Jihad

I'm starting to find this whole thing a bit dispiriting.

Partly it's the appalling quality of argument. Here's an example, from abugaafar in the Comments.

It is a supreme paradox that liberal thinkers who are most determined to refute Mr Sardar's interpretations of the Qur'an are trying, in effect, to ram Islam into the same narrow mould favoured by the most illiberal Muslim zealots. It is as if they wish to agree with the zealots that the only true Islam is an illiberal Islam.

Now I'm sure you can all see the problem with this argument, apart from the misuse of the word paradox. The problem is that it doesn't refute any of our arguments. It simply describes our position, that Sardar's liberal interpretation of the Qur'an is contradicted by the text itself, in negative language.

If Sardar's version of Islam is reasonable, then we stand indicted. If on the other hand it's a gross distortion, however admirable his motives, then we do not. The argument is clearly about that, and questions about motive have no bearing on the central point. This is surely self-evident. Otherwise we would have to let him get away with basic errors just because he meant well.

One can hardly blame abugaafar, who is just a visitor adding a comment, but Sardar apparently entirely fails to notice the paucity of the argument as well. He quotes the comment approvingly, and adds that some bloggers here insist in framing the Qur'an in a particular way. Notice the dread word framing. It's a useful device where close textual analysis can be written off as just an interpretation. He's previously said that he doesn't have time to respond to our analysis in detail, yet he's quite happy to waste time on an argument that isn't an analysis at all.

Honestly, Guardian Editor. We realise you had to use a Muslim, but couldn't you have found an intellectual? Sardar says he has a scientific background - didn't they teach him how to reason?

But that's not the main problem. The main problem is that the whole exercise forces me, week after week, to drag myself back to the Qur'an.

I think it's starting to have an effect. I can feel my spirits drooping as the drip, drip, drip of horror corrodes my higher faculties. The same thing happened with The Bonfire of the Vanities, although Tom Wolfe was doing it on purpose.

So I'm having a week off. I have a backlog of stuff to do for work, and there are plenty of people to carry on the struggle. David Pavett, atr007, Dr Jazz, Miskatonic, they'll all carry the argument just fine without me.

When not working on session plans and handouts, I shall go and read some Ovid. He's ironic where the Qur'an is pompous and subtle where the Qur'an is banal. Also his cheerful brand of promiscuous polytheism will make a refreshing change. I think I might start offering Ovidotherapy classes to Islam survivors, to help them with the recuperative process.

One quick quibble, though. How do you square Islam's supposed opposition to religious violence with the murder of the calf worshippers (2:54)? Sardar skipped this appalling judicial murder when we passed that way a few weeks ago, presumably hoping we wouldn't notice. We did though.