No Muslim offence taken to inquiries of scripture

With reference to the correspondence An Insight Into Muslim Thinking (April 11), I would like to comment as follows:

Islam does not denounce inquiries of scripture and does not consider it as an act of blasphemy as Olga Pitcairn states. On the contrary Islam invites people to study deeply the Qur’an and questions its authenticity to find out for themselves whether it is from a human or a divine source.

Allah, the Exalted, said, “Do they not consider the Qur’an with care? Had it been from other than Allah, they would surely have found therein much discrepancy.” (Qur’an 4:28).

God does not only consider the doubts of man regarding the authenticity of the Qur’an but argues and dialogues with man to convince him regarding its credibility: “And if you are in doubt as to what we have revealed to our servant, then produce a chapter like thereunto and call your witnesses or helpers besides Allah, if your doubts are true.” (Qur’an 2:23).

Islam means submission, based upon conviction: “Produce your proof if you are truthful” (Qur’an 2:111).

According to the Qur’an God does not suppress the reason of inquiry but convinces it.

Moses, peace be unto him, said to God, “O my Lord! Show yourself to me, that I may look upon you.” God answered, “By no means can you see Me, but look upon the mount, if it abides in its place, then shall you see Me.” When His Lord manifested His glory on the mount, He made it as dust, and Moses fell down unconscious. When he recovered his senses, he said, “Glory be to you! To You I turn in repentance, and I am the first to believe.” (Qur’an 7:143). It is injustice to depict Islam as irrational.

Muslims are not offended by any objective scientific criticism of the Qur’an and they are not afraid of such attempts.

Since the beginning of Mohammad’s Message till this very day there were tens of thousands of critical studies against the Qur’an, but the Qur’an still exists and is spread all over the world.

Muslims are offended because of the disrespect of the Qur’an and making mockery of its teachings. We respect the Bible and we do not accept or tolerate any kind of disrespect in regards from any Muslim, and we expect the people of the Bible to reciprocate.

Religious differences within the same religion and with other religions should be addressed with dialogue, respect and goodwill. Religious violence does not serve any faith, noble cause and social peace

Such acts like the burning of the copies of the Qur’an are nonsense.

They just fuel extremism, hatred and violence. Burning the pages of the Qur’an will in no way affect its existence and its spread because it lives in the souls and the hearts of millions of Muslims who know the whole text by heart and live its message in their daily life. Exactly as Jesus, peace be unto him, said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell.” (Matthew 10:28).

Of course Muslims are provoked and angered by witnessing the burning of the pages of the Qur’an but they should control their anger and express their reaction in peaceful and civilised manners.

Violence in such cases will contribute to the defamation of Islam and promote Islamophobia. We pity those spiritually poor people who set fire to the Qur’an because they in fact insult their religions and their sacred books, because disrespect against any religion is an offence against all religions and their spiritual values.

We are certain that such people do not represent Christianity which believes in love, tolerance and peace.

Also, we do not believe that they represent the United States because the American Administration and the American people condemn such unfortunate acts which go against the respect of all faiths and endanger the world peace.

The authorities in every country should not tolerate or permit such irresponsible acts because they create religious fanaticism, racism and violence. We should not permit extremists to make our life hell. Freedom of expression should not be abused and become a tool to insult the sacred religious symbols and to instigate religious violence.