Interesting article written by Damain Thomson. you can go to his blog at http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/ukcorrespondents/holysmoke/april07/armstrong.htm# to find all the comments written
Posted by Damian Thompson on 29 Apr 2007 at 12:11 Tags: Islam, Religion, Christianity, Karen Armstrong
Karen Armstrong is a comically conceited feminist ex-nun who has assumed the duty of defending Islam from its critics. Yesterday’s Financial Times carried her review of an unflattering biography of Mohammed by the American Catholic scholar Robert Spencer.
Armstrong objects to the way Islam is portrayed
Armstrong went ballistic. She is herself the author of a sanitised life of “the Prophet” (as she calls him, despite not being a believer) that she grandly offered as “a gift to the Muslim people”.
She accused Spencer of “writing in hatred” and said he “deliberately manipulates the evidence”. By the end of the day, Spencer had hit back online. Very hard. We have the beginnings of a mighty feud here, and I know whose side I am on.
According to Armstrong, “When discussing Mohammed’s war with Mecca, Spencer never cites the Koran’s condemnation of all warfare as an ‘awesome evil’.” There’s a reason for that, replies Spencer: the Koran doesn’t quite say that.
Writing on his website Jihadwatch yesterday, Spencer challenged his readers to find the relevant verse. Someone did. It’s 2:217, and it refers specifically to warfare in the “sacred month”, and then only to say that the prohibition can be set aside. So who is manipulating evidence here?
Armstrong reckons that descriptions of Islam that focus on its warlike origins are like “a description of Christianity based on the bellicose Book of Revelation that failed to mention the Sermon on the Mount.”
That is an unbelievably fatuous and sloppy analogy. The violence of Revelation springs from the imagination: it’s a literary apocalypse. It doesn’t describe any real events. Mohammed was a general whose army beheaded its captives: that’s a fact. The Muslim scriptures urge warfare against unbelievers and apostates; the Christian scriptures preach non-violence.
I really think it’s time someone challenged Karen Armstrong’s credentials as an expert on Islam. How good is her classical Arabic, I wonder? If I was a Muslim, I’d be sick to death of this preachy autodidact constantly representing Islam as a touchy-feely encounter group.
But perhaps the Muslims like her. In which case, please persuade her to convert to Islam, as “a gift to the Christian people”. It would be good to see Karen back in the veil – only, this time, one that covers her mouth.
Posted by Damian Thompson on 29 Apr 2007 at 12:11
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my comment below
I am a Malay Muslim
I am a Malay Muslim who stumble to your site. I do not know Karen but I have manage to read her book. Her book is banned here in Malaysia my country because although persuasive, the authorities regard her with trepidation. Why? because her views although conciliatory to our faith Islam(not Mohammadan)her writings could inflame the liberal views that exist in the Ummah(people of the faith). All religion be it in the bible quran or the torah exists an element of violence. In the bible we can found the story of sex, in the torah the story of the superiority of the Jewish, the Goyim is regarded with distaste. But each book should not be read out of context, every book of God should be understood wholly not partially as the case of both Muslim and non Muslim. We tend to quote things verbatimly without taking into account the history behind each revealation thus we have crazy Muslim who would jihad without understanding jihad. In the Malay archipelago Islam came here not through sword, they came to trade and in peace. Though the history of Mataram in Jawa was full of warfare and war was conducted in the name of religion to islamisize the whole of Jawa but they fail to conquer Bali and up to this day Bali remain Hindu-animism island.But it is the same with the inquisition done by Spain or recently the massacre of Palestinian in the name of the greater Zionist. Religion is not inherently bad it is people who are, just like Communism, some call it religion, started by Karl Marx and Martin Engels in Das Kapitas whom are jews, the founder or the prophets were not man of war but the followers were. They would take anything out of context to justify their belief so please before you shoot down Karen Armstrong ask yourself is it prejudice that fail you to see the big picture?
wan zaharizan bin wan zan at 21 May 2007 09:34
Posted by Damian Thompson on 29 Apr 2007 at 12:11 Tags: Islam, Religion, Christianity, Karen Armstrong
Karen Armstrong is a comically conceited feminist ex-nun who has assumed the duty of defending Islam from its critics. Yesterday’s Financial Times carried her review of an unflattering biography of Mohammed by the American Catholic scholar Robert Spencer.
Armstrong objects to the way Islam is portrayed
Armstrong went ballistic. She is herself the author of a sanitised life of “the Prophet” (as she calls him, despite not being a believer) that she grandly offered as “a gift to the Muslim people”.
She accused Spencer of “writing in hatred” and said he “deliberately manipulates the evidence”. By the end of the day, Spencer had hit back online. Very hard. We have the beginnings of a mighty feud here, and I know whose side I am on.
According to Armstrong, “When discussing Mohammed’s war with Mecca, Spencer never cites the Koran’s condemnation of all warfare as an ‘awesome evil’.” There’s a reason for that, replies Spencer: the Koran doesn’t quite say that.
Writing on his website Jihadwatch yesterday, Spencer challenged his readers to find the relevant verse. Someone did. It’s 2:217, and it refers specifically to warfare in the “sacred month”, and then only to say that the prohibition can be set aside. So who is manipulating evidence here?
Armstrong reckons that descriptions of Islam that focus on its warlike origins are like “a description of Christianity based on the bellicose Book of Revelation that failed to mention the Sermon on the Mount.”
That is an unbelievably fatuous and sloppy analogy. The violence of Revelation springs from the imagination: it’s a literary apocalypse. It doesn’t describe any real events. Mohammed was a general whose army beheaded its captives: that’s a fact. The Muslim scriptures urge warfare against unbelievers and apostates; the Christian scriptures preach non-violence.
I really think it’s time someone challenged Karen Armstrong’s credentials as an expert on Islam. How good is her classical Arabic, I wonder? If I was a Muslim, I’d be sick to death of this preachy autodidact constantly representing Islam as a touchy-feely encounter group.
But perhaps the Muslims like her. In which case, please persuade her to convert to Islam, as “a gift to the Christian people”. It would be good to see Karen back in the veil – only, this time, one that covers her mouth.
Posted by Damian Thompson on 29 Apr 2007 at 12:11
Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
NowPublic
my comment below
I am a Malay Muslim
I am a Malay Muslim who stumble to your site. I do not know Karen but I have manage to read her book. Her book is banned here in Malaysia my country because although persuasive, the authorities regard her with trepidation. Why? because her views although conciliatory to our faith Islam(not Mohammadan)her writings could inflame the liberal views that exist in the Ummah(people of the faith). All religion be it in the bible quran or the torah exists an element of violence. In the bible we can found the story of sex, in the torah the story of the superiority of the Jewish, the Goyim is regarded with distaste. But each book should not be read out of context, every book of God should be understood wholly not partially as the case of both Muslim and non Muslim. We tend to quote things verbatimly without taking into account the history behind each revealation thus we have crazy Muslim who would jihad without understanding jihad. In the Malay archipelago Islam came here not through sword, they came to trade and in peace. Though the history of Mataram in Jawa was full of warfare and war was conducted in the name of religion to islamisize the whole of Jawa but they fail to conquer Bali and up to this day Bali remain Hindu-animism island.But it is the same with the inquisition done by Spain or recently the massacre of Palestinian in the name of the greater Zionist. Religion is not inherently bad it is people who are, just like Communism, some call it religion, started by Karl Marx and Martin Engels in Das Kapitas whom are jews, the founder or the prophets were not man of war but the followers were. They would take anything out of context to justify their belief so please before you shoot down Karen Armstrong ask yourself is it prejudice that fail you to see the big picture?
wan zaharizan bin wan zan at 21 May 2007 09:34
posted by wan zaharizan b wan zan at 8:15 PM
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