Egypt’s al-Azhar denounces French call to omit verses of Quran
Al-Azhar’s deputy warned of the attempts that emerges every now and then. (Shutterstock)
Ashraf Abdelhamid, Al ArabiyaSaturday, 28 April 2018 Text size A A A
Egypt’s al-Azhar has denounced calls by several prominent French figures to omit versus from the Quran.
Several French figures, including former president Nicolas Sarkozy and former prime minister Manuel Valls, published an open-letter French Daily Le Parisien urging verses of the Quran calling for the “murder and punishment of Jews, Christians and disbelievers” to be removed.
In response, Al-Azhar University’s deputy during a sermon on Saturday said that the Quran does not call for murder but it calls for fighting back against hostile people instead.
Al-Azhar’s deputy warned of the attempts that emerges every now and then and added that the Quran does not include verses that orders killing anyone without committing one of the crimes that requires killing a criminal, like the intended murder or raising of weapons, indicating that Islam is not responsible when others misunderstand the verses.
He asserted that the verses in the Quran in question regarding fighting are all referring to defense of oneself in cases of being attacked and not to attack others.
According to Egypt Independent, the country’s Dar al-Iftaa-affiliated Observatory of Islamophobia denounced “such dangerous calls launched by some from time to time, causing attacks and antagonism against Muslims there, and creating a conflict among the people [of France]”.
Last Update: Sunday, 29 April 2018 KSA 10:57 - GMT 07:57
Muslims Recoil at a French Proposal to Change the Quran
Some of France’s most prominent figures, concerned about anti-Semitism, have signed a shocking manifesto aimed at curbing it.
KARINA PISER MAY 3, 2018 GLOBAL
A manifesto published in the French daily Le Parisien on April 21—signed by some 300 prominent intellectuals and politicians, including former President Nicolas Sarkozy and former Prime Minister Manuel Valls—made a shocking demand. Arguing that the Quran incites violence, it insisted that “the verses of the Quran calling for murder and punishment of Jews, Christians, and nonbelievers be struck to obsolescence by religious authorities,” so that “no believer can refer to a sacred text to commit a crime.”
Although it’s not entirely clear whether “struck to obsolescence” means wholesale deletion of verses, the manifesto was perceived as a call to abrogate Muslims’ holiest text. And although pushing for a theological reform of Islam in France is nothing new—everyone from leading imams to President Emmanuel Macron have made plans to restructure Islam—demanding that scriptural verses be deleted is another thing altogether. In Islam, the Quran is considered divinely revealed; because it’s deemed to be the word of God, altering or deleting any part of the text would be blasphemous.
The manifesto came a month after the grisly murder of Mireille Knoll, an octogenarian Holocaust survivor who was stabbed to death in her apartment in an act authorities are calling an anti-Semitic crime. Last year, Sarah Halimi, a 67-year-old, was beaten to death and thrown out of her window, in the same area where Knoll lived. Her attacker yelled “Allahu Akbar!” as he committed the act; Knoll’s reportedly did the same. It took judicial authorities nearly a year to label Halimi’s death an anti-Semitic crime.
France is home to the largest Jewish community in Europe. Since the early 2000s, French Jews have seen a rise in anti-Semitic acts, and although 2017 saw fewer overall incidents than 2016, those that did occur were more violent in nature. This wave of violence is part of what the manifesto’s signatories call a “new anti-Semitism”—new in that it is perpetrated not by the far right, but by French Muslims. The manifesto denounced what it characterized as the government and media’s refusals to recognize this “Muslim anti-Semitism.” It also labeled as “low-volume ethnic cleansing” the trends that have forced Jewish families to change neighborhoods, leaving suburbs, or banlieues, that are home to significant immigrant populations, and to pull their children from public schools.
The manifesto generated an immediate outcry among Muslims in France and beyond, with critics labeling its usage of the phrase “low-volume ethnic cleansing” hyperbolic and accusing it of homogenizing all Muslims. Days after the manifesto’s release, 30 imams signed a counter-letter in Le Monde. The Observatory for Islamophobia, an organization affiliated with the Egyptian government, described the manifesto as “hateful racism” that proves that “France is not a land that welcomes Islam.” The proposal to abrogate certain verses of the Quran was most controversial of all.
Tareq Oubrou, the prominent French imam who oversees the Grand Mosque of Bordeaux, called the characterization of the Quran “nearly blasphemous.” Viewing the scripture as anti-Semitic, he told me, is the falsified interpretation promoted by the very radicals France seeks to combat: “ignorant Muslims who remove texts from their historical context.” Furthermore, the notion that anti-Semitism is built into Islam is “theologically false,” he added. As monotheistic “People of the Book,” Jews and Christians enjoy a special status in Islamic law. Historically, they were considered protected dhimmi communities, which meant they were allowed to practice their own religions, although they were subject to a tax and various indignities that symbolized their subordination to Muslims.
Rather than calling for absolute violence, Oubrou said the Quran advocates for a “defensive combat, against aggressors, within a historical context.” For instance, one verse says, “Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture—[fight] until they give the jizya [tax] willingly while they are humbled.” The Quran, like many scriptures, is internally inconsistent on this and other matters. Oubrou argued that the problem is not religion itself—it’s that through radical, literalist interpretations of the Quran, “delinquents use the religion as a veneer for cheap crimes.” By demonizing the Quran as a text that contains anti-Semitism, he said, the manifesto casts a shadow on an entire religion, glossing over the role of interpretation and the other factors driving some young Muslims to develop hatred toward Jews.
That response didn’t sit well with the manifesto’s defenders. “The problem is that Islamists refer to the same texts as ordinary Muslims,” said signatory Pierre-André Taguieff, a research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research who has published extensively on anti-Semitism. Samy Ghozlan, a signatory who formerly served as police commissioner in the Paris banlieues and who founded a hotline for anti-Semitism, defended the manifesto’s willingness to “name the problem,” and its call for theological reform. “In Islam,” he said, “believers are instructed to respect the Quran—there’s no room for commentary.”
That’s not how many imams see it. “The text might be the same, but the way it’s understood varies, as is the case for any text,” Abdallah Dlioueh, the imam of Valence, told me. “The Quran doesn’t tell anyone to be racist or anti-Semitic—in fact it expresses deep respect for Jewish figures such as Moses. But a minority of Muslims fall into a misreading,” he went on. “By promoting one vision of those verses, the manifesto makes the same error as terrorists.”
Re: Egypt’s al-Azhar denounces French call to omit verses of Quran
Not surprising that those Jew politicians are complaining about the Quran. Why don't they go to Israel? What are they doing on Frank turf? France must have been conquered by Jews as Franks don't have a problem killing "infidels" i.e. Jews and Muslims from their point of view. All legislation in France is in the interests of Jews rather than the Christians and Muslims. Sarkozy is not only anti Muslim but also anti white people (Germanic races) as he has called upon whites to contaminate there bloodlines through race mixing with Asian and African immigrants. In spite of the anti Islamic attacks by the French which is a terrorist state and an enemy of Islam, I can't say I have any sympathy for Muslims who have chosen to live in that evil Zionist state. The enemies of Islam are twofold in France with the Jews on the left and the Franks as well as other white races there on the right. It is the land of the Crusaders whom once feasted on Muslims but after slaughtering Jews they regarded there flesh to vile to devour.
Re: Egypt’s al-Azhar denounces French call to omit verses of Quran
Its just the french being stupid.
Do you think the pious don't sin?
They merely:
Veiled themselves and didn't flaunt it
Sought forgiveness and didn't persist
Took ownership of it and don't justify it
And acted with excellence after they had erred - Ibn al-Qayyim
Re: Egypt’s al-Azhar denounces French call to omit verses of Quran
Ironic really, they claim to hate the Nazis and want nothing to do with them yet they are adopting Nazi style policies, and these are the "defenders of liberty" their motto is Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality and this sounds rather contrary to all three of those things, shows what hypocrites they are.
يا قافلة الخير "The Persian aggression against Iraq was a result of the arrogant, racialist and evil attitudes of the ruling clique in Iran."
-Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid at-Tikriti - العراق جمجمة العرب ورمح الله في الأرض
Re: Egypt’s al-Azhar denounces French call to omit verses of Quran
Whenever I thought French institutional Islamophobia can't get any worse, France surprises.
This "manifesto" is stupid and offensive on many levels. The equally outrageous and clueless demand to nullify verses of the Quran is far from all of it. Further, it accuses a significant fraction of French civil society of being intentionally complicit in Muslim antisemitism. The media is accused, with no substantiation whatsoever, of deliberate news blackout on the matter. Those who claim discrimination of Muslims is a contributing cause to antisemitism are not only asserted to be wrong on the basis of a single cherry-picked statistic, but accused of intentionally lying for whatever purpose. A certain faction in French mainstream politics that isn't named but is entirely clear who's being referred to is accused, again on no evidence, of choosing to let Jews be abused out of base electoral interest.
This isn't a manifesto, even. A manifesto is a declaration of principles and political positions. This one does little of it, it's more of an angry rant at a significant fraction of French society. That, or an attempt to posture as the only true champions against antisemitism and to smear said fraction of French society of abetting it. Its final call for a united national front against antisemitism is particularly disingenuous since there already is one, thus calling for one only serves, backhandedly and through innuendo, to suggest there isn't one and that they and their side of French politics are the only ones taking the issue seriously.
Re: Egypt’s al-Azhar denounces French call to omit verses of Quran
Salaam
Perhaps this group should get rid of 'equality', 'fraternity', and 'liberty', nice rhetoric but many would consider these slogans empty and have little relation to reality.
Some of the most sweeping and spectacular rhetoric of the Left occurred in 18th-century France, where the very concept of the Left originated in the fact that people with certain views sat on the left side of the National Assembly.
The French Revolution was their chance to show what they could do when they got the power they sought. In contrast to what they promised — “liberty, equality, fraternity” — what they actually produced were food shortages, mob violence, and dictatorial powers that included arbitrary executions, extending even to their own leaders, such as Robespierre, who died under the guillotine.
Re: Egypt’s al-Azhar denounces French call to omit verses of Quran
There are tons of verses in the bible about killing women, children and even animals because they changed their Gods so they could be removed instead.
But there is not a single verse in the glorious Quran that says to blindly kill people because of their religion but says to escort such people to their secured places ( their communities) during battle. Why these cock eyed people take verses of the Glorious Quran out of context ??
Might be its their less knowledge about it !!
hope this thread would help such people who are ignorant of this
Just a Muslim with Glorious Quran and (hadith) sunnah as my guide as in verse 41:33 '' And who is better in speech than one who invites to Allah and does righteousness and says, "Indeed, I am of the Muslims."
Re: Egypt’s al-Azhar denounces French call to omit verses of Quran
The idea of “anti anti-semitism” had already transformed to a Judeo-philia in the west and since anti-Islamism is recently on rise they began to use it as an agenda for that.
Re: Egypt’s al-Azhar denounces French call to omit verses of Quran
Salaam
Another update
Erdoğan slams France over Quran proposal
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan blasted as “ignorant” a manifesto recently published by prominent French intellectuals and politicians, which suggested that some Quranic verses incite hatred and violence and should be removed.
“Hey, West! You keep attacking our holy book. You should know we won’t attack your sacred books, but we will take you down,” Erdoğan said in a parliamentary group meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on May 8.
His comments came after 300 French intellectuals and politicians including former President Nicolas Sarkozy and former Prime Minister Manuel Valls signed a manifesto published in Le Parisien on April 21.
The manifesto stated that a number of Quranic verses incite violence and hatred toward Jews, Christians and nonbelievers.
Erdoğan slammed “Western countries” for being “Islamophobic, Turcophobic, xenophobic and racist.”
“Who do you think you are to attack our sacred book? I wonder if they have ever read their own Holy Bible or Torah. If they have, they would probably also demand to ban the Bible,” he added.
“We will not attack your sacred books with the same language no matter how much you do all these things, because we are not as ignorant as you. We have a stance and a character ... No matter what people say, we will continue to shout the reality,” Erdoğan said.
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