Mohammed the prophet conquered the World with a Book and that Book is the Koran. There are passages in the Koran which exhort people to learn and write things down. I drove to work for two years passing a monument which had a ‘promote literacy’ verse inscribed on it. Iran & Saudi have made great strides in women’s education to such an extent that the ruling classes fear the consequences.
“Mohammed the prophet conquered the World with a Book and that Book is the Koran”————-There was no such book at the time.There are controversies about the collection, codification and authenticity of the Qur’an.Governments in Muslim countries are struggling between traditionalism and modernism.It is the duty of all progressive people to support the forces of modernism and help to end the tyranny of the Scripture which is anti-human.
“Iran & Saudi have made great strides in women’s education to such an extent that the ruling classes fear the consequences.”
Yet Iran and Saudi Arabia are sexist theocracies which limit women’s freedoms and their leaders are supposedly espousing Islamic revolutions or values. Hmmm..
There are passages in the Koran which exhort people to learn and write things down.
There are also a lot of other far less positive and uplifting passages in the Quran (& other religious holy texts) that threaten hellfire and eternal torment and lots of Mohammad’s chronicled actions are, quite frankly, ethically and humanly horrendous.
Quite apart from the good points already made by Abdul and Stevo, it needs to be pointed out that a religion is not just the contents of its holy books, or the platitudes that it likes to carve on monuments. A religion is the actual beliefs that its adherents believe and act on. The Old Testament is full of commandments to murder people for the most petty of minor offences, or even for totally imaginary crimes, yet most Christians and Jews have managed to arrive at a point where they are able to pay lip service to the idea of venerating those scriptures, while totally ignoring what those scriptures actually say about killing disobedient children, non-virgin brides, foreigners who worship other gods etc.
Likewise, even if the Quran contains passages extolling the virtues of education, the problem is that the Taliban have managed to figure out a way of venerating their scriptures while totally ignoring such passages (but paying very close attention to the passages that command believers to make war against the infidels, murder people who have sex outside of marriage, oppose attempts to achieve legal and political equality for women etc).
Short version: the problem is not so much what the Quran says, it’s what the Taliban believe and practice. If you think they’re reading the Quran wrong, they can just as easily say you are reading it wrong.
Noticed that the taliban are dishonourable gutless cowards so terrified and worthless inside that they tried to murder a schoolgilr – three schoolgirls for merely wanting to learn.
How powerful an educated woman must be that causes Islam and the bearded, nasty, frightened, violent murderous men with AK-47′s and the supposed promise of raisins in a mythological paradise to try to kill them.
Taslima Nasreen, an award-winning writer, physician, secular humanist and human rights activist, is known for her powerful writings on women oppression and unflinching criticism of religion, despite forced exile and multiple fatwas calling for her death. In India, Bangladesh and abroad, Nasreen’s fiction, nonfiction, poetry and memoir have topped the best-seller’s list.
Taslima Nasreen was born in Bangladesh. She started writing when she was 13. Her writings won the hearts of people across the border and she landed with the prestigious literary award Ananda from India in 1992. Taslima won The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought from the European Parliament in 1994. She received the Kurt Tucholsky Award from Swedish PEN, the Simone de Beauvoir Award and Human Rights Award from Government of France, Le Prix de l' Edit de Nantes from the city of Nantes, France. She is a Humanist Laureate in The International Academy for Humanism,USA. She won Distinguished Humanist Award from International Humanist and Ethical Union, Free-thought Heroine award from Freedom From Religion foundation, USA., IBKA award, Germany,and Feminist Press Award, USA . She got the UNESCO prize for Promotion of the Tolerance and Non-violence in 2005. She received the Medal of honor of Lyon. She got honorary citizenship from Paris, Nantes, Lyon, Metz, Thionville, Esch etc. Taslima was awarded the Condorcet-Aron Prize at the “Parliament of the French Community of Belgium” in Brussels and Ananda literary award again in 2000.
Bestowed with honorary doctorates from Gent University and UCL in Belgium, and American University of Paris and Paris Diderot University in France, she has addressed gatherings in major venues of the world like the European Parliament, National Assembly of France, Universities of Sorbonne, Oxford, Harvard, Yale, etc. She got fellowships as a research scholar at Harvard and New York Universities. She was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in the USA in 2009.
Taslima has written 35 books in Bengali, which includes poetry, essays, novels and autobiography series. Her works have been translated in thirty different languages.Some of her books are banned in Bangladesh. Because of her thoughts and ideas she has been banned, blacklisted and banished from Bengal, both from Bangladesh and West Bengal part of India. She has been prevented by the authorities from returning to her country since 1994, and to West Bengal since 2007.
:)
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tony goddard
October 14, 2012 at 1:00 am (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Mohammed the prophet conquered the World with a Book and that Book is the Koran. There are passages in the Koran which exhort people to learn and write things down. I drove to work for two years passing a monument which had a ‘promote literacy’ verse inscribed on it. Iran & Saudi have made great strides in women’s education to such an extent that the ruling classes fear the consequences.
Abdul Majeed
October 14, 2012 at 2:53 pm (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
“Mohammed the prophet conquered the World with a Book and that Book is the Koran”————-There was no such book at the time.There are controversies about the collection, codification and authenticity of the Qur’an.Governments in Muslim countries are struggling between traditionalism and modernism.It is the duty of all progressive people to support the forces of modernism and help to end the tyranny of the Scripture which is anti-human.
StevoR
October 15, 2012 at 7:00 pm (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Mohammad used a book?
Funny you say that given the use of brute force and violence Mohammad and his followers ever since him have used.
Are you, like the taliban’s cowardly thugs scared of schoolgirls learning to read and think about that book critically and logically?
StevoR
October 15, 2012 at 7:05 pm (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
@tony goddard :
Yet Iran and Saudi Arabia are sexist theocracies which limit women’s freedoms and their leaders are supposedly espousing Islamic revolutions or values. Hmmm..
There are also a lot of other far less positive and uplifting passages in the Quran (& other religious holy texts) that threaten hellfire and eternal torment and lots of Mohammad’s chronicled actions are, quite frankly, ethically and humanly horrendous.
davidhart
October 19, 2012 at 2:46 am (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Quite apart from the good points already made by Abdul and Stevo, it needs to be pointed out that a religion is not just the contents of its holy books, or the platitudes that it likes to carve on monuments. A religion is the actual beliefs that its adherents believe and act on. The Old Testament is full of commandments to murder people for the most petty of minor offences, or even for totally imaginary crimes, yet most Christians and Jews have managed to arrive at a point where they are able to pay lip service to the idea of venerating those scriptures, while totally ignoring what those scriptures actually say about killing disobedient children, non-virgin brides, foreigners who worship other gods etc.
Likewise, even if the Quran contains passages extolling the virtues of education, the problem is that the Taliban have managed to figure out a way of venerating their scriptures while totally ignoring such passages (but paying very close attention to the passages that command believers to make war against the infidels, murder people who have sex outside of marriage, oppose attempts to achieve legal and political equality for women etc).
Short version: the problem is not so much what the Quran says, it’s what the Taliban believe and practice. If you think they’re reading the Quran wrong, they can just as easily say you are reading it wrong.
Ophelia Benson
October 14, 2012 at 4:53 am (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
She’s doing better today.
StevoR
October 15, 2012 at 6:55 pm (UTC 5.5) Link to this comment
Been flown to the UK for treatment, see –
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19944078
and the whole world has noticed.
Noticed that the taliban are dishonourable gutless cowards so terrified and worthless inside that they tried to murder a schoolgilr – three schoolgirls for merely wanting to learn.
How powerful an educated woman must be that causes Islam and the bearded, nasty, frightened, violent murderous men with AK-47′s and the supposed promise of raisins in a mythological paradise to try to kill them.
Great cartoon. Says it all.