Qur'an: So Far, So Benign

I have now read over 80 pages of the Qur'an and have yet to encounter anything morally repugnant. This is surprising, both because of an unconscious Islamophobic bias which led me to expect the Qur'an to be awful, and because of how this compares to my reading of the Bible. Less than ten pages into my readings of either the 'Old' or 'New' testaments, I started to find the text abhorrent and this repulsion only increased as I kept reading. The nice verses are nice, but the bad verses are bad.

The Christian revolution was in many ways a moral step forwards, and in many other ways a moral step backwards. The early Christians laid the foundations for many of the values which Western civilisation takes for granted. But they also introduced new, and exacerbated existing, prejudices. We are still fighting these biblical bigotries which have, perhaps irreparably, scarred our culture.

In the shithole of 7th century Arabia, Islam was a massive step forwards. So far, Muhammad has just been going about the coming apocalypse and the need to be a nice person.

'The freeing of a slave, Or feeding, in time of famine, An orphan near in kin, Or a poor man, dirt-poor. Enjoin patience on one another, Enjoin mercy on one another, Whatever good works you lay in store for yourselves you shall find something better with God, and greater in reward. So be pious before God as best you can, and listen and obey, and expend in charity for your own sake!'

Etc. Just nice things. He also teaches, as I quoted in a previous post, not to proselytise and convert people to Islam. Even the stuff about 'unbelievers' being eternally punished and having a really bad time on Judgement Day is just a problem of translation.

The Arabic word usually translated into either 'infidel' or 'unbeliever' has no equivalent English word: it roughly means 'those who are blatantly ungrateful towards something given with great kindness' i.e. people who, in response to being given the gift of life, are selfish, prideful and arrogant. It is not simply referring to all non-Muslims. I find it useful to replace 'unbeliever' with 'dickhead':

'That Day, mankind will come out in scattered throngs, To be shown their rights and wrongs, Whoso has done an atom's worth of good shall see it; Whose has done an atom's worth of evil shall see it.
When the Trumpet is blown, That shall be a day grievous to the dickheads, A Day of no ease.
When they see it coming near, the faces of the dickheads will grow sorrowful, and it shall be said: 'This is what you asked for.''

Maybe I've jinxed it. Maybe tonight I'll read about how God wants all kittens mutilated. But so far, it's been a pleasant read.