they need to read, its RELIANCE OF THE TRAVELLER:Islamic sacred law aka SHARIA LAW.
The Koran will tell them nothing but lies but Reliance will tell the truth because it is taken from all the books in Islam to create the lifestyle and laws that drives Islam. Do the women not know the meaning of the word Islam. It means submission and you lose all your freedom under Islam and reliance tell how. All the groups like Hamas, Taliban etc all live thru sharia law & that should scare anyone not to follow Islam.
FYI says
The fact that the the koran is Theologically and Scientifically wrong and in TOTAL violation of the law s of Moses in the Torah ?
Or that allah is provably not omniscient?
No chance of getting that?
islam is not for intelligent people.it is for the subnormally intelligent.
A Smart woman either abandons islam or stays away from it.
A stupid woman converts to the cult.Enjoy your wudu!
That Hijab that you have to wear?In the same koran allah misunderstands human reproductive Biology?No chance of seeing the problem with that?
somehistory says
Ayaan Hirsi Ali had a discussion with a FOX reporter regarding this and what the young woman can expect once they become subject to the males in islam world.
Just a day or two ago. She knows of what she spoke.
She had intelligent, informed words of warning. They won’t listen.
Hoi Polloi says
Ali does a solid job and holds her own in forums. I appreciate that.
somehistory says
Yep. No matter what joe biden has to say about her.
Malcolm6 says
What do you expect from kids who have been told from the cradle how bad evil racist colonial sexist homophobic islamophobic racist etc they’re country is?
Why are you surprised?
nicholas tesdorf says
Reading and understanding the Qur’an is the fastest way to turn people off Islam. The Qur’an can be the antidote for the Infectious Mental Disease known as Islam.
James Lincoln says
nicholas,
I think that it depends upon the goals of the reader:
1. Information
Or
2. Inspiration
somehistory says
Interesting comments from a moslum woman in the U.S.
“Muslim-American scolds Susan Sarandon to visit a Muslim country before complaining about Islamophobia in U.S.”
“Susan Sarandon was sharply criticized by a Muslim American writer after the actress said fearful American Jews were now getting a “taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim” in the United States.
Muslim American writer and education activist Asra Nomani strongly disagreed with Sarandon’s comments about Muslims living in fear in the United States. Nomani told the actress, “Let me tell you what it means to be Muslim in America,” in a thread on X.”
she had quite a bit to say, esp about the treatment of women
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/muslim-american-scolds-susan-sarandon-to-visit-a-muslim-country-before-complaining-about-islamophobia-in-u-s/ar-AA1kjhsM?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=4272684e75504995bcdcf47b2d054a0e&ei=10
Hoi Polloi says
Thank you for that. I hope Sarandon read it and learns that mere protest is a worthless activity unless one has taken time to understand and speak carefully.
James Lincoln says
Hoi Polloi,
Sarandon is 77 years old and her Leftist / muslim apologist views are very unlikely to change.
Celebrity Net Worth says she’s worth about $60 million, so it doesn’t matter if she gets canceled. Maybe not totally accurate, but it’s fair to say that she is very wealthy.
Change her views?
Not impossible, but very unlikely.
Hoi Polloi says
Of course you’re right.
somehistory says
You are welcome, HP. People usually learn better by making their own mistakes….unless it’s a mistake such as she has made by speaking without knowledge of her subject.
Perhaps she believed she was auditioning.
Hoi Polloi says
Ha, perhaps.
Wellington says
I compare the Koran to Mein Kampf in more than one way. Here is one such way: With both you can read a passage or even a whole page and find nothing really to object to but then you go to the next passage or page and its like “Wo, OMG, you’ve got to be kidding; this is utter nonsense and hate.”
OLD GUY says
Yes joining and becoming a card carrying islamist is easy. Leaving is deadly, just like most other cult religions. I read the Quran and didn’t see or feel the warm and fussy part, I must have missed that one sentence.