Doodslag, there is a vast difference between incoherence and good sense that requires effort to understand. Perhaps you are not used to having to think as you read. If you are incapable of understanding what I have written, you have proven two of my points, that you lack intellect and your arrogance has led you to opinions in spite of your deficiencies. An ad hominem attack on you is perfectly in order as you not only mischaracterized me as an apologist for Islam (a personal insult if I ever heard one) but also have failed, again and again, to address my points. You have asked for this ridicule as you have placed yourself in a forum where you do not belong, a forum of intellect and debate. Your writing contains neither.
The following is addressed to anyone who reads this, has made similar errors of logic as Mr. Doodslag, and has been swayed by his poor reasoning and lazy logic.
Mr. Mansur makes the following remarks, “Muslims believe as a matter of faith that the Koran is God’s Words revealed to Muhammad – is as infinite in its meaning (so does Koran describes itself) as is the infinity of God in all His attributes by which we, fallible humans, in our finitude struggle to comprehend Him.
“To quench their thirst a bird and an elephant drink water from the same pool. Their thirsts are quantitatively, perhaps even qualitatively, different and they remain different despite the fact they drink from the same pool.”
He then follows with this idea, “The problem with Islam is not the Koran, but Muslims and their respective understandings of the Koran that result in their differing conduct.”
I have not read the Koran more then once and I cannot assume to understand it better then Mr. Mansur. I did analyze Mr. Mansur’s letter and am qualified to make the following assessment of it. At no time does Mr. Mansur suggest that Jihadis misinterpret the Koran. He describes its infinitude that, as it happens, encompasses crazed and unholy murder as practiced by Jihadis. Jihadis comprehend the Koran well enough, according to their kind. Mr. Mansur’s character interprets the Koran in ways that appear to positively configure his way of life to our own. He may pray a few more times a day then I do and he circumcises his son at a different age then I do my own, but he does not view our society or culture as requiring him to be at war with us.
I would like to analyze a few more points in this letter that I find unbalanced.
“It might be said, on the contrary, infidels are those people who engage in evil that is life-denying, who wage war against freedom and democracy in our time. It might also be said that those who spread terror indiscriminately are infidels and need to be resisted and defeated.”
These sentences would have greater strength if he had chosen a different phrase then, “It might be said”. These opening words are not definitive enough and could suggest many deficiencies in his thought. Perhaps he has caught the Western infection of intellect where we suffer from a depreciated confidence in ideas and a hypersensitivity to authoritative statement. It could be that his English, while strong, is not quite confident enough to express his confidence in the idea he presents. His vague comment could also be a way to create wiggle room in his statement in which he directs our thought toward our own personal assumptions, while he hopes we miss his unsaid meaning. In other words, we might hope we mistake his allusions as directions. I cannot decipher which, if any, of these circumstances are true.
“The Koran as God’s Words is analogous to nature containing the beauty of the rose and the violence of tsunami. Neither nature nor God is to be blamed for the most sublime sunset followed soon after by a Katrina-type hurricane. Those who do not understand this can no more be faulted than faulting a deaf man for failing to appreciate Beethoven’s ninth symphony”.
Here, he again confirms that the Koran does contain violence. It seems Mr. Mansur was also assuring us that we, who do not hear G-d in the Koran, are only deaf not evil. As long as he finds us inculpable for our deafness then we have no problems between us. I’ll remain deaf to the Koran and he can keep listening to the voices in his head. Quite ironic that he chose the musical example of a piece written by a deaf man who must have appreciated his own 9th symphony in his own way. I wonder if this irony was intentional.
We must read what people write and guard against seeing in their words only what we expect. It appears that while not all of Dr. Mansur’s ideas are precise he has certainly provided a field of ideas on which we can see the sort of vegetables he would grow. I am nearly sure his version of Islam would not leech my own fields of their essential nutrients.
